5 ms·

Switched Back to Windows After over 10 Years on Linux

35 points by thunderbong 2y ago

dmonitor 2y ago
Use whatever operating system you want, but I can't imagine being a Windows "fan". It's like being a fan of traffic and billboards. Linux has community ownership and MacOS has the weird Apple design quirks that you can learn to love. Windows is something you trudge through just to get it to do what you want without shoving ads in your face. It was not created with love.
- phendrenad2 2y ago
  Hi. I'm a Windows fan. I use Windows 11. I experience no "traffic and billboards" or "trudging" or "ads in my face". I get it - it's "common knowledge" that Windows is full of "spyware" and "ads" and "popups" but I expected better from Hacker News posters. At least do your own research! Spinning up a Windows VM and letting it run for a week costs nothing. I'm sure HN users can handle that.
  - int_19h 2y ago
    It's common knowledge because it's true. Ads in the Start Menu, incessant pestering to switch to Edge etc. Source: I've been using Windows as my primary desktop for well over 20 years until finally switching to Mac recently because I'm tired of constantly having to look for workarounds to disable all this crap.
    - boplicity 2y ago
      > workarounds Ironically, that used to be called "customizable."
  - dmonitor 2y ago
    I actually daily drive Windows for work (mandatory). It's the source of my seething anger. Just a couple days ago I was greeted with a fullscreen "UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. EXPERIENCE COPILOT" ad on login.
    - phendrenad2 2y ago
      > "I can't imagine being a Windows "fan". It's like being a fan of traffic and billboards. Windows is something you trudge through just to get it to do what you want without shoving ads in your face." > I actually daily drive Windows for work (mandatory). It's the source of my seething anger. Just a couple days ago I was greeted with a fullscreen "UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. EXPERIENCE COPILOT" ad on login. > It's common knowledge because it's true. Ads in the Start Menu, incessant pestering to switch to Edge etc. I'm putting the above quotes in this order in order to remind people that I'm simply explaining how it's possible to be a Windows fan. When Windows 11 preinstalled Edge, as luck would have it, I was happy with it and wasn't one of the... perhaps XX% of users who are adamant about using Chrome or Firefox. Nor am I adamant about using Windows 10 instead of upgrading, because my PC is capable of running Windows 11 and I don't find the arguments for sticking with Windows 10 personally important, just like I don't find the arguments for using Chrome or Firefox personally important. This is my lived experience, please don't try to condescend to me and tell me I'm wrong for having different priorities in life (in the small chance that anyone was thinking of doing that).
- scrollop 2y ago
  but I can't imagine being a Windows "fan" S/he specifically writes "Although I’m not a big Wind7ows fan, it does what it needs to, and that’s a relief."
  - 0points 2y ago
    I refers to the writer, not the subject :-)
- tyleo 2y ago
  Agreed. I feel like every OS has its flaws. My sense of Windows is that installations deteriorate. My cursor currently doesn’t show in VSCode after an update. My ‘Downloads’ folder also disappeared recently and everything now downloads to my desktop. I’ve learned to reinstall the OS from scratch every year or so on Windows and that resolves my issues.
  - exe34 2y ago
    > I’ve learned to reinstall the OS from scratch every year or so on Windows and that resolves my issues that's amazing, I haven't reinstalled my laptop OS since 2016, when I had to replace the SSD. it updated to the latest nixos without fail every time since.
  - kyriakos 2y ago
    I don't remember last time I had to reinstall Windows unless upgrading in place is considered reinstalling. I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why. Windows has bugs some very annoying but so does every other OS I used. With Linux it's very likely you'll find an obscure forum post that explains how to work around it (unless it's nvidia related on a laptop) but with Windows you are stuck until Microsoft decides to fix it. Same applies to MacOS though.
