I had the same experience when I bought a new laptop last year. Well, I don't think it was quite as bad then, but almost. There was an option to proceed without

I had the same experience when I bought a new laptop last year. Well, I don't think it was quite as bad then, but almost. There was an option to proceed without creating a MS account but you had to go through a couple of nag screens asking if you were absolutely 100% sure you didn't want to create an account and telling you about all the features you'd be missing out on. I guess if you are using Windows on your personal laptop for years you probably don't notice the change but coming to it after using Linux for years it was shocking - like it reflected a whole different philosophy of what a laptop is: a tool that the user owns and can use as he or she sees fit, vs an access point to the Microsoft SaaS/shopping ecosystem.