Adding to my serious doubts about Windows 10

[sophisticles]

I am extremely well versed in the hosts file and I know exactly what tails is and how to use it, however, it sounds like you are not familiar with it, in a nutshell and for the benefit of others, it's a live linux distro, I also recommend you use a vpn. On any given web site there could be up to 40 or so domains tracking you, if you think you can block them all with a hosts file, you'll spend the rest of your life editing the hosts file.

Since you're so "well versed" please explain to those of us not as "well versed" how you come up with the "40 or so" domains tracking you per site and what specifically about TAILS that makes it so special.

Allow me to explain for the benefit of others, no site has 40 other domains tracking, all you have to do is look at the site's source code to see the trackers, though they could be using embedded images for tracking purposes. All the common tracking domains are well known and easily blocked via the HOSTS file, likewise NoScript will also block many tracking attempts, as will disabling cookies.

As for TAILS, it's a live distro, i.e. a distro that doesn't require a permanent hard disk install, that's configured by default to route all it's traffic via The Onion Router network, thereby masking the starting point of a packets travel. Unfortunately, in order for Tor to work, by default a PC running Tor is also configured to act as an exit node for other people's anonymous traffic. In other words, in the same way a data packet that you send out or request is bounced around multiple pc's around the world before it reaches it's destination or you, other peoples data packets are bounced through your internet connection and your connection may in fact be the last hop on the trip. People can and have been accused of various crimes they didn't commit, such as child porn distribution and threatening public officials because they were running the Tor browser with the default configuration.

Now it's true that one can configure Tor so as to not act like an exit node but that makes the Tor network less efficient and less anonymous and Tor is inherently a slow trip due to the many hops a data packet takes.

But all of this is irrelevant because any PC can be configured to route it's internet connection through Tor, including each and every single Linux distro, every Windows variant and every Unix flavor, including OSX.

So please enlighten us with your "well versed" knowledge, feel free to share any other theories about security you have.

[sum_guy]

All you have to do is look up at the image I posted of the Yahoo news feed link to see the trackers for that link. Regarding browsing with Windows, If you're using Ghostery you will see all the trackers for every site you visit. The hosts file is an inefficient way to block tracking. Running tails from an optical drive means nobody's dropping cookies on you but you knew that I'm sure. I'm sorry you had to spend 20 minutes bloviating in your post but the simplest answer is the correct one.

What else do I suggest, for windows browsing, how about https everywhere from EFF, Ghostery, Privacy badger etc.

[sum_guy]

We're getting off track here, this topic is Windows 10 security issues. 6 free tools to increase privacy on Windows 10

https://bgr.com/2015/08/14/windows-10-spying-prevention-privacy-tools/

[Seeker47]

I have most of those sites blocked in my hosts file. I allow very few sites to run Java script or use use cookies. I rarely see any ads while browsing the internet. I suspect my footprint is much much lighter than yours.

I've been aware of host files for quite awhile, but never implemented one. I'd be interested in obtaining the latest comprehensive-but-not-going-overboard list of items that are recommended for blocking, if there is such a thing. I am a longtime user of NoScript and AdBlock extensions, and have had Ghostery running on at least one computer. Use of these -- and for sure of a Hosts file -- can hobble your browsing experience, though. For example, with the link sum_guy provides below, I turned ON like a dozen items in NoScript, but I'm still not seeing the Comments at the bottom of that article. And I like to see the comments. More often, just allowing Disqus would cover that, but not for this one.

[Incidentally, it looks like a lot of the best, most important extensions for Firefox may be going away, due to general API changes that are in the works . . . but that is another discussion. For now, see the NEWS item at http://www.downthemall.net/].

I'm also generally familiar with the Linux live discs, with which you can take otherwise inadvisable risks online, like checking out some dark alleys of the internet that would give your anti-malware program(s) seizures. If nothing can be recorded or saved at your end, there won't be much any bad guys can do to you. But I had not heard of tails specifically, until it was mentioned here.

We're getting off track here, this topic is Windows 10 security issues. 6 free tools to increase privacy on Windows 10

https://bgr.com/2015/08/14/windows-10-spying-prevention-privacy-tools/

Another good link (plus subsidiary links), and thanks for getting back on track.

