I'm also curious: if someone has the privileges to run something like this, they're probably not under the thumb of an IT department, so why not switch to OS X or Linux?
As a generally keyboard-centric user I've found OS X to be awful. Inconsistent behaviour when using Cmd+Tab (which switches to most recently used app) versus Cmd+` (which cycles through app windows instead) is frustrating to say the least. Finder is vastly inferior to Windows Explorer and I find myself dropping into the shell way too much just to do simple file management tasks (cut and paste anyone?). Being unable to tile, snap or maximise windows is also rather frustrating; yes, you can fullscreen an app and yes, you can drag and drop another window onto a fullscreen app [in El Capitan] to tile them side by side but that's so clunky it's almost a joke when on Windows I can hold down the Win key and use the arrow keys to snap windows to the screen edges.
I could go on, but I'll stop there...
I was asking because disabling Windows Update (which someone has corrected me, this tool does not do) seems more extreme than switching to a different OS.
Whereas automatic upload of core-dumps even under normal non-attack operating conditions might even be forbidden by law when, for example, working with sensitive personal or otherwise classified data.
Did you ever consider that some of us actually like Windows?
If someone is that concerned about spying, to cripple Windows and make it unsafe (again, a mistaken impression my part) it seemed more logical to switch operating systems.
(I recently switched back to Windows from OS X and Ubuntu because I hate OS X and Ubuntu is too buggy.)
One word: Games.
And sometimes it is a crutch that Microsoft doesn't provide. I recall Windows Vista causing some pain for old games - such as requiring the Screen/Resolution window open otherwise Starcraft would run with corrupt colours. Wine isn't perfect, and I expect it never will be. But short of a full virtualised Windows XP, it is one of the best ways to run those old games that aren't getting treatment from the likes of GOG.
WINE can make a lot of really cool stuff happen. I suggest you take another look.
Disclaimer: I contributed a patchset to WINE 4 years ago.
Also, not every developer/publisher has - or is willing to commit - the resources to release their games on Linux/SteamOS. It's difficult enough to release a game for Windows that runs reliably on the multitude of hardware configurations out there. Duplicating that effort to release on another OS is a massive undertaking for some.
Really it's too important to take down very often. I've considered buying a separate box for Windows. I run Windows applications in either WINE or VirtualBox, but with games that don't support WINE, that doesn't work unless you have specific, hard-to-find hardware and an extra GPU. Since games are the only thing I'm missing out on, more and more games are getting Linux native versions, and I don't have much time for games anyway, I haven't actually pulled the trigger on the separate Windows machine yet, but one day I will.
The setup is still not simple, your common dual-booter will not be able to setup it right, yet.
To get a graphics card actually capable of this, you either need to buy the commercial grade versions (Quadro and FirePro) with are much more expensive, or buy a specific card for this purpose and deal with tons of issues[1] like not being able to restart the guest without crashing the host.
[1]: http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_VGA_Passthrough_Tested_A...
But the setup is not a simple one of neither.
NVIDIA attempt to detect the VM and artificially disable the driver, but works perfectly if you tell KVM to hide the fact it's a VM (requires a flag to be set in the config).
the technical difficulty of pci passthrough consists of clicking "add pci device", then selecting your graphics card from the list.
So then you run Linux VMs in a Windows host. In my experience, VMware is a better choice on Windows hosts. But it's been a few years, and maybe VirtualBox is doing better on Windows.
I know a few gamers who would like to relegate Windows to a locked-down VM ;)
But do not take that as discouragement, your friends definitely should try it on their own.
EDIT: Yes meant to answer the "Why dual boot when you can use a VM". My post meant to say "VM is cool is Windows is the host". Sorry.
Sorry about that.
For me : Autodesk Software, Silverlight video streams, Microsoft Office & Atmel Studio
If you read the Excel team AMA [1] you'll see the most repeated question is "when will Excel be as good on OSX as it is on Windows".
[1] https://reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3rid26/we_are_the_microso...
To non-Canonical Linux or FreeBSD/OpenBSD please.
OSX and Ubuntu spy and expose you too, although Windows is by far the biggest offender here.
* The person needs to exchange forms in Word Documents with other people (agencies and public authorities) on a daily basis, and the exact formatting matters, so LibreOffice doesn't cut it.
* There is trade specific software for which there is no alternative (open source or paid), which the person couldn't replace with an alternative if there was one (because it's effectively agency mandated), and which only runs on Windows. (And to give you a sense of how special-purpose this is: it has it's own hardware VPN box which you have to put between your computer and the internet.)
So it's sad, but the requirement is not "at least as good as Windows" but "Windows".
Edit: Well, the edit just done to the parent comment makes my comment mostly useless now. :P At the very least, speaking to the specific example of Word documents, I’m not aware of any features that current Windows Word has that Mac Word doesn’t (that would result formatting not carrying over perfectly).
It lacks the extended functionality (i.e. in Excel: PowerQuery/Pivot/Map, Inquiry) or for some reason doesn't work (Mac Excel does not work with psqlODBC - Windows Excel does).
Windows-only software is far, far more common than Windows+Mac software.
(The software I'm talking about is Windows-only. I know you might mean Mac Office.)
PS: And because writing portable software, deploying and maintaining it is apparently hard, companies are now switching to web-based solutions. Yay :(
* Legacy Intranet websites that only work in IE.
The person I'm talking about is self-employed and not, erm, technologically affine, so why not just stick with Windows?
> why not just stick with Windows?
Hm... because Windows is essentially a platform for Microsoft and assorted 3rd parties (most of which are not even affiliated with them) to spy on and meddle with you beyond any reasonable control or limitations?