@David
And what's remarkable about that is that GNU/Linux, like you said, has 20%, that's an incredible level now and is indication enough to know that in the future, almost everyone will have switched to it.  It's inevitable because the makers of the commercial OS's are just milking the public for as much as they can while they still can.  The only thing they're interested in is your data, because the data about you is the most valuable asset to them.  If every one suddenly stopped buying their OS, they'd still be trying to throw them at you for free, because without it, your valuable data isn't handed to them on a plate.

Commercial OS's are effectively a data-mining server to them - you use - they gather.  Clouds, for example, are something that exist for a reason, it has nothing to do with your convenience and everything to do with them being able to monitor you and control what you can and cannot do.

@Doric
First off, I'm no geek, I'm a guy with common sense, and no one said Debian was your only option, either, it's just the option I chose and can highly recommend.  Buying a Raspberry Pi and installing the default Debian OS on it is a fantastic way for anyone to remove their fear of using a GNU/Linux system.  The thing costs peanuts and is likely the most important purchase they could make, they just don't realise it.

It's laughable that after all you just said in your post, that you have the nerve to call me "paranoid".  From what you just said, you're every bit as "paranoid" as I supposedly am.  If you're that paranopid then you might as well join us full-time and use a sensible OS rather than try unsuccessfully to hack a commercial one.  Nothing you do on a Commercial OS will stop it sharing data about you - the solution is simple - don't use a closed commercial OS.

If you're that clued-up on these things, then you should know, by default, to avoid the commercial OS's.  And as for the stuff they're data-mining about you, dear god, you really need to do some serious web-based research on the subject and avoid advertiser-funded sources of news.

There's a saying "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" - and Crapple, Farcebook Googlespook, Microdick and Twatter are as big as they get.  Bottom line is you either wise-up pronto, or it's your data that will be falling along with them when the (now classic) inevitable happens.  As is common knowlage nowadays, the price people will pay is going to be direcly linked to how much data they managed to milk from them, and the more they keep up the commercial OS usage, the more the milkage will be.

They can't do anything with what they don't have, it's that simple - honest it is.