The occasional nods towards the technical crowd, for example WSL & VSCode are distracting us from the very large elephant in the room.
WSL is more sinister - it's a counter to "I want to run Linux on my desktop / laptop". It is a carrot to the stick of Secure Boot that's trying to make anything else than Windows impossible on PC.
Additionally, Microsoft cooperates with the Linux community to sign their keys. Most Linux distros these days can install with Secure Boot enabled, and still offer ways for users who need to do things like compile kernel modules to do that without having to disable Secure Boot.
The situation is different for some devices like (I think) Windows RT devices based on ARM, and maybe cheaper x86/x64 netbooks now that the Secure Boot certification requirements have changed. In these cases they often do restrict you to only what MS is willing to sign, with no opt-out. I won't defend that in the slightest, but it's not true for much of and probably most of the PC market.
Your operating system? This isn't Linux, this isn't a free and open system.
> Microsoft seem intent on having full control of your system, and they are in a position to take that control as and when they like.
This isn't your system any more than buying a CD makes the music yours. You're renting their system.
Linux is not your operating system either. You are not the owner of Linux. Linux has a permissive open source license that don't give you ownership. If you were the owner you could change its license.
> it implies ability to control, as in control when and what gets updated as the OP is upset about.
Many routers run linux, the provider doesn't have to give you ability to control that OS, but in accordance with the copyright law they have to give you the code when you ask for it. So in that case you own both the device and the code but you don't necessary fully control it (unless it's flashed with OpenWrt or similar). So control and ownership are different things.
I really can't understand how people are ok with this. Now just with windows, but in general these days. Why are people ok with having things they don't really own after spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on them. If I buy a computer, it's my computer, I don't give a fuck what operating system is on it, what fine print amd or Intel throw in saying their management systems are their property, I don't care. I'll do whatever I want with my computer and if Microsoft or any other company has a problem with it they can come sue me for all I care.
You pretty much can, I don't understand why you're upset. Windows on the other hand is not your property.
Your laptop in this case is the CD, you own that. Windows is the music that you're renting.
I'm sympathetic to your viewpoint, but I think rent is a society-wide problem, not just a problem with computers, and computers are far from the most acute example.