Windows 10

I have upgraded 6 computers to Win 10. No issues on any of them. I have not come across any compatibility or speed issues either. A vast improvement over 8 and I think an improvement over 7 too. My wife has a touch screen and I hope to get a new surface so I understand the touch features.Where are you losing screen space due to touch features?

It is also much more secure than 7. MS is still putting out security updates for 7, but as this is no longer the primary OS it does not get nearly as much attention.
Security flaws tend to be found by users and outside groups that stress the OS in order to actively find holes in the security. This does not happen nearly as much as with 10. From the onset 10 was much more secure than 7.
With an up to date, reputable, antivirus and antimalware tool Windows 10 is as secure as any other operating system and more so than 7.

The interface changes are what turn most people off to most new versions of an OS. But people have to realize that they do not change the interface just to change the OS. A lot of thought and testing goes into OS changes. The 10 OS has shown to be more functional and more liked by more users than other interfaces. New abilities and things like touch screens required the interface to evolve.
As entertainement companies do not market to an increasingly smaller and smaller market share, MS needs to provide products that the majority of people want or need. That majority are a younger group and businesses that needed and desired a more robust OS and an evolved interface.
There are tweaks available that allow a more Win 7 experience on 10. I have a couple Win 10 computers. One has a touch screen. I also have a Surface tablet. With the same OS I can use keyboard and mouse input or touch. Both interfaces work flawlessly. My kids have Ipads, the problem with them is that their OS has almost no provisions for keyboard and mouse input. I feel that OS is in serious need of an interface update. I have no recent experience with macOS so I do not know how well it handles both input types.
Software and OS's change to take advantage of the new hardware and needs of the end users.

For example?
Are they doing anything Apple or Google are not?
What is this nefarious spyware/reporting to which you refer to?I in no way want to seem like I think MS is some sort of ethical perfect company. They have huge issues, as do all tech companies.I am just curious to what you are referring to.

World class, anti-virus, antimalware, software updater and VPN and being smart will protect you from any exploits on your own computer. There is nothing you can do to protect yourself from hacks of government or corporate systems but you can protect the information from coming from you.Last year my father-in-law received notice that his information was included in a corporate data breach. He disconnected his computer from the internet and could not understand how his data was included in the breach because he had never done anything with the company online. All of his contact with this company was through the mail. It took a while for me to explain that the company had his data on a server some where and that was hacked. Yes though he paid by check, all of his account data was on their server.Moral to the story. Protect your system. Be vigilant. Examine bank, credit card and credit reports regularly. You cannot protect the data once it leaves your hands but you can protect what is in your hands.

Fine.
So you got nothing but fearmongering.
As I said, I do think tech companies have huge data security issues, but making unfounded accusations does not help the situation.

Oh sorry. Humour and subtlety are easily missed online.

Any networking issue I can take care of on my own. I run the troubleshooter some times and moat of the time it resolves the issue. If it doesn't I use all the old tools and resolve it. All of the old stuff is still there. What did you used to do that you can't on Win 10? Do you still wish we had to deal with irq's and dip switches too?As for interfaces, the XP interface was great for it's time. It is unworkable for touch and is in fact too dated for todays computers.

Win 10 was the first non-clean install of a new system I have ever done. Never liked idea of all the left over crap when you upgrade the OS. It was flawless for me. I have upgraded 7 PC's to 10. 3 were 8.1 to 10 and 2 were 7 to 10.
All went flawless and I ran the cleanup tool after and then ran JV16 Power Tools. It cleans out stuff that is not needed.
jv16 PowerTools - Fix and Make Windows Faster
Their new version is getting released any day now.