as for FOSS i can get on board with the open source but not with free part

there is no reason why anything should be free

that's communism bro

the ONE TIME payment of $100 or so for Windows is really not bad at all. that's like one tank of gas in a pickup truck, and it will serve you for 5 - 10 years.

if i'm spending thousands on hardware i may as well spend another $100 to $200 on windows than use some inferior OS because it's free ...

frankly it's so cheap i didn't even bother pirating it for my last build ... though pirating windows is certainly not hard if you are morally opposed to paying Microsoft ...