They never actually said this. Some MS Engineer did and the press ran with it.

I would classify them as full democracies but if you want hard numbers I would check your countries score here

Mailbox.org is great! Has many benefits and can be fairly cheap. (A few € a month)

Just make a proper threat level analysis. Are you a journalist or politically exposed person in a non-democratic or semi democratic system?
No?
Are you in a key position of a company or agency providing (for) critical infrastructure?
No?
Are you just a little shit, trolling on the internet?*
Yes? Maybe just dial that back.

Verdict: You are of no interest for a state sponsored Spy Software or some script kiddy trying to wreck your day.

*Hypothetical situation. Does not necessarily apply to the OP.

That sucks so much. I have such a cool vein scanner built in to unlock my laptop jedi style and I can’t use it because Fujitsu decided to not add support for Linux 🙄

Yes-ish However the differences are not as big as you think. While this might be true for the luxury brands the “common” brands do share parts, often quite crucial ones too. (Think headlamps, think servos) Also they started to borrow design aspects from each other. They are not identical but certain lines do look very similar on a quick glance

Also currently trying to get NIS2/27001 compliant before the October deadline hits? ^^

I mean this is sort of like what the new NIS2 Regulations tries to achieve. Make critical infrastructure producers and maintainers aware and force them to treat their infrastructure accordingly.

Nervous sweating from the Audi-Bentley-Ducati-Lamborghini-Seat-Skoda-Volkswagen-Porsche-Conglomerate known as “Volkswagen AG”

I can’t wait to finally have a fucking hiking emoji! Fucking mandela effect