No, he doesn't really even want OTHER people to support those platforms. A fork was made specifically because the original developer was quite hostile, which he tried to prevent, despite the license for the project.
Anecdotally a lot of people I know, especially older people, don't know how to properly use the internet without google. Google is the default search engine on chrome, the most popular browser, and most of these people don't know how to change the default.
I have a Surface Pro (2017), which comes with W10 Pro by default, and I can confidently say that Windows 10 Pro still nags the user.
The most prominent example is the full screen nags that, although can be skipped, use dark patterns to trick the user into changing settings.
Since I use windows with a local user account, instead of a Microsoft account, it often nags me to switch. Even when using a Microsoft account to sign in it still nags to set a pin to log in, instead of just using a password. I haven't found any setting to disable these permanently.
Windows 10 LTSC is probably the best option, although I haven't tried it personally.
What in that article specifically makes you not trust Thorn? They seem to me like they're trying to do good work -- preventing child exploitation -- that necessarily involves partnering with organizations whose values won't always exactly line up with theirs.
It is a joke, sort of. George Hotz of comma.ai wants someone to start a Google alternative and charge a monthly fee instead of invading user privacy. He made the hammer.lol page on a live stream last week.
