Ditto on the linux, or a full-body-condom for your windoze box.
Windows offered to let me download a tool yesterday from Windows Update to help me determine if my copy of Windows was valid, and if it wasn't they would tell me where I could buy a new one. I was miffed and didn't download it.
This article is a joke, right? The "spyware" mentioned is a tool MS released to validate that one is using a legal copy of Windows. You don't even have to install it if you don't want to, and if you do choose to install it you only get "pop-ups" if you're using an illegally obtained copy of Windows.
This has nothing to do with Windows vs. Mac (which you can't buy without the OS installed) or Linux (which is given away freely). This is just someone running a pirated copy of Windows and complaining that a tool that he let be installed was reminding him that he's running a pirated copy of Windows.