I’ve seen a lot of complaints and Windows 11 on Lemmy, (ads in the OS, intrusive AI, SSD damage, privacy issues, etc.) I’ve gone to Linux on my laptop, but I don’t believe I can do this for my daily driver desktop. So if I’m forced to update to 11, I’d like to do so in the “safest possible manner.” Any guidance would be appreciated.
You can use Chris Titus tool to make a debloated usb before even having to install it. You download the official .iso from MS, and use his tool instead of Rufus to burn a debloated minimal version to a bootable usb.
If one wants to use Windows for some stupid reason, this tool I would second. Otherwise, join the Free Software side and use Linux.