    - bb88 2y ago
      > I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why. I believe it comes down to popularity. The more popular something is, the more corner cases your OS has to deal with as people write software that apparently does weird unforeseen combinations to the underlying OS. I've had to reinstall linux several times because of bad AMD/nvidia driver installs. On windows, a windows update recently disabled my AMD video driver. AMD and NVidia drivers have notoriously terrible histories when it comes to the linux kernel. But with Windows/Mac there's 10,000 times more crap like this. Particularly on windows. Mac has locked a few more things down, so it should be more stable, but I still hear stories of people that do reinstalls on it occasionally.
    - thefz 2y ago
- pandemic_region 2y ago
  Early windows versions were actually very well designed to not get in your way and be both minimalistic and usable. Things went south after win2k, any OS 'feature' added after that is considered bloat in my book.
  - lobsterthief 2y ago
    I dunno, Windows XP was pretty great.
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    I am not sure I'd agree with you on that - they were a lot smaller than Windows now, but it was never minimalistic in any sense. Even Windows 1 incorporated several programs (Write, Paint, that cards thing, etc) that, while convenient, wasn't exactly minimal. Every version added something extra (overlapping windows, Program Manager, a trashcan and a desktop-as-a-place) without removing anything (except tiling windows, which weren't fashionable back then, or practical at VGA resolutions). Windows now is a nightmare of layers that seem to go all the way down to NT 4. I wouldn't mind that, but the way the GUI inherits the theme from whatever generation it was first built on creates a jarring and confusing experience. I respect backwards compatibility, but I would suggest Microsoft looked at IBM's MVS and its descendants to learn how it's properly done.
  - woleium 2y ago
    win2k didn’t have bluetooth or dynamic disks. Both are useful and not bloat
- forrestthewoods 2y ago
  Weird comment. Who said anything about being a fan? I wouldn’t say I’m a “fan” of windows. But I definitely hate my life when I’m forced to use Linux.
  - dmonitor 2y ago
    That subreddit is for windows "fans"
    - asdfasdf1 2y ago
      says who? it is just a windows 11 subreddit. Users are not the same as "fans".
- aagha 2y ago
  Just buy a copy of Pro for $89 and nearly all these complaints go away.
  - jasomill 2y ago
    Workarounds exist, but official support for disabling telemetry[1] and "consumer experiences"[2] requires Windows Enterprise or Education. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-system#allowtelemetry https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/... [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-experience#allowwindowsconsumerfeatures https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/...
  - binkHN 2y ago
    You couldn't be more wrong. Windows 11 is the reason I left Windows for Linux, after MANY years, and I was running the Pro version.
- runjake 2y ago
  I think Windows is created with a lot of love. I know several past and present Windows engineers and they are passionate about the product. But there’s a whole lot of MBAs forcing user-hostile “features” (eg. Ads and crapware) on top of it. Then there’s the backwards compatibility thing, which is a double-edged sword.
- 7e 2y ago
  I mean, the Microsoft logo is a bunch of squares. That says it all.
- thefz 2y ago
  Disclaimer: Linux on all my personal machines, Windows on work ones. I feel the most attrition using MacOS for working. The UI is cumbersome with too many animations and things that get in the way; Finder is nowadays idiotic making accessing the file system a chore. Windows in a corporate setting is OK. It does not get in the way, at least.
esskay 2y ago
Threads like this are just rage bait. - Anyone claiming one OS is the "best" is often either incredibly misinformed, or intentionally trolling. - Use whatever OS does the job you need it to do, nobody cares. They're all great/suck/win/lose.
- graemep 2y ago
  It also makes some weird claims such as "The constant need to tweak and fix things when something breaks has become too frustrating". its hardly typical.
pkulak 2y ago
I don't know why folks think Windows is easier to maintain than Linux. Sure, if you're running Gentoo maybe, but Bluefin is the most hands-off and stable operating system I've ever encountered; and I've used ChromeOS. I've never seen a Windows install over a year old that didn't have ad popups, corrupted drivers, 100 apps starting and running in the background at startup, or was just slow as all hell. Every one of these posts boils down to "I wanted to play Fortnite, now I can, that makes me happy." Sure, you've now given some random company access to your machine at the kernel level, but if you wanted to make that tradeoff, good for you. It's not a terribly interesting take though.