Yeah, sum_guy, you echo what my brother said when I forwarded this subject: "As if any privacy still existed, anyway -- MWAHAHAHAHA !." This kind of skirts the point, however. The scope of what MS is doing here in 10 is unprecedented, and if they are back-migrating some of it to Win 7 & 8, surreptitiously via their updates, well that is just inexcusable and intolerable.

Those links I posted were not the result of any major search -- I just happened to stumble across them recently. I've the feeling they are just the tip of the iceberg. What sort of big time packet sniffing would be required to uncover all of the dirty little secrets going on there under the hood ? Someone said a bit earlier in this thread: "If it's free, YOU are the product." Yup. And that will continue, after it is no longer free. My take on this is that the fancy new bells and whistles like Cortana are just the shiny lures, sending the fish on its way to the frying pan.

[jagabo]

I'd be interested in obtaining the latest comprehensive-but-not-going-overboard list of items that are recommended for blocking, if there is such a thing.

Start here: http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

[hello_hello]

You're worried about Windows 10 privacy but you're not even noticing whats going on in the background at your Yahoo news link, here's a nice list of trackers via screenshot for you. You think there is any privacy anymore? Windows 10 or not?

Any idea how many uBlock Original blocked? I'm not good at uBlock log file interpretation. It claimed to block 23 items the first time the Yahoo page opened, and 19 when I refreshed it (sorry about the mht file. I couldn't save the whole page/log in any other format).

Sorry about not attaching the MHT file. The forum won't seem to let me. I've tried zipping it and 7zipping it and it uploads, but won't attach.

I give up. I'll do it this way instead.
http://www.filedropper.com/networkrequestlog

[hello_hello]

I almost wish I hadn't looked at this thread, I'd made up my mind to upgrade to Win10 next week, but now I'm considering Win7 again.

Why are we all still using Windows anyway? Well it's probably for the same reason I am. Some of the software I want to keep using is Windows only. Some of it (old business software) can run on an old XP PC until I don't need it any more, but if the software I use the most came in a Linux flavour, I'd dump Windows in a heart beat.

I sometimes think the world would be a much better place if the developers of free software (including the programs we all use for video and audio processing) stopped bothering with Windows. I know there's plenty that'll run on other OSs, but for me it's really only the free "Windows only" software I use that's keeping me locked into Windows. Maybe I should look at Linux software alternatives again. I suspect the changeover would be relatively stress free compared to dealing the mess Microsoft will inflict on us via "free" Windows in the future.

[lordsmurf]

I almost wish I hadn't looked at this thread, I'd made up my mind to upgrade to Win10 next week, but now I'm considering Win7 again.

I'm putting Win7 on my new system. I've already looked hard at 8-10, and I don't like what I see.

Why are we all still using Windows anyway? Well it's probably for the same reason I am. Some of the software I want to keep using is Windows only. Some of it (old business software) can run on an old XP PC until I don't need it any more, but if the software I use the most came in a Linux flavour, I'd dump Windows in a heart beat.

Windows is the OS we need for video. Linux and Mac have inferior video workflows. Sometimes we're hardware-locked to XP, not merely confined to Windows of any version.

[sophisticles]

Windows is the OS we need for video. Linux and Mac have inferior video workflows. Sometimes we're hardware-locked to XP, not merely confined to Windows of any version.

I beg to differ, I used to think the same thing until I decided to switch completely over to Linux. Then I realized that you can really do anything video or audio wise with Linux tools that you did with Windows, if you're willing to learn some new software.

As for Mac having an "inferior" work flow, compared to Windows, seriously? The only video editing software of any serious note on Windows is Avid's products and Adobe's products and unless something has changed since the last time I checked they come in both Windows and OSX flavors and let's be real OSX is a much better OS than Windows and let's not forget Final Cut Pro which is OSX only.

With Ubuntu-MATE I use Open Shot and Kdenlive and find both to be very robust, easy to use apps, and more importantly thanks to the Linux kernel's excellent memory management and thread scheduler, using a very modest 8gb of ddr3 1600 and an FX8320 I am able to render out a 720x480 hevc stream and a 1920x1080 hevc stream simultaneously, using 2 instances of either app (they are both reentrant).

Or if you want some really high end video editing capabilities, give Blender a shot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te9HFQVaSUE

Anyone that tells you that serious video work on Linux isn't possible doesn't know what they are talking about. the only limitation with Linux is gaming and that should change once Steam OS is launched and been around for a while.

