Basically, install Windows as you normally would, but when asked for Time and Currency format, select English (World) instead of your country.
Then let the installer do its thing. Eventually, you will see a window with an ice cream cone on the floor with the words “Something went wrong” and the error message “OOBEREGION.” This cryptic message means that the “out of box experience” (OOBE) didn’t launch because it didn’t know which region to launch.
Click Skip, though, and Windows will install just fine. You won’t be prompted to buy Microsoft 365, you won’t be prompted to pay for a OneDrive subscription, and your Start menu won’t be cluttered with apps.
You can have a preference without being passionate or evangelical about the thing you prefer.
I feel an operating system is a really weird thing to be passionate about anyway. And judging others for their personal preference in OS says more about the person doing the judging if you ask me…
I find merit in each of the major operating systems I use: Windows 11, Mac OS 13, Ubuntu, Debian, Manjaro, Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS, and Alpine Linux - and those are just the ones I run currently. In the past I used OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, HPUX, Slackware, SUSE, Fedora, Redhat, Windows 3.11/95/98Se/2000/XP/7/10, and Mac OS 9 through 12 (with the exception of Cheetah and Mavericks).
But to act like you’re better than someone else, and make it clear you think less of them, because of your choice in operating system is telling. As mentioned else where ITT it’s like the console vs PC master race crap you get in gaming communities - it says more about the insecurity of the person trying to elevate themselves than anything else.