Privacy concerns over Microsoft are nothing. If you've use any Google product in the last 10 years, they've been harvesting your information. If you have a GMail account, they scan through all your e-mails. Same with Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Apple etc etc. And most websites use tracking cookies to see how you're surfing. This is nothing new. Doing a quick search on the internet, or going through the Windows settings, you can find how to disable all the telemetry collection and stop them from collecting data, most other products and services don't give you this option. Besides, what MS is collecting is telemetry, not personal data.
If you want 100% privacy, the only way to do it is to install an OS on a computer, and
NEVER connect it to the internet, ever.
For someone wanting to get away from Windows, I highly suggest Ubuntu Gnome, or like someone else mentioned, Mint.
Personally, I like the new anniversary update that came out recently, as well as all the new features it brought. Since I own a Windows phone, it became even better. When I'm at home and my cell phone is connected to my WiFi, my text messages also show up as notifications on my computer, so I can read and reply to text messages right from my laptop