The shift of Windows from traditional OS to spyware subscription behemoth has been discussed for a long time. It's happening now. Linux is the clear solution for the moment for anyone who values privacy and having the hardware they paid for do what they want.
I agree, but most businesses will probably still stick with whatever Windows version fits their IT environment best. I like running Linux distro's but most companies i would argue just want to offer Windows because (1: People in the company know something about how it works and switching to anything else will be difficult and (2: Windows works pretty well in an AD and Entra ID environment, especially if there is any On-prem Windows or Azure hosted infra involved.
So for individuals i can really see this being a good reason to switch to a popular distro and maybe for specific companies with some knowledge, or if they were to only use SaaS web apps. But most of them, will not change how they operate because of privacy concerns or subscription costs. Windows is not going anywhere, any time soon. But yeah, if you care enough i would recommend running at least a distro in dual boot. Not sure if enough people actually care to make it more common though.
Windows 11 is indeed a trash spyware fest with forced installs of shit you don't want.
Ask all the Active Domain managers how 11 is treating them? They'll tell you it is hot fucking garbage that pushes ads and installs even at the corporate level. They have to jump through so many hoops to disable all that shit or do something as simple as make a local account.
Actually, it's really shocking to say with how egregious a lot of the stuff in 10 is, but 11 really is actually worse somehow.
To my knowledge, you can still make a local account in 10 even though you're discouraged from it. In 11, you can't, and you literally have to do some PowerShell wizardry on install to make a local account (This matters to large corps because they don't want every employee on an MS account, there's still a lot of legit security reasons for locally controlled accounts). Then, even after you've already jumped through hoops to make a local account because the installer tells you that you can only log in with a Microsoft account, then the installed operating system has the sheer audacity to advertise at you "Why don't you try using a Microsoft account? It's a better and more secure than a local account!" Like fuck me that's some anti-consumer shit.
I could have sworn I saw the same article for Windows 7, XP and 95.... Obsolete software is obsolete. You don't see these being hyped up for old Linux or macOS versions.