I haven't been able to stomach Windows since Vista, and I can barely stomach MacOS. Linux has spoiled me.

Oh but they absolutely did beat MacOS. The amount of people who give a damn about UI polish, response times, etc. is insignificant to them.

They got away with pushing ads, online and enterprise services, Copilot, etc. to every desktop user.

It depends on what you mean by "beat". Windows has a vastly larger market share than Apple ever has, or ever will.

I think you meant to say Windows 7…