If they care they sure don't act like it. Microsoft is clearly squeezing Windows users for whatever revenue is left. Nothing else explains the user hostility, backwards compatibility breaks and unending advertising and data collection.
They like that candy crush is pre-installed and that Windows shows them random spam news articles that they find interesting.
I hate it and use a Mac, but I suspect most users aren't like you and me.
They don't know the difference.
Take a look around and most people under 30 seem to have a MacBook. At least here in my area of the United States.
I have 9 nieces and nephews, plus some neighbor friends that have kids. Of them, maybe 2 or 3 use iPads. The ones that have laptops (other than school provided) have them for PC gaming, and they run Windows. I guess I'm in a different area of the U.S. from you, based on my anecdotal data.
nothing to "administer"
the platform is curated
it does what they need
it runs on battery for a long time
Intel (and AMD) needs a good consumer OS to keep it relevant in the next decades. It's what keeps the DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS on x86, and therefore use x86 server architectures. Either that, or it is a commodity ARM business.
Microsoft has never been up to the task of a good consumer OS. Intel always should have had multiple irons in the fire, and with Linux they had a built-in weaponized competing consumer OS. They delegated all leadership to Microsoft rather than keep irons in the fire. WHich is ... ok ... when MS is the big monopoly on the block. That doesn't exist anymore.
If Apple pre-iPhone produced OSX out of probably less than 100 or so engineers... Intel could have done that with 1/1,000th of their quarterly revenue. Or less! It's just spitshining an existing, working kernel, and adding a bunch of testing for the cacaphonous PC hardware/peripheral market that they were already at the nexus of.
Apple had revenues of 6 billion in 2001, the first year of OSX. Intel make 26.5 billion in "a bleak financial year".
It's not too late! It's still peanuts to do a spitpolish of Linux and do hardware testing/driver development for desktop linux! AMD or Intel (or a shared foundation) could do it! It could probably happen within a month. Partner or acquire ubuntu, or Suse, or ... anyone.
This isn't just insurance. Intel has had DECADES of frustration getting Windows to fully use/support its hardware and CPU features. A lot of the time Windows would hold people hostage by waiting a major OS release (like for USB) before supporting something.
Not with Linux. Boom, your stuff is supported as soon as you integrate it into your distro.
This is the path to a key thing that Intel doesn't realize it lost: relevance. Microsoft has decided Windows isn't really relevant. That was Intel's only path to relevance.
All the things they wanted to stay relevant in: x86 on phone, SSDs in PCs, Optane, etc. The path to that relevance was having a usable consumer OS. That you had good control over. You get your hardware demo'd and supported at maximum speed.
Don't like Linux? Well fine, pick up OpenBSD, or whatever remnant of BeOS is out there. RedoxOS? whatever.
Gelsinger probably is following a path of "get engineering" fixed. Well, ok, good strategy given how bad the MBAs fucked up everything. But Intel isn't the big daddy and that doesn't really solve the problems, it just mitigates the biggest bleeding.
Intel needs SOFTWARE RELEVANCE. Intel does not have that anymore. Intel still has the resources and marketing power to achieve that. THE WINDOW IS CLOSING FAST. Regain software relevance.
Just do SOMETHING.
Intel is in real serious trouble, and so is AMD
Intel has a lot more denialism and inertia in their management to fully embrace / not undermine a legit ARM product.
[1] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/events/accelerated.h...