Admittedly, it is awful and stupid. On the other hand, those of us who use it find the alternative to be even worse despite being free. Imagine what problems must exist with that alternative for this to be true.
> Some of us find the alternatives to be really really good compared to Windows.
Yeah, and some of us don't. A lot of us, actually. I personally get kinda sick of the arrogance of people who think they're above everyone else because they chose a different operating system.
Somebody just wants to choose their operating system without the whole market being coerced by a large hedgemonic monopoly and then you yell down from your ivory tower that everybody but you is arrogant.
Some people would like to use FreeBSD and other free Unix OSs without having to kowtow to Linuxisms too. It isn't the fault of Linux users that they have to do so.
Windows is essentially "free", as in for most people there is no savings from not using Windows, like it is i.e. if you build your desktop your self.
Linux is compeeting with effectivly mandatory prepaid Windows installs.