- mardef 2y ago
  Everytime I read someone saying Linux is so easy, they name yet another distro I haven't heard of yet. I'm squarely in the "use what works for you camp", but it seems like people forget their learning curve for what they are now used to. My last foray into Linux included browsers that couldn't play videos, audio codec issues, and tons of other things that weren't worth the effort. I bet that's not the case for most, but that was my experience. My windows systems have been running for years, with multiple hardware upgrades, and I have none of the issues you mention. Maybe it's because I don't play Fortnite? I have seen trashed Windows, Linux, and Mac computers over the last few decades. It tends to depend on the user much more than the OS, and you're obviously going to find more windows users than any other desktop system.
  - ASalazarMX 2y ago
    Ubuntu is mainstream and nearly flawless these days in modern (but not bleeding edge) equipment. Veterans don't mention it because it has snaps, but regular users couldn't care less, they just want something they can use for their daily needs. No need to name niche distros.
    - rbanffy 2y ago
      I've been using Ubuntu and Fedora and I LOVE the simple and straightforward Gnome shell I have on both. It's useful out of the box and that's perfect for me. It's very Mac like in its way to promote a sane default rather than endless configurations. I don't want to waste time changing the screen background.
bsnnkv 2y ago
Not a "fan" by any means, but I am a full time Windows + NixOS in WSL user and for me it's really hard to beat this level of general "it just works" plus an officially supported Rust crate covering pretty much the entire Win32 API surface to make the DE do (mostly) whatever I want[1]. [1]: https://youtu.be/5XVG9dL5XY0?si=yBJZ7ANzYMnUi7B8 https://youtu.be/5XVG9dL5XY0?si=yBJZ7ANzYMnUi7B8
pandemic_region 2y ago
I can imagine Windows being an ok-ish work OS once you manage to switch off all the assistants, ad pop-ups, cloud logins, password savers, home pages etc. But then, what's the difference still with a normal user focused Linux distro?
TekMol 2y ago
I wouldn't even know how to go about using Windows. On Debian, there is a universe of software in the repos. I can install anything I need with just a apt install <something> and use all these programs in concert with pipes like dothis somefile | dothat | thendothat I was wondering how all that works on Windows these days and typed "How do I apt install ffmpeg on Windows" into Perplexity. It gave me this drama: Download FFmpeg from the official website or a trusted source Extract the downloaded file to a folder, such as C:\FFmpeg Add the FFmpeg bin directory (C:\FFmpeg\bin) to the Windows PATH environment variable Holy moly. I can't imagine going through this "hunt it down, make sure it is from a trusted source, manually tie it into your system" for every little tool I want to quickly use. UPDATE: Thanks for the replies. Looks like Windows has a repository and now too and you can install stuff from it via a program called winget.
- phendrenad2 2y ago
  On Windows, if you want to use open-source command-line tools, it's best to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which gives you a full Linux environment running in a VM that's tightly-coupled with the Windows OS (you can run windows .exe files from a linux terminal and they magically work). However, the Windows Way is to typically avoid CLI tools and use a GUI program. For instance, you might use Handbrake instead of using ffmpeg directly. These two rules solve the following problem: > Holy moly. I can't imagine going through this "hunt it down, make sure it is from a trusted source, manually tie it into your system" for every little tool I want to quickly use
- tokinonagare 2y ago
  Just use winget if you can a command line style install. It's strange (to not use a stronger word) to expect apt to work on Windows instead of the native alternative. It's like if someone complained explorer.exe does not work on a GNU/Linux distribution.
