Somewhere in the last decade, Microsoft realized that it would be better for them to give away free upgrades to Windows for existing licensed customers so that they would have an larger pool of users that they could upsell services to and target with ads.
At this point, I'd like to return to the days of paying $129 for a Windows upgrade if it meant ripping all this junk out of my OS. Windows 11 feels pretty snappy to me, there's lots of stuff I like in it - but every week, every day brings a further encroachment into my user experience with this nonsense. Edge has already completed its character arc from upstart browser to beloved alernative and to bloated annoyance.
> At this point, I'd like to return to the days of paying $129 for a Windows upgrade if it meant ripping all this junk out of my OS.
Once this software gets written and demonstrably makes money, it will never get un-written. The more likely outcome is that if Microsoft thinks you (the market) are willing to go back to paying $129 for Windows, then you will pay $129 AND they keep the notifications, junkware and malware.
At this point, I'd like to return to the days of paying $129 for a Windows upgrade if it meant ripping all this junk out of my OS. Windows 11 feels pretty snappy to me, there's lots of stuff I like in it - but every week, every day brings a further encroachment into my user experience with this nonsense. Edge has already completed its character arc from upstart browser to beloved alernative and to bloated annoyance.