EDIT: I can't read, apparantly lol i read "I liked 10 more". disregard this first bit. Oh no no, you misunderstand: I like Windows 10. Mostly because I have no strong opinion on Windows 7 and didn't use anything prior to that (and because Windows 8 was...Windows 8) As an OS, it was pretty fine. My problem was microsoft itself (and well, the changes that 11 brought. The list of complaints was basically me going "you had a good thing with Win10, why the radical changes to something that worked well?").

I've also no delusions that Microsoft making controversial changes is gonna do much for Linux growth unless its something massive, like, "we can't come back from this" massive--but that's very unlikely to happen. I've said this dozens of times before, I'll say it again: The only way Linux adoption will grow is if someone can walk up to Best Buy (or Browse Newegg/Amazon/whathaveyou), and walk out with a laptop or desktop with Linux already installed and ready to go + maybe a small tutorial like Fedora gives when you first boot up, since Gnome will probably be the default it comes with.

The Steam Deck was a good first step, but if Linux wants adoption, they have to put out stuff that runs Linux out the box to well-known and used markets and brick and morter shops. Not in the back either, front and center where everyone can see it. Much like Chromebooks, people will get used to Linux and its quirks--but they have to be able to access it in the first place (and by that, I mean i could grab an HP laptop packing Ubuntu if i wanted to instead of one packing Windows 11, not being told "to use Linux, you have to first choose one of many distros that are out there, then go download an ISO file and burn it to a USB")