Wow your obvious belief in such ridiculous stereotypes really underlines your ignorance about the world outside the US.

I'm a Brit who emigrated to the US about 10 years ago.
One thing I found very hard to get used to was that the taste of nearly all food in the US is sickeningly sweet. It makes it all taste the same as you can hardly even taste the natural flavor of the food itself.
There's sugar (presumably actually corn syrup) in large quantities in EVERYTHING, even stuff thats meant to be natural or savory like vegetables, nuts or cheese. Most US bread tastes like cake to me, instead of wheaty or nutty like it does back home.
You don't (re)notice until you leave and come back, but trust me the first couple of days of eating any food in the US tastes horrible.
Then your get acclimatized as your taste buds and waistline get assimilated into the Corn Lobby collective's master plan.

How on earth do you come up with fraud and harassment from just peacefully returning goods for a refund?

Just by not buying Windows, Microsoft won't see they lost a sale.

Everyone go out and buy a copy of Windows 8, open the box so it can't be resold, then return it for a full refund with the reason that the EULA you can't see until you try to install it was an unacceptable attack on basic civil rights.

This is about the only way Microsoft would get a clear message and see how much its costing them.

Open the first Canadian take out in China.

>> regular users CAN NOT turn off UAC.

Again, yes they absolutely can. how?: Install windows or even buy a new laptop with windows. First reboot after setup it comes straight up into a desktop, turn UAC off. simple.

Your concept of a distinction between regular user and admin user is understood, but not what people get outside of a corporate environment where an IT dept sets up users accounts, unless they know enough to manually do it themselves.

My usage of the phrase "regular user" means the default account everyone gets on their Windows PC when they buy one.

The notion of windows security is ridiculous as long as Microsoft keep making the default account of a PC have admin rights, as most home users don't know or even care enough to limit their own rights preemptively. They just buy the laptop and for the life of it use whatever desktop comes up when they power it up, and from there, they absolutely can and will turn off UAC.

sorry but you just need to stop drinking the Microsoft cool-aid, but people like you never do.

...and come to that, the mere fact that a normal user can turn it off suggests it isn't proper security.

No, UAC doesn't actually stop you doing anything, it just moans about it when you try, and then lets you after it asks if your'e sure. You click yes and carry on. There's a big difference to that and proper security.
How would you feel about UAC being the only thing protecting your checking account? "I see you're not the account holder. Are you REALLY sure you want to transfer its entire balance to another account?"

Ok I'm here to collect my $5k.
I just installed linux mint from scratch and it works perfectly, and detected ALL my hardware. No manual setup whatsoever.
That wasn't even close to true for windows 7.
Please PM me with your paypal email address so I can invoice you.

My claim is that as a normal windows user you can do bad stuff. if windows by default sets you up with administrative rights (which for sure every one up to and including Windows 7 does) then as far as I'm concerned that's the normal user.

Just to prove it I just browsed to the Windows directory and purposely modified and saved a DLL with a hex editor with no problem at all.

I installed Win 7 on this box myself and was never asked if I wanted this account to have admin user rights.
The only thing I did was turn UAC off because its (still) so stupidly annoying any right-minded person cant live with it on.

>> In the context of this discussion you have to consider Windows deployed in *enterprise* settings.

No I really don't. Any requirement to allow for the fact that I have to have an IT department to make my OS secure sucks. my claim stands.

Linux is really more secure. Here's why.
You as a normal windows user by default have sufficient rights to modify or delete files in the OS.
Not true in Linux.
When you install an application in windows it ususaly drops files all over everywhere, adds stuff the the registry etc. so ususally extends the operating system itself. There is no partitioning.
Again, not true in Linux.

Wow you're clearly one of those people that at best last tried linux about 5 years ago or picked some obscure or minimalist distro to evaluate that was automatically going to be a bad match for desktop use.

Your 'obvious truths' are entirely a mix of Microsoft-originated FUD and probably your own paranoia about your locked-in skills being made irrelevant.

I'd make that claim about Solaris.

Sorry but thats just regurgitated marketing baloney that was cooked up by Microsoft about 10 years ago as the only even slightly credable-sounding statement they could come up with as their only defense against Linux.

It completely ignores all the hard to account for but very real costs, such as having to employ significantly more IT staff just because you're a windows shop and the windows infrastructure just needs way more support because its inherently insecure, non-optimal and has a stupid architecture.