I have eliminated Microsoft from my life once and for all!
Yesterday, I finally removed the last vestige of Microsoft cruft from my life: Windows 10. For the last two years, I have been slowly decoupling myself from the Microsoft ecosystem - an ecosystem I have been seeped in my whole life, having grown up in Seattle and also working for microsoft for half a decade.
The first Microsoft product I eliminated from my life was OneDrive - even with a free terabyte of OneDrive from Microsoft as a legacy customer, the lack of linux compatibility was a major driver in my decision to leave OneDrive. The lack of privacy made me take it more seriously, so I moved from OneDrive to an undisclosed (for privacy reasons) cloud data service with full encryption.
Then I got rid of my Surface. It kept having issues and, all of a sudden in 2021, Microsoft stopped being amenable to helping surface issues with obvious surface design and manufacturing flaws. My advice is this: Do not buy a surface - buy anything but a surface.
Next was an easy choice: Xbox. There's not much to talk about here, you can only not release anything for so long before people start looking for alternatives. Xbox is an absolute joke at this point. My console of choice is now Switch 2, and I play everything else on my computer.
Finally: Windows 10. This little bastard was a hard one to get rid of. I have been running windows and using windows since my parents first brought home a computer. I stuck with Windows through Windows 8, and I was working at Microsoft when 'The Last Windows' was released, Windows 10. What a joke. Microsoft cant ever keep to their word, and released the ad-filled, buggy, insecure mess that is Windows 11. ironically, it was the last windows for me, and as of today, I am fully on Linux and MacOS. I have a Macbook Neo, and my gaming desktop is now a linux desktop running Omarchy. It runs like new now, and im happy to say that I do not regret the move at all. I lost nothing and gained everything.
If you're afraid to make the leap, send me a message. I can help. Cheers.