Your actions repeated a few million times = Thanks Microsoft, for your contribution to e-waste and to a 1.5 degree warmer world arriving earlier than 2040.
Can't wait for Windows 10 to be EOL'ed, for this problem to get worse. "Switch to Linux" they say, but hah, the corporate bean counters will say retraining is more expensive, just buy those new PCs, that 1.5 degree problem, that's not our issue!
How about putting the blame where it belongs? Intel knowingly sold CPUs with Meltdown/Spectre for close to a decade before it was disclosed to the public.
Switching to Linux does not fix the issue as it is part of the hardware. We have mitigated the issue, and done so poorly. You are not required to upgrade to Win 11, and gives your computer roughly 3 more years until you repurpose it for lesser tasks.
Most of the corporate IT leases employee hardware already and has 3-5 year laptop refresh cycles accounted for. I don't see how Windows 11 will affect anything in the big scheme of things for large enterprise IT procurement.
But as far as home users are concerned, I fully agree with you.
Maybe in companies flush with cash - most businesses won't change their hardware unless they have a good reason to. Losing support for getting security patches may be one such reason.
But the average office clerk will certainly not get regular updates to the latest and greatest hardware.
Can't wait for Windows 10 to be EOL'ed, for this problem to get worse. "Switch to Linux" they say, but hah, the corporate bean counters will say retraining is more expensive, just buy those new PCs, that 1.5 degree problem, that's not our issue!