Yeah, hard to take anything you say in your example too seriously because you are talking about a 7 year old OS. A year ago it was 6 years old, and had been succeeded by Windows 8 3 years previous. I know for a fact that a lot of what you’re complaining about was in areas that were improved (the default admin log-in,mfor example).
I bet you don’t install 6-7 year old Debian distros and then complain about how much better the current version of Ubuntu is. This is another disadvantage Microsoft has - users that refuse to upgrade and them pitch an absolute hissy fit if you drop support for an old version or release some software that isn’t compatible with it.
Also, regarding the installer, Windows has Linux beat hands down there. Some distros have gotten very good at this. but there’s not a one of them that supports the breadth of hardware and upgrade configurations that windows does. As far as the installation UI, they are all about the same now.
I will freely admit that Windows has some major flaws, but you haven’t identified any of them here. Get back to me with an Apples to Apples comparison.
You do realize that it wouldn’t matter if I was installing a 7 year os unser Linux. It still wouldnt take 5 update and reboot cycles to get it current. The most it could take is 3, and that would be if you were to do a fresh install and then did a dist-upgrade in place.
It is rediculous for windows to have to do the updates in stages the way it does. Fortunately, I only very rarely have to subject myself to the lunacy that is windows.
I didn’t even get into the issues you run into with the registry when attempting to restore systems.
Regarding the hardware support you mentioned, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people complaining of fairly new printers and such not being supported after wi dows upgrades. The solution offered often to simply buy a new printer. It makes me laugh.