Well, I went ahead and switched to Linux as my primary (bare metal) OS on my main desktop rig. Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon edition. It's speedy and useful. I' love it.
My OS is not spying on me, my updates and reboots are fully under my control, all OS features are fully enabled/available all of the time (every version is the Ultimate/Enterprise/Professional), and there is no license fee!