Re: I can't recommend it.
I am a Microsoft customer.
I am a Microsoft partner.
I am a Microsoft Certified Professional.
I am a Microsoft blogger.
I've written some pretty damned explicit things on the topic and asked some very direct questions. The response always goes like this:
Me: [Concerns listed in the article]
Microsoft: "We are constantly working to improve our compliance!"
Me: "You compliance doesn't change your legal obligations. I want the ability to run Office 365/Azure/etc as part of a push-button-simple on-premises solution, or the ability for hosted providers in my own nation (who do not have business ties with, employees in or use servers in the USA) to provide me Office 365/Azure/etc such that my data is never, ever legally exposed to the government of the USA."
Microsoft: "We work hard to provide top notch technological solutions, but we cannot meet every edge case requirement."
I call bollocks. They have a deployable "Hosted Azure" solution as part of Server 2012 R2. No hosted Office 365. No hosted skydrive. Just a user portal that backs onto System Center and Server to allow users to spin up some VMs. Huzzah! They've finally caught up to VMware vCloud Request manager! Be awed by their might.
This is no different than my circular arguments with Microsoft (or hardened Microsoft fanboys) regarding Windows 8.
Me: [List of usability complaints we're all familiar with]
Microsoft "Microsoft has worked hard to incorporate touch as a first-class input mechanism and has enhanced productivity on all devices by providing a common interface regardless of where you use your computing device!"
Me: "Touch is not a benefit. I use a keyboard and mouse for [long list of activities and reasons]. What I want is for you to make using the keyboard and mouse better than it was in the previous version, especially for those people (like me) who are mouse-driven, not keyboard shortcut mavens. For [list of reasons] I do things like use windowed remote desktop sessions that don't pass through ctrl-alt-esx/Windows key, so your 'just use Windows-key and start typing' marketing verbiage is simple malarky.
I also realise that with enough effort and additional third-party applications I can make Windows 8 as easy to use as previous versions, but what I want is for you to release a product that actually makes how I work better, less irritating and easier out of the box. Without having to buy additional hardware or third-party software beyond what I already have. I have a massive investment in my existing estate and if you want money out of me then I want to make that existing investment work more smoothly and efficiently for my real-world use. I don't want to have to piss around for hours on every new install I touch just to make things as usable as they were even one generation of your product ago."
Microsoft: "We work hard to provide top notch technological solutions, but we cannot meet every edge case requirement."
The really assholish ones simply are even funner.
Me: "Man, Windows 8 is ass-tastic".
MS Fanboy: "It works for me, so it's not ass-tastic."
Me: "It doesn't work for me without way too much third-party customization. Is choice too much to ask for?"
MS Fanboy: "Well it works for me, so you're not the majority. The majority is all that matters. They shouldn't be giving you choice because you need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. You need to be like the majority. We know that this is what people want because Microsoft took metrics on that. It's science. Anyone who disagrees is an edge case who thinks they are a lot more important than they really are. There are only a handful of people who don't like Microsoft's design, because metrics tell us what the majority wants and we should all strive to be like the majority. Humanity can't afford to be held back by giving choice to the few. Microsoft did the right thing and you just need to learn to live with it."
Me: "Fuck this, I'm using Linux."
MS Fanboy: "See? You're a nobody nerd that is too full of ego, pride and hating the man to admit that Microsoft has designed a better way to work. You need to shave your neckbeard and jsut learn how to use things the way Microsoft designed things, you'd be happier then."
Me: "I can't hear you over the sound of my keyboard as I'm actually getting shit done over here."
Long story short: it doesn't matter if it is about privacy or user interfaces. Microsoft doesn't have a forum for the disenfranchised to voice their opinions and gives zero fucks about those who don't fit it's very middle-of-the-bell-curve, American-centric view of the universe. They will design what they design and the rest of the world can go hang. Since the majority of multinationals are USian in nature, they have the planet by the business-document-format balls and that's all they need to keep on keeping on.
Where there is no requirement to care, Microsoft doesn't. But everyone is on the edge of the bell curve at some point and the more narrowly you tailor to the centre of that curve the more people fall outside the design lines. Microsoft and Microsoft fanboys complain about the "religious hatred" that greets them at every turn. I submit that the head --> desk experiences of nearly every person on the planet who has at one point or another found themselves on the edge of the bell curve with Microsoft refusing to give any fucks might perhaps be an explanation.
So I'll keep on being a refusnik until my needs are discovered by MS metrics to be no longer colour outside the lines. What else can a body do?