[BearfootCoder]

I recently had to install a copy of Windows 10 Home onto one of my spare laptops, and there are at two things that hit the "stupidly intrusive and annoying" buttons.

One: moving the mouse around on the task bar will suddenly pop up this ludicrously over-sized "Start" menu, generally featuring some "critical" piece of "news". These will often include pictures of political leaders, and such is the state of the world that these images produce a reaction like a mild form of Post Traumatic Truss Disorder. I imagine that with some poking around I could get rid of these, but a civilized OS would let me ask for them if I wanted, not simply shove them in my face.

Two: I try to avoid using this lap top except when I absolutely have to, but when I am forecd to turn the wretched thing on, I am invariably greeted with a big blue screen inviting me to "Complete my Windows set up." This apparently includes setting up OneDrive (don't need; not going to do) buying an Office365 subscription (definitely not going to do. LibreOffice is more than enough for what I want to do on that machine. Certainly not going to throw 10 pounds a month at Microsoft for no material benefit). And various other things which I also do not need and do not care about. And the options at the bottom of this screen are (I paraphrase) "Do Now" and "Remind Me In Three Days". Where, exactly, is the "I'm happy as I am; just leave things alone" button?

I am never more appreciative of my Linux desktop or the applications installed there, than after spending an hour using Windows. Linux does me the courtesy of assuming that I am adult who knows what he wants and can work out how to do stuff when I need it. Windows treats me like a sub-moronic five year old who has to be constantly distracted with toys and sugary treats.