I get that the comment is almost surely circlejerk, but it is also honestly the only real answer to OP's question, isn't it? To switch OS?

So it's kind of hard to get mad at their comment when it's the only viable option. Is your problem with Linux or is it the fact that it brings you anxiety to know MS is in control of you? What if we substitute another OS for "Linux"? Does that make you feel any better?

I'm honestly not trying to be a jerk; these are honest questions. That's probably saying more than for OP, though; they, of course, knew the answer before they asked.

I think this is the biggest help they can get. We are selflessly sharing what is free and works the best for you. You have to admit that we have no bad intentions.

Why are you expecting obscure Windows advice (MS obscures it because they want to continue nagging people to use their shit) from people who gave up entirely on Windows?

MS is nagging people to use products they don't want to and now you're nagging someone who doesn't use Windows for advice that they likely don't know and probably don't really care to find out.

There's probably a way to prevent this specific pop-up from appearing, but that solution may or may not apply to future pop-ups. The only way to guarantee windows will never nag you is to not use it. Even giving in will just prevent this particular nag.

It's not a jerk.

GNU/Linux literally gives you the ability to control your own operating system.

You can dose yourself in radiation until you're puking all over the place or you can actually cut the cancer out.

There are plenty of questions that linux isn't a great answer for, but for this question, it really is the solution.

Think this should just become the default response to people circle jerking linux.

I wanted to agree, but then they just had to add a load of bullshit invalidating everything else.

You can't tell me that Linux isn't easy in this day when the biggest hurdle is just the installation; that Windows is well designed (better than Linux, which isn't really an apples to apples comparison, there's so many distros, many of which are surely better than it anyway) when it very clearly isn't, not only by being hostile to the user, but the layers of paint they have to stack on top of each other every major release because, god forbid, their enterprise users are gonna freak out if you rewrite the core apps from scratch and give them a coherent experience. Microsoft is a monopoly and acts like it, if you have the occasion to move away from it, then it's the best decision you can make.

All that said, telling people to move to Linux when they ask a specific OS related question is stupid and doesn't help the person in need. Give them the answer they're looking for and let them figure out for themselves if the whole OS they're using is bad and if they should switch out.