- wumeow 2y ago
  winget install ffmpeg
- dgrin91 2y ago
seltzered_ 2y ago
A counter example by Ed Zitron, buying a popular cheap laptop off of amazon running windows ( https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/ Dec. 2024 - scroll down): > "When I opened the start bar — ostensibly a place where you have apps you’d use — I saw some things that felt familiar, like Outlook, an email client that is not actually installed and requires you to download it, and an option for travel website Booking.com, along with a link to LinkedIn. One app, ClipChamp, was installed but immediately needed to be updated, which did not work when I hit “update,” forcing me to go to find the updates page, which showed me at least 40 different apps called things like “SweetLabs Inc.” I have no idea what any of this stuff is. I type “sweetlabs” into the search bar, and it jankily interrupts into a menu that takes up a third of the screen, with half of that dedicated to “Mark Twain’s birthday,” two Mark Twain-related links, a “quiz of the day,” and four different games available for download. The computer pauses slightly every time I type a letter. Every animation shudders. Even moving windows around feels painful. It is clunky, slow, it feels cheap, and the operating system — previously something I’d considered to be “the thing that operates the computer system” — is actively rotten, strewn with ads, sponsored content, suggested apps, and intrusive design choices that make the system slower and actively upset the user. [...] The reason I’m explaining this in such agonizing detail is that this experience is more indicative of the average person’s experience using a computer than anybody realizes. Though it’s tough to gauge how many of these things sold to make it a bestseller on Amazon, laptops in this pricepoint, with this specific version of Windows (Windows 11 Home in “S Mode” as discussed above), happen to dominate Amazon’s bestsellers along with Apple’s significantly-more-expensive MacBook Air and Pro series. It is reasonable to believe that a large amount of the laptops sold in America match this price point and spec"
- don-code 2y ago
  It's telling that - as the family IT person who buys the computers - any time I buy someone a new computer, I need to spend _at least_ a few hours hammering out the rough edges. There's software that needs to be installed, software that needs to be _uninstalled_, drivers that need to be updated (I once bought a laptop that was shipped with a non-working mic; driver update available), software that needs to be bought ("what do you mean Office isn't included?!"), and so on. Most users aren't able to navigate that themselves. Moving someone across ecosystems isn't always possible, either. While I've made some Linux migrations, and might consider Mac in some others, there are use cases where Windows is a must. Of the Windows installs I'm theoretically in charge of, there's Windows printing to a 20-year-old ribbon printer, Windows "because I need, specifically, QuickBooks Pro 2016", Windows on a cash register (!) that the vendor no longer supports, Windows for an autistic girl who I wouldn't ask to adapt, and so forth.
Brian_K_White 2y ago
After (well) over 10 years on Linux, relief is not what I ever feel when I have to use Windows. I still get regular exposure. I know what I'm "missing". It does not just "do what it needs to", and is not a relief. One individual opinion exactly negated by another. Result: null.
legitster 2y ago
> Although I’m not a big Windows fan, it does what it needs to, and that’s a relief. Ironically, Windows has become the "It just works" platform. Apple is so afraid to change their OS that it's forever locked into worship of itself. And desktop Linux refuses to make any choices for you. To everyone's point, it doesn't mean you have to pledge allegiance to Microsoft. But I also take umbrage with the Linux community's idea that you are personally supposed to endure suffering to build character or for the greater good.
- MrMcCall 2y ago
  > But I also take umbrage with the Linux community's idea that you are personally supposed to endure suffering to build character or for the greater good. I gladly take the pain of freedom in lieu of suffering under penny-squeezers.
  - SauciestGNU 2y ago
    Windows just feels hostile to me, like X and Reddit and the Meta products. Everybody's trying to squeeze me for a dollar to show me ads or change my behavior or bombard me with the latest meme/influence op. With Linux I can at least configure something non-commercial that's a tool for me and not trying to control me in some way.
- exe34 2y ago
  > And desktop Linux refuses to make any choices for you. hah, you haven't used gnome in 20 years.
  - bachmeier 2y ago
    I use the Mate desktop, which means I've been using the same desktop for 20 years. And that's the way it should be.
