They still do. There’s so much shit in Windows 10/11that could phone home and shut down your install if you don’t have a valid license, but Microsoft doesn’t actually give a shit if you have a license or not. They just want to make sure you have their botnet installed and not any other OS.
Timd to update your criteria, friend. Seagate hasn’t been top of the failure stack for like 8 years now. The 3TB scandal era is long since passed. Now it’s WD who has been shitting on quality control, sending out faulty SSD’s that wipe user data, bait-and-switching HDD customers with a cheaper, much worse performing technology (SMR) WITHOUT TELLING THEM, them basically blowing corporate raspberries at everyone when people complain.
While i agree they were the best, HGST also hasn’t even existed as a non-WD product for years…