[usually_quiet]

So, you contend that someone using Linux can do anything video or audio related that can be done using Windows? A while back somebody asked about Blu-Ray authoring software for Linux, and there was nothing capable of generating menus. Are you saying that has changed?

[glenpinn]

So, you contend that someone using Linux can do anything video or audio related that can be done using Windows? A while back somebody asked about Blu-Ray authoring software for Linux, and there was nothing capable of generating menus. Are you saying that has changed?

He won't come back and reply to this because everyone knows he is a Linux junkie and trolls the windows threads telling everyone how bad windows is, and telling them he knows everything, that was until the other day when he eventually fell on his own sword in the big Windows 10 thread, spreading stories and lies about me, and mocking me because i have microsoft certifications, then he claimed that the Windows 10 upgrade works in the same way that a clean install does, even after i repeatedly told him that the Upgrade installs over the top of your old OS, it does not format your Hdd, and it offers you 3 different types of installations, plus we also learned that the windows 10 upgrade will "self install" onto peoples computers without you knowing it or having to be at your computer.

Then we find out the poor guy doesn't even have a computer with Windows installed, so everything the guy was saying in that thread was based entirely in crap that he found written in a bunch of low life websites that are riddled with paying sponsors.

No wonder everyone is getting paranoid about windows 10, when you have people like this troll forums sprouting all this rubbish.

Let him blurt whatever he likes about Linux or OSX, but he needs to keep his Butt out of the windows threads because he doesn't know what he is talking about.

[sophisticles]

@Glenn: I've been at work and I lost track of this thread, I wasn't "running".

So, you contend that someone using Linux can do anything video or audio related that can be done using Windows? A while back somebody asked about Blu-Ray authoring software for Linux, and there was nothing capable of generating menus. Are you saying that has changed?

@usually_quiet: That is exactly what I'm saying, for the most part. Regarding authoring a Blu-Ray under Linux, it's possible:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/blurayauthor/

https://irishjesus.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/blu-ray-movie-authoring-in-linux/

Now is it as easy as it is on Windows, no the software that exists is one step behind in terms of ease of use, primarily because the software companies that target the Windows and OSX users don't bother to release software for Linux. That doesn't mean the OS is incapable of performing this task, just that ISV's haven't identified Linux on the desktop as a lucrative market.

[sophisticles]

He won't come back and reply to this because everyone knows he is a Linux junkie

I am not a Linux junkie, up until 6 months ago I used Win 7 as my primary OS with the occasional Linux experiment.

Windows 10 telemetry convinced me not to "upgrade" to that OS and from there Linux is the only logical option. AVX-512 will require Win 10 or newer to use and Skylake based Xeons, which will feature support for half the instruction set, will be released shortly. Next year we will have desktop cpu's that support AVX-512; the x265 public spokesman "Tom" has already said that they expect x265 to realize a 30% speed up from the new instruction set, so you're left with little choice but to use an OS that supports AVX-512.

This means you either switch to Win 10 and put up with all the telemetry and spying B.S., choose Win 10 Enterprise Edition which allows you to turn off the telemetry (though I'm still not convinced I believe MS' claims) or you switch to Linux, which supports AVX-512 already via the newer kernels.

If enough people chose the last option, ISV's would start looking at Linux as a serious platform for software sales and you would see companies like Sony and Adobe port their software to Linux.

[usually_quiet]

@Glenn: I've been at work and I lost track of this thread, I wasn't "running".

So, you contend that someone using Linux can do anything video or audio related that can be done using Windows? A while back somebody asked about Blu-Ray authoring software for Linux, and there was nothing capable of generating menus. Are you saying that has changed?

@usually_quiet: That is exactly what I'm saying, for the most part. Regarding authoring a Blu-Ray under Linux, it's possible:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/blurayauthor/

https://irishjesus.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/blu-ray-movie-authoring-in-linux/

Now is it as easy as it is on Windows, no the software that exists is one step behind in terms of ease of use, primarily because the software companies that target the Windows and OSX users don't bother to release software for Linux. That doesn't mean the OS is ncapable of performing this task, just that ISV's haven't identified Linux on the desktop as a lucrative market.

In other words, nothing has changed since this thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/354730-blueray-authoring-with-linux There is still no Linux software for authoring Blu-Rays with menus which is what I asked about. I never said there were no Linux tools for authoring Blu-Ray discs with no menu.

