Some people aren't comfortable with the amount of data Microsoft is collecting about them. There are a lot of privacy issues, and their terms of service are really quite jarring if you read them. Even turning all the the tracking and telemetry off, you cannot be sure they are not collecting your personal data.
But they were already collecting that data. They're still collecting it on 7 and 8. You almost certainly use several other services that collect the same data, or more. The only reason you think Windows 10 is unique in this is because Microsoft did THE RIGHT FUCKING THING and made their privacy policies understandable to regular people. And they're being criticized and villainized for this. It's childish and indefensible.
Do you have a source for the data collecting for Win 7? Windows 8 is a slightly different story since they incorporated signing into your machine with a Microsoft account, so they have more personal identification linked to your machine (email etc).
Yes other services and companies use your data, including Google and Apple. But these are usually (as far as I know) more annonimized. Microsoft is taking personal data collecting to a new level. From their TOS:
“Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage.”
And also:
“If you open a file, we may collect information about the file, the application used to open the file, and how long it takes any use [of]it for purposes such as improving performance, or [if you]enter text, we may collect typed characters, we may collect typed characters and use them for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spell check features.”
There are also reports they are taking sound recordings and webcam captures. This operating system is like an NSA wet dream. If this doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, go ahead and support the new normal. I don't want any part in it.
Google collects just as much as Microsoft if not more. If you're using an Android phone with a Google Account then they pretty much know everything about you.
I guess it's a good thing I didn't use Tu quoque then, now if you'd said I made a Fallacy Fallacy you might be closer to the truth.
I wasn't disputing the op's conclusion, just pointed out the invalid assumption in his argument. Though I could have just dismissed him entirely by saying he made three separate Fallacies of Alleged Certainty. But then I'd be dismissing his statement the way you dismissed mine.
A clarification: Windows 7 always collected limited telemetry data, but it wasn't until Windows 8 was released that most aspects of your daily computing experience were collected by default. I believe that some of the more aggressive data collection methods in Windows 8+ have started trickling down to 7 via recent updates though, mostly due to the GWX Windows 10 compatibility checks.
I did it because of issues with W10 disconnecting from my Bluetooth mouse and WIFI issues. I tried many things such as reinstalling drivers and applying fixes suggested by others that were experiencing the same problems. Also, my computer got slower: slower booting up, and slower shutting down. I'm not blaming Microsoft because it could very well be my laptop that has the problem; the fact is, however, that ever since I downgraded to W8.1 my laptop is working fine -- all over again.
I'm strongly considering downgrading to Windows 7. After the upgrade I can't put my PC to sleep - it wakes up all by itself after a couple hours,for no reason whatsoever. I tried doing "powercfg - lastwake" and it just doesn't show anything. I've disabled every single wake timer in the task scheduler, and also completely disabled wake on lan in device manager and in my BIOS. It annoys me enough that I actually want to downgrade.
My Windows machine is for gaming only and I have no interest in Windows 10 cloud integration and data collection, much of which cannot be disabled or blocked.
I made the switch from Windows 7 a few days after release and I'm learning more and more about what is going on under the hood of Windows 10 that is making me seriously consider going back to Windows 7.
Windows 7 had reporting and telemetry, but not even in the same league as what is happening in Windows 10.
I'm aware. I've gone to some extreme lengths to disable these things.
Group Policy editor, registry edits, hosts file additions and added entries to Comodo Firewall to block any suspicious Microsoft processes from making outbound connections.
Different reasons for different machines; my wife's laptop was simply unstable under Windows 10 so it went back to 7. My gaming desktop ran great, but I purposely planned to test Windows 10 and go back to 7 after about a week, just to make sure it would run well. Given some of the privacy revelations the past few days though, as well as some incompatibility with older games, I may just keep Windows 7 on that machine indefinitely. My wife's desktop is running great with 8.1 and she has no complaints, so it will probably be a while before we upgrade it as well.
My main workstation runs Slackware Linux so Windows 10 doesn't enter into the picture there, and my laptop is so old (Dell D400 from 2003 also running Slackware) that it wouldn't run 10 due to no DirectX 9 hardware, and even if it did I'd have to buy a copy anyway since that machine came with XP originally.
The complaints I'm hearing from folks running Windows 10 is that it is broken enough to interrupt their work. (E.g., crashing while using an IDE to code.) That's all the reason needed, really. If you can't quickly find a solution, you'd have to spend the time to revert.