I agree with your reasons but not with "the majority doesn't care". Sure they do. The internet is filled with Windows hate, and Reddit isn't as small as you remember it to be.

The majority has no other option. Linux is too much trouble to learn and Mac requires a new device. What else are you supposed to do?

Hey, Mac is a huge learning experience too. If your mind is set in the ways of Windows, you are gonna have a bad time when you assume Mac is just as bad (easy example: using clunky Windows workarounds to avoid problems that don't exist on Mac). You almost become oblivious to the straightforward way of doing things because Windows is so fucky. It can be really hard to get an average person used to Windows to find value in Mac, because they don't naturally see the simplification to their workflow, they just expect Mac to work the same way (ie, for their workarounds to function the same way).

Up until OS 26 I'd agree with you but honestly it's not far off from windows other than some small permissions annoyances and the stupid natural scrolling. I got a neo out of desperation to do some audio work and immediately felt at home where I never did on my older Air.

I strongly prefer natural scrolling, though I did grow up with it. I think 26 was a huge mis-step and Apple is going to need to go back on a lot of what they did (which they are starting to do with 27, though they have a long ways to go).

I miss how tight the older versions were. They were technical and got the job done -- the newer designs seem like they're trying too hard to be round and big and friendly. Everything is so spaced out, so much is wasted, information density is pretty much completely gone. It's so sad.

My Intel MBP is still on 10.14.6 because even Catalina was too much for me (removing 32-bit support is kind of a full-reinstall sort of move). But Big Sur looked kinda awful the moment I saw it and Tahoe feels like the Mac is completely losing its identity and principles.

I'm on ASi now and running the latest macOS 27 beta. I don't regret it but I just feel sad, you know?

The majority also wants their stuff to work - the program that solves a problem or the hardware they bought, and all that surface area to support it is how Windows is Windows.

> What else are you supposed to do?

Customize. You can strip out entire features, often called “debloat” but it’s hyper specific. It couldn’t be a general purpose pc after, and a debloated gaming config might lack the support to run other kinds of apps, or vice versa.

They even have a lightly modified version called LTSC although it retains so much feature surface area so as to remain “Windows” it’s not like the article’s idea, but it exists.

With over 1 billion monthly active users, reddit is not a minority and is a significant fraction of internet users. Btw, people complain about Windows bloat on Whatsapp too. Now, that IS a majority of internet users.

It's a bit of a stretch to assume that every single user on reddit would reinstall Windows for this, or even as much as 5% of them.

Or that they all even run Windows in the first place.

You have to realize that the majority of reddit "users" are either bots (especially now with LLMs making it so easy to generate text on the fly) or utterly braindead. Just last week I got banned and comment deleted from a subreddit calling out someone for deliberately spreading false information. Their comment? Still there.

I have one friend who just loves listening to AI readings of AI-generated drama farming content purporting to be real content from Reddit. It's bizarre.

I also found at least one subreddit for a product which specifically banned posts with the word "scam" in them when I went to make a post about the product being a scam. If that doesn't tell you how much of a scam it actually is, I don't know what does.

Even before the rise of LLMs, everyone knew Reddit was astroturfed to hell and back.

Reddit mods are largely paid shills. Reddit users are zombies. It's worthless to consider the site as a good source of information or sentiment anymore.

Bigots can exist without being paid shills...

This is also true, but for what I was calling out, people do pay off mods to supress or promote certain content on the subs they moderate or mods push their own sites or products if they have something to push.

No, Reddit users are not braindead or zombies. It's one of the most visited sites on the internet with a varied demographic. They are just normal people.

- people complain but have no choice

- tolerance is too high

- Every sysadmin is quietly annoyed but knows it gives then $$$.

- Companies are never going to change anytime.

They have windows iot. That can easily count as 'windows lite'

Good point, but they don't market it for general consumption, which seems to be the suggestion.

I honestly don't think windows is worth any price. Unix is the platform of builders, and nobody needs a middleman charging them to breathe air (run an os).

I agree. I seriously doubt making that an option would stop people moving to Apple or Linux especially with MacBook Neo and Steam Machine. Windows has much bigger problem than telemetry and advertisement.

But both of these products would only show damage in the very long run, which also means M$ won't react to it until late.

Don’t know about tiny subset. Every enterprise workstation in the world would probably be running it.

Also the OP specifically fantasizes about unchanged compatibility.

Really there would be no reason not to use this, so it would likely have to be more expensive than the regular spyware/adware version. Thus it couldn’t get away with the name “Lite” and would end up being called “Professional”.

The sad truth is Microsoft is so heavily invested in and indebted by AI, advertising and telemetry that the only way Windows lite would ever get the greenlight is if the company tanks, loses billions and pivots away from everything they've been pushing for the last decade.

And then maybe we could get the dream that is Windows lite

AI has essentially nothing to do with it. This was standard well before AI took off.

Back before LLMs they were stuffing Cortana in there. I don't know if they ever marketed that as AI but it was named after an AI character in a video game

Windows is like the government. No amount of complaining and online protest will change the empire.

Just stop feeding them money or stop complaining.