[glenpinn]

In other words, nothing has changed since this thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/354730-blueray-authoring-with-linux There is still no Linux software for authoring Blu-Rays with menus which is what I asked about. I never said there were no Linux tools for authoring Blu-Ray discs with no menu.

Just ignore it, just another case of him manipulating things and making diversions to justify his own end goal, we already learned this in the big Windows 10 thread with all this Upgrade garble, which, btw, he still has not gone back to and proved that everything i have been saying is wrong.

1. agree that the win 10 upgrade does not self install
2. agree that the upgrade does offer 3 installation options, unlike a clean install which does not offer any kind of installation.
3. plus other things i said that i can't remember right now.

Just let it go, its just not worth it any more.

[usually_quiet]

^^ You are the one who called sophisticles out and picked a fight with him here. LOL

[glenpinn]

^^ You are the one who called sophisticles out and picked a fight with him here. LOL

I never picked a fight with anyone, but yes, of coarse i picked him out because of of all the stuff he was pushing that was not correct, and he finally decided to go off on his merry way to try the upgrade himself, and now we have not seen him back in here yet, so lets see if he installed windows 7 on his computer, did the updates, and let the computer run over night and see if windows 10 upgrade magically self installed while he was in bed, something he claimed can and does happen.

He also called me a liar, he manipulated some of the facts that i pointed out by introducing all sorts of other shit into this debate, and then started mocking me because i have microsoft certification for windows desktop, something which any tom, dick or harry can gain, so if he wants to say stuff that is not correct, of coarse he needs to be called out for it, just as i get called out by others for stuff that i may have said that was incorrect.

[usually_quiet]

... and all of that happened outside this thread. Just let it go.

[glenpinn]

... and all of that happened outside this thread. Just let it go.

I will let it go when he stops treating people the way he does.

[Seeker47]

If there are no objections -- and even if there are -- I thought I might take this back to the original topic of this thread.

The 'NO Opt Out of MS Updates' thing is a more than sufficient deal breaker all by itself, so far as I'm concerned. MS Updates have been very hazardous to the health of my systems, on a number of occasions. (Follow Woody's column at InfoWorld, for plenty of examples.) And the only way to know all the nefarious things that are going on under the hood with this OS version is to Wireshark the hell out of it. That's pretty much over my head, tech-wise, but I've been corresponding about this with an IT Pro I've known for years on another forum. I hope he won't mind my pasting some of that content in below, in case it may be of benefit to others who elect to proceed with 10 nonetheless. (It's not proprietary, and I have removed any personal info . . . . ) Yep, completely disregarding a Hosts file -- that was a pretty neat hack on their part.

There were a couple IP addresses he mentioned that would not be valid for us Norte Americanos, since he is based in Europe. If any of you know the U.S. versions of those -- or have any others to provide -- please post them here !

[P.S.: I think I read something to the effect that MS reserves the right to "excommunicate" you, should you evade their MS updates. Have a nice day.]

================================================== =============================


Two things have caught my attention since upgrading to W10 from 8.1:

1. It is not sufficient to turn off everything there is to turn off
(auto-updates, Contara etc.). I did that, and the machine still
contacts the mother ship every time the machine boots. It even ignores
the hosts file pointing to 127.0.0.1 for the Microsoft update server
and continues to contact that server.

2. Since having upgraded, I have received spam from microsoft, though
I am quite sure I never provided them with my private eddress. It can
only have come from the the upgrade process having 'spied' on my email
account settings in T'bird.

__________________________________________________ _________________________________________


I have been reading around a bit and it appears that MS has engineered Win10 with
mandatory updates and no "opt out clause."

http://www.howtogeek.com/223068/what-you-need-to-know-about-windows-update-on-windows-10/

Even the Professional and Enterprise versions offer a 'button' to
merely delay but not stop this behavior.

I believe that once this gets publicized, MS will endure a storm of
protest and market forces will compel a 'final update' which includes
an "opt out clause."

In the mean time, I am investigating whether MS's built-in firewall
can be utilized to block mandatory updates.


__________________________________________________ _________________________________________


Unfortunately, I see no alternative but to continue to monitor all
outgoing dns queries with Wireshark and then block the MS servers' IP
addresses on the (external) firewall (I wouldn't trust the
built-in MS firewall to inhibit its own update propensity). This will
be tedious, but thorough. I am compiling a list of update servers'
URLs and their IP addresses.


