I have been using Windows 11 pro since it came out and it’s fine. I’m not sure why windows is obsessed with trying to replace their older, functional menus with the new style settings apps (which usually just lead back to the old style ones) but I never get reinstalled bloat, ads, or anything remotely like people are complaining about.
For reference I do powershell for a living and use ArchLinux at work, and have windows 11 and arch machines at home, but use windows the most at home.
For privacy it’s shit, it collects a bunch of data that’s sent to MS. It also serves text ads on the lock screen, which might annoy you.
They also push their own products too much, like Bing AI and Edge, and sometimes an update can mess with the default apps, wich is annoying.
If you don’t care about those things it’s fine, doesn’t get too much in the way of you doing what you want to do most of the time. I use it mainly because of gaming, but I can’t tell you much about its performance because I have a powerful PC so everything runs just fine.
The start menu was dumbed down recently to a poor KDE clone, but I personally don’t mind since I wasn’t using it anyway.
I guess I was asking broadly because last I heard anything about is was shortly after release when there was so many missing compatibilities, lots of things broken and unfinished, and everyone was hands down saying don’t touch it with a ten foot pole. It sounds like it has gotten a little better, enough for some people to be fine with it, but by the majority of the replies it sounds like it still isn’t “done” or is never going to be. All your information was helpful and I haven’t read elsewhere so thanks!
It’s fine for Windows. I highly recommend coughing up the money for the pro version so you actually control some of the OS, since MS decided to remove things like the group policy editor from regular users. You’ll need that if you don’t want Windows shoving updates down your throat all the time.
I like the UI more then Windows 10. I don’t know why reddit had such a hard on for 10 but 11 is much faster and more responsive than 10 was.
From a non hardcore Foss pov (I use linux on an old machine to tinker, but I don’t enjoy it. It takes too much energy to get random shit working. My old random Bluetooth usb dongle I had laying around was not compatible with linux? Took me a fucking week to figure that out… ): w11 is as good as windows has ever been.
It does exactly what you want and lets your os mainly stay out of your way of doing other stuff.
All the people complaining about ads and shit: I use Vivaldi and turned off notifications in the side panel. I basically never notice I use windows, except that stuff just works. No fucking around with drivers, random old usb devices just work. All apps I download just work. Never need any serious OS troubleshooting for daily use.
Maybe windows spies on certain things I do? That sucks balls. But I also enjoy watching tiktok on the loo and I still use Facebook to connect with relatives all over the world. It sucks, but I’ve taken my peace with that fact that true privacy online is gone for average Joe. In the end it’s just metadata. Who cares that instagram knows I like to look at ladies underwear…
“this mentality” meaning they want to spend their free time using their computer instead of troubleshooting problems?? Computers are a hobby, you can’t fault people for not wanting to go through the pain of learning a brand new operating system just to play some games
I guess my mentality is exactly what my mechanic wants because I’m not interested enough in cars to learn how to change my own brakes
I think the above comment is mostly referring to the consumers complacency about their privacy being completely eroded and not caring that they are being taken advantage of.
I agreed with the guy you answered, then I read your comment and I must admit that you’re right.
I need to use windows at work and hate it every couple minutes, but it’s simply true that I have to tinker around a lot with my Linux machines. I have to tinker more with my windows machine, but that’s because I really dislike the windows way and want to do things like I do on my Linux systems.
I am still committed to the idea that Gnu/Linux is a vastly superior system compared to windows, especially so for devs, but it isn’t always easy.
The viewpoint of just “using” a PC is something I’ve mostly lost as it seems.
Is windows really “easier” for non technical people? Or are they just used to it and switching would be too much effort?
How? If you just install windows software and follow the installer, it just works no? I’ve never ran into issues using software written for windows. There might be issues with the software itself, but I’ve never had issues with the installation procedure.
It’s about what software you install. Big commercial projects are ok, and anything that offers an MSI installer works too. But it gets really weird once you want to install something that does not offer a dedicated installer.
Instead of every program needing their own installer, there should be a central installer that can install most software.
On my Linux machines, installing things is a matter of a single command. The program downloads, installs, integrates the software of my choosing without me having to search the web for some installer (that could also be malware). If the thing I want only offers an executable, that works too, as I just put it in /use/local/bin.
Another thing is usage in the terminal. On windows, pretty much every program has its own folder. That sucks, because the terminal gets a list of executables depending on the PATH variable. That means I end up manually adding A LOT of folders to the PATH.
No. I reverted back to Windows 10 Pro for my gaming machine after Windows 11 Pro prompted me that it was “international bubble tea day”. Don’t get me wrong, I love bubble tea, I just don’t care for these distractions when I’m trying to use my PC.
Use tiny11 builder from ntdevlabs on GitHub and Chris Titus’s windows toolkit (from GitHub too) to clean things up further. But if you are putting so much effort might as well use linux
I got an ad even though I have all ad service things turned off. It came via my messages tray. It was for some screenshot app Microsoft wanted me to use.
If this doesn’t answer your question, I can’t be of much help.
Add comment