Microsoft is losing Builders fast. They’re switching to MacOS and Linux. The biggest pull keeping people on Windows, outside of shear inertia, is content creation and gaming. However, even these are falling to Linux.
Without Builders, you don’t have software, and without software, you don’t have users. This is why Microsoft needs Windows Lite.
If there was a viable Windows Lite, wouldn’t everyone just use that?
But there is, and it’s called Linux Mint.
Does it run Windows applications?
It does run many Windows applications using Wine, although not all of them.
Right? Like if this exists, what’s their draw for users to use the dogshit version?
No, I’d use Linux
I wouldn’t, but many of my friends that I finally convinced to switch to Linux would definitely consider it. They switched specifically because MS went too far and made things too awful, and gaming in Linux is now quite decent. They aren’t using Linux for the open source philosophy, or to tinker in ways that Windows blocked decades ago, or even the free price tag.
I would be quite prepared to pay a price for an operating system if it meant that it just works the way that Windows just works but without all the bloat. I’m really not all that interested and installing an operating system that likes to fight me.
Are you assuming that Windows users would do the smart thing? They’ve already failed.