__________________________________________________ _________________________________________


For those wishing to block mandatory updates of Win10, I offer the
following list of MS servers and their IP addresses:


ctldl.windowsupdate.com
ctldl.windowsupdate.nsatc.net
ctldl.windowsupdate.com.edgesuite.net
a1621.g.akamai.net

193.247.90.0 /24 (Zurich)
193.247.167.0 /24 (Zurich)
[unfortunately, these IP address ranges will be different for USA and
I am unable to discover what they are]


officeclient.microsoft.com
prod.configsvc.live.com.akadns.net
weu-config.officeapps.live.com
osiprod-weu-snow-000.cloudapp.net

23.96.0.0 /13

telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com
telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net

65.52.0.0/14

sls.update.microsoft.com
sls.update.microsoft.com.nsatc.net

157.54.0.0 - 157.60.255.255
65.52.0.0/14


settings.data.microsoft.com
settings.data.glbdns2.microsoft.com
onesettings-db5.metron.live.com.nsatc.net

192.232.139.0/24


I cannot guarantee that this list is exhaustive.

[usually_quiet]

2. Since having upgraded, I have received spam from microsoft, though
I am quite sure I never provided them with my private eddress. It can
only have come from the the upgrade process having 'spied' on my email
account settings in T'bird.

Normally Microsoft asks users to set up a Microsoft Account and login for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, which requires a valid email address. Is there any possibility that you did that and used the email address in question?

[Seeker47]

2. Since having upgraded, I have received spam from microsoft, though
I am quite sure I never provided them with my private eddress. It can
only have come from the the upgrade process having 'spied' on my email
account settings in T'bird.

Normally Microsoft asks users to set up a Microsoft Account and login for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, which requires a valid email address. Is there any possibility that you did that and used the email address in question?

Seeing as this wasn't me, no idea. But I'll pass that along to my source. He does IT professionally, supporting a lot of users, so maybe Yes, maybe No. It could have been just based on a "test drive" situation.

[Nelson37]

I'm seeing roughly 2 or 3 of 10 updates to Win 10 failing catastrophically, resulting in a non-functioning system and/or loss of user files on a return to the previous OS. 10 does seem to be slightly better than 8, though 8 sucks tremendously. I recommend sticking with 7 for the time being.

Linux just is not feasible for the average user, it is suffering from its supposed advantages. Too many variants. Not enough installed base to prompt software and hardware companies to pay it much attention. Not likely this will change any time soon. If their were just one consumer Linux variant, that might come a bit closer, but it still just doesn't cut it for the average user. It just is not user-friendly enough, and doesn't have the MS market share to get past its failures in this regard.

I always avoid making a MS account for login, no point in this, IMO. It is my PC, not theirs.

The yearly subscription and limited "app" model is what they are going for, it is all about income stream.

[MaverickTse]

Agree with Nelson.
I have tried Win10 in a VM, but obviously much slower than a Win7 VM, so I'm not going to make it my primary OS.
The privacy issue is a concern.

However, Linux is not that good either.

If Linux works, that's great, but if something doesn't work, you are stuck. Especially if the problem is hardware/driver related. Even big company like Intel made better Windows driver than Linux driver.
This is the place where Linux will never catch up.

To address an earlier post, "wish to have freeware developers not bother using Windows"...
This is not going to happen for one simple reason:
COMPREHENSIBLE DOCUMENTATION

MS did a great job in documenting their APIs making developers easy to seek help. There are also a vast amount of literature on MS-backed technologies like Win32API, DirectX, C#, WPF...

For the freeware world, a lot of developers skim on documentation, and on top of that, a significant portion of them do not code or design with new dev/users in mind.
This is why even though Mac is based on *nix kernel, it is much more popular for the average user. The linux platform also falls behind in like hardware acceleration. On Linux, besides using OpenGL/CL, I can't think of any analogous to DirectX

Also if a core developer don't want to implement a feature, it can stay there unimplemented for a decade....

