I don't really like Windows but it's for my gaming PC. My laptop does run linux. I don't know much of anything about 11 and whether it's better or not.
As long as you don't mind the task bar being glued to the bottom of your screen, I think Windows 11 is a net improvement over 10. The new features in WSL are particularly cool.
personally I like a windows 11 for my main gaming focused desktop and arch linux with KDE for my laptop windows 10 just feels like a less finished windows 11 to me now
Windows 11 is supported longer and will receive patches for longer than Windows 10. In fact, I believe Windows 10 is only supported for a few more years. To ensure that you do not have an unpatched (therefore insecure) operating system on the internet, you will either migrate to a newer version of Windows or to a different operating system eventually.
That all being said, Windows 11 was commonly referred to as being faster than Windows 10 on the same hardware. The largest gripes are that Windows 11 has very strict system requirements (therefore not officially working on most computers) and that Windows 11 has a different user interface (taking away some things people like). Windows 10 or 11 are operating systems which basically need to be installed on an SSD so be sure to consider upgrading to that if you have not done so already.
I'm pretty sure that an upgrade to Windows 11 can be reverted and you can go back to Windows 10 if necessary. Still, I would back up any valuable data before experimenting.
On the Linux side of the world, Steam can be installed on Linux and devices such as the Steam Deck exist. Depending on what games you play on your gaming PC, Linux could be an option.
The differences between Windows 10 and Linux are greater than the differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11. In other words, Windows 11 may be a bit better or worse (depending on your opinion) but it isn't majorly better or worse.
Oh yeah absolutely the only tinkering I've really needed to do is make sure I installed steam properly (NixOS) and a little bit of jiggery pokery for battle.net games (though battle.net is actually really good, you just give it a path to the game files and away you go)
Never tried mint but weirdly enough NixOS has been the easiest distro for me so far, haven't run into any weird bugs in drivers or my touchpad not working after hibernation etc like I have in Ubuntu based distros
My laptop had a lot of issues with stability while gaming. I tried win10 and the issues were completely gone.... My new desktop came with win11 and has no stability issues 🤯
No <-- The actual post Honestly have experienced quite a bit issues with Windows rather than Windows 10, not to mention the design wise they went with Windows 11… its terrible not to mention several issues that has happened (couple of them not fixed as of yet)
imo if you have a compatible machine (& prefer the taskbar at the bottom of the screen), then yes. it's essentially just 10 with some kernel/core updates & a new ui that's much better.
OP, thanks for being the sacrificial lamb here. Now I know never to ask a question about Windows if I don't want to hear irrelevant opinions from Linux snobs. Sorry you didn't get a lot of real answers.
Lemmy as a platform is built on FOSS. There are going to be Linux/FOSS advocates all over here.
I say this as primarily a windows admin who recently started diving into Linux.
The "real answer" is that Windows 10 is supported until October 2024. You have until then to make your decision or switch to an alternative because after that, W10 won't be getting more updates and you risk running an unsecure system at that point.
There's a difference between advocating for Linux in its own threads or where especially relevant (no problem!) and every Windows question getting answered with just "use Linux instead!" (aggravating and unhelpful).
I've certainly seen worse than this thread in this regard, however.
Honestly, I completely agree with the sentiment, although in this particular case OP just asked "upgrade to 11 or Linux?" While indicating that they already have some degree of comfort with Linux after having it on a laptop, so the Linux advocates in this thread have a bit of a leg to stand on in this case.
However: when there are questions like "how do I do X in Y software on Z operating system" it's completely valid to be frustrated with the evangelists who come out of the woodwork and say "just use this other OS" because it completely misses the point of the question.
And that goes for Windows, Mac, and Linux evangelists.
On a super recent Intel CPU with BIG.little architecture, I believe 11 has better scheduling. One day when games start to make use for it, 11 has DirectStorage and I believe 10 doesn't?
If you have an ultrawide display, you might appreciate the start button in the middle.
And that's about all the pros of Windows 11. Now for the cons: They've greatly dumbed down the context menu, so now you have to click the "more options" or whatever button nearly every time. Also it's possible that they fixed it a already but when I tried 11 near launch, the context menu took about 2 seconds to appear. Zen 2 CPU, 32 GB of decent DDR4 and an NVMe boot drive so it should be snappy And it's Windows. I right click on EVERYTHING because I'm not used to the weird-ass non-unix console. Gimme right click -> 7-zip -> extract to (subfolder), not right click -> wait 2 seconds -> show more options -> 7-zip -> extract to (subfolder)
But overall, Windows 11 isn't all that different. There are some UI changes, but it's surviveable.
I too am in the "Only stuck on Windows for gaming" crowd. My previous jaunt going full Linux was by far the most successful, but Nvidia's poor Linux support and performance once again led me back to the Microsoft world on Desktop.
re: context menu
Don't trust me here, or any post giving commands like this. You can search for steps to revert the context menu to pre-simplified versions. You can do the same as this command manually using regedit and finding the correct keys/etc... After this, reboot and you have your menu back to a usable state.
I know it's possible, but honestly, I just went back to 10 because I wanted to reinstall anyway (among other reasons, to greatly reduce my Windows partition size, which could technically be done in place, but it's nicer when you don't need to concern yourself with the physical data layout on the drive - I don't wanna defrag my SSD lol).
It's entirely possible I'll quit using Windows for good before the 2025 deadline even hits. Linux gaming is just getting pretty good these days.
Sure, but nearly every Linux desktop environment I've tried has been great out of the box and configuration is presented to you in a settings application rather than in registry, where you have to google how to do anything.
Gaming on Linux has gotten much better in the recent years. Honestly with the exception of games that use anit-cheat software, most games play just fine on Linux systems. I've abandoned windows, but my PC at work has windows 11 on it. I feels snappier and definitely looks better than windows 10. I'd say upgrade, but that's going to be your preference (I'd go Linux unless you play mostly fps or competitive games)
It's honestly just ten but better. Easier on your system, less superfluous animations, and it's organized a bit better. Most windows 10 apps are compatible out of the box as well.
Eventually, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10. Sure, it will be around for a while, but I just assume upgrade and keep up with the latest version.
That being said, I do mainly use Linux. I just use Windows for gaming. I know Linux has improved a lot lately for running games, I just haven't tried it out for that purpose yet.
You know what, I am going to let you figure that one out for yourself. A lot of us already pointed out Linux, but if you're asking that question, then you're probably reaching the point that you are considering the switch already. Everyone has their own breaking point with Windows, Microsoft will NEVER reduce their ads/telemetries on Windows going forward, it only going to get worse.
Good luck! And we'll see you on Linux in a few years.
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