Is that really permission? It's that or not use the laptop, right?

There're other laptop/OS manufacturers that may serve needs of privacy-conscious folks better than Windows laptop. Whether one likes it or not, there's no constitutional right to use this specific laptop/OS combination.

Yeah, but maybe consumers should still be very vocal about it.

They definitely should. But also they should NOT make misleading claims like "absolutely no prior user permission or intervention".

Look, it's not that $1T company needs my defense, but it's a rather safe bet that CYA exercise was done by them before unleashing this to the world.

> freshly-installed copy of Windows 11" or clicked through the whole out-of-the-box experience during the first login without reading what it enables.

Isn’t that what the most non tech savvy / common user has to deal with? A mom or pop, a relative perhaps? And if it’s possible to de-junk windows 11 why bother? Who has time for that whack-a-mole game of turning things off and have them back on when the system updates? Again, why bother? Windows 11 doesn’t anything compelling to justify wasting my in the first place

Then buy another OS/laptop? It's not like there're no other options.

Yes, sure. Are you implying I can't share my opinion with regards to Win11 though?

I'm not implying anything. My issue with TFA is the "absolutely no prior user permission or intervention" claim. My counter-argument is that clicking without reading through the EULA and/or the out-of-the-box experience during the first login most likely results in providing consent whether one likes it or not.