I think this is a fake quote that somebody made up for an Internet comedy bit

You can tell by the pixels

Microsoft in 1995: Let’s put the start button at the lower left. So people can always find it.

Microsoft in 2012: Start button is gone, but you can still click the lower left, like you have been for 17 years.

Microsoft in 2013: Fine have your button back since everyone is so used to clicking on it.

Microsoft in 2021: Let’s make the start button move around every time you open and close anything.

Not anymore. The last version of Windows 11 I installed on bare metal did not allow the trick when you just turn off the WiFi. I had to Shift+F10 to get to the command prompt, enter “oobe\bypassnro”, then reboot before it would allow a local account.

I’ve played around with a few of them. I’ve found LM Studio the most robust and user friendly.

Windows accounts for 12% of their profits, and I’m willing to bet that the consumer versions are a very small part of that. Most businesses are not buying OEM licenses. They are already using a subscription model for M365 which includes Windows licenses or a standard EA or SA agreement.

They learned after the Windows Phone that they don’t need to win the client OS battle as long as they can get their other products on the devices. Since then Windows has really focused more on keeping you locked into the Microsoft ecosystem versus keeping locked into Windows itself. Hence why the upgrades have all been free where in the past you would have to repurchase each new edition of Windows.

Of course I could be completely wrong. They have done some bonkers stuff in the past.