To summarize, Windows is easy for the average user and developers, a massive switch to Linux will not happen.
If Windows die and people have to jump to another ship, it will be either a new OS or MacOS. Linux is unlikely to be the target IMO

[Seeker47]

Interesting what Nelson37 just said. I wasn't aware of that failure rate on 10 updates, although I have had to recover 7 and even XP systems (in the past) that got seriously borked by MS updates. More than a few times. Messed up enough that Restore Points or even Safe Mode were to no avail. The party line from MS is that most of these are due to pirated versions of the OS, but the reality is that it happens fairly often with completely legit installs, various OEM installs, or if you just happen to have certain hardware. This has made me rather gun-shy about updates. I wait awhile after they've been released, and do whatever I can to vet them in advance.

I am wondering just how much foot-dragging or resistance may be out there in the marketplace. I do see some businesses that are still running XP ! You might think this was too risky, because they have not disconnected themselves from doing internet stuff. I'm not talking about a private office either, but a public, walk-in products & services kind of business.

[Nelson37]

The rate is actually higher than that, attempting to apply a correction factor because I mainly am called for broken systems. Got an 8 system here right now, legit Lenovo Win8, rendered non-bootable, had to re-image. Third such failure I have personally seen, plus another user report of reversing the install and loosing all user files. User not well known to me as to skill level.

I am using "success" as everyone I know who has installed it and had no problems, actually not many of those. 6 or 7 is on the high side.

Most of my users did not like 8 at all and have little to no interest in the upgrade, this will change over time.

I HATE, absolutely HATE, the phone-style interface and the whole app concept, IMO this started with the XBOX. There is an app for hulu and an app for youtube and a crippled browser that won't play either in full screen.

I do see how this is useful for the general public, they really don't know the difference. Other than they are getting really, really tired of continual "updates" which add no real functionality and are nothing more than cosmetic.

Did you know that the original Windows demo had the in-house name "magic" because it was all smoke and mirrors, and was just a slideshow and not functioning software?

[sophisticles]

@Maverick: You comments about Linux are a bit misleading. MS earns billions of dollars every year and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in developing Windows and marketing it, you really believe that if a company pumped several hundred million dollars into Linux they couldn't develop API's similar to Windows'? As for hardware support Linux support a vast amount of hardware, it can run on hardware as varied as a cash register all the way up to a super computer.

If some company, let's say like AMD, decided to invest the time and money, people would be flocking to Linux in droves, if only for the superior memory management and the fact that it doesn't suffer from "Windows Rot", i.e. the propensity of Windows' registry to grow and acquire invalid entries which lead to an OS slowdown over time.

[sophisticles]

BTW, it looks like MS is now forcing people to upgrade to Win 10:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3015238/microsoft-windows/microsoft-narrows-win10-upg...e-tonight.html

Note that there isn't a "No Thank You" option.

[usually_quiet]

@Maverick: You comments about Linux are a bit misleading. MS earns billions of dollars every year and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in developing Windows and marketing it, you really believe that if a company pumped several hundred million dollars into Linux they couldn't develop API's similar to Windows'? As for hardware support Linux support a vast amount of hardware, it can run on hardware as varied as a cash register all the way up to a super computer.

If some company, let's say like AMD, decided to invest the time and money, people would be flocking to Linux in droves, if only for the superior memory management and the fact that it doesn't suffer from "Windows Rot", i.e. the propensity of Windows' registry to grow and acquire invalid entries which lead to an OS slowdown over time.

A big company did pump tons of money into developing something derived from the Linux kernel and made it a viable option for the masses, but it has its problems and security flaws. Ever hear of Android?

[El Heggunte]

@Maverick: You comments about Linux are a bit misleading. MS earns billions of dollars every year and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in developing Windows and marketing it, you really believe that if a company pumped several hundred million dollars into Linux they couldn't develop API's similar to Windows'? As for hardware support Linux support a vast amount of hardware, it can run on hardware as varied as a cash register all the way up to a super computer.

If some company, let's say like AMD, decided to invest the time and money, people would be flocking to Linux in droves, if only for the superior memory management and the fact that it doesn't suffer from "Windows Rot", i.e. the propensity of Windows' registry to grow and acquire invalid entries which lead to an OS slowdown over time.

Linux is an alternative to UNIX, not to Windows.
And the Linux "gods" simply don't want the kernel to become 'less-unfriendly'.
In other words, they want the whole world to believe that usr, bin, etc, boot, home, lib, mnt, var, whatever,
are "eternal and immutable realities"