[plg]

"The updates and network access are mostly nonsense": This rings so true to me.

Though so much of my actual work now involves network access... whether that's referring to files on someone's OneDrive folder (my admin assistants, who are subject to my institution's obsession with Micro$oft, are constantly sending me links to files in a OneDrive folder) or looking up papers on Google Scholar or PubMed.

I guess what bugs me about modern MacOS and Windows operating systems is that one has no choice but for their computer to be constantly talking to who knows who on the internet, all the time... even if you login and just sit there and not run any internet-facing apps. I could log into my laptop, launch MS Turd, write a paper, and all the while my OS (and MS Turd) would be doing who knows what, at the mercy of who knows what security threats.

I know I could disable WiFi. For a while. Eventually my OS would start complaining.

I guess a linux-based OS in which I lock down network access to (for example) only a web browser. Then at least it's my own hand.