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.
That won’t work. How are you supposed to draw the line between what is/isn’t spyware? Inevitably, MS would say, “we don’t consider this to be telemetry/spyware/etc.” and users will disagree, and MS will tell them to shove it.
Besides, Google has all of the shit that’s mentioned and gamers/developers don’t care, so I doubt it would make any difference at all. The fact is, Windows is a garbage system to develop for. Linux is the best system to use for deployments, Windows will never come close, and that’s ultimately what’s going to decide where developers go. And gamers are too niche for MS to care. The dominoes will really start falling when business customers start switching to Linux en masse.
And this is inevitable. When it comes to business use, open systems always win in the end.