- cosmic_cheese 2y ago
  > Apple is so afraid to change their OS that it's forever locked into worship of itself. Don’t agree with this, there’ve been changes made over the years, mostly to make the platform more palatable to users who were brought into the Apple fold by way of iPhones/iPads. The parts that haven’t changed aren't out of worshipping itself but more out of trying to not alienate its existing userbase - much as longtime Windows users don’t like longstanding conventions thrown out, neither do longtime Mac users. The conventions just happen to differ from those popular on the Win9X-desktop-paradigm side of the fence.
cynicalsecurity 2y ago
That's a really nice way to trick people into subscribing to a subreddit. Create a controversial post and watch angy bystanders join and participate.
nottorp 2y ago
TFA says: "I’ve realized that in my current phase of life, everything needs to work seamlessly." Humm. I realized that a while ago, but I switched to Mac OS not Windows. I regularly work with Windows (and Linux for that matter) boxes as well and I don't understand how you can use "seamlessly" in that context.
_blk 2y ago
My wife got a new laptop that came with a windows 11 pro license, so I let her pick. She wanted to try Windows after about 10y or being on Ubuntu. It's only been a few weeks, so time will tell her side but for me, the setup was a hassle. On the system end, it came with 22H2 and didn't want to self-update to its newer self without manual update package downloads. Some KB number is all you get. Log wasn't helpful either. Not just that the system doesn't come with a package manager is a pain but also tweaking Windows to stop showing ads ("suggestions") on every corner and disabling all sorts of telemetry. I do occasionally manage windows terminal servers, so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with the windows platform, but I wasn't expecting a "pro" license being this riddled with ** that's obviously not in the interest of the user. The enterprise edition seems much more professional in that sense.
- PKop 2y ago
  For every new laptop it's best to just install the latest stock Windows iso downloaded from their website, not OEM versions which often have unnecessary bloatware added or old versions.
Someone1234 2y ago
I don't feel like with Windows 11 in particular "everything works seamlessly." Windows has a lot of technical debt, heck, arguably that's Windows' USP: Backwards compatibility via technical debt. However, Microsoft has had a lot of the originals retire out in the last few years with a huge number during 2020 for obvious reasons; taking a lot of institutional knowledge with them. So what we have now is a bunch of younger engineers at Microsoft who don't REALLY understand why a lot of things within Windows are the way they are, and therefore are afraid to improve core functionality. So we get almost all of Microsoft's efforts go into front end improvement, and gimmicks. Places where people can make a mark without needing to deep dive into the mysteries below. Let's look at Windows 11's timeline: - 21H2/2021 initial release: With a Start Menu/Taskbar that was half-baked and lost tons of functionality. - 22H2/2021: Fixed the Start Menu/Taskbar to what 21H2 should have been. - 23H2/2023: Half-baked "AI" stuff. Touch Gesture improvements. - 24H2/2024: Tries to make the horrible search basically functional (and fails). Windows Recall (privacy issues). HDR backgrounds.
- whalesalad 2y ago
  6 days ago on the same subreddit, https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/12/19/microsoft-confirms-windows-11-24h2-issue-is-breaking-games-yanks-update-for-more-pcs/ https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/12/19/microsoft-confirms-...
VariousPrograms 2y ago
Use whatever works. If gaming is a top priority and things like FOSS, surveillance, and ads aren’t OS dealbreakers I don’t know why you’d force yourself to game on Linux. I’d guess for many Linux fans Windows isn’t even an option for those reasons, so any of its benefits are moot.
ruthmarx 2y ago
Huh. I switched away from Windows to Linux about 2 years ago. I actively like Windows. Not so much these days, but it was a substantially better user experience than MacOS for those of us that liked to tinker/didn't want to be nannied and for a long time a better experience for anyone that wanted to game or needed some apps that Linux had no equivalent for. Plus, as an OS hobbyist, it often had some very interesting and well designed aspects, even if the flaws took the limelight most of the time. Windows has gotten so bad though. First with W10 taking away the security-only updates channel as well as allowing users to select which updates they ant to install. The telemetry. The bloat. Bloody cortanna and spotify trials and zune and just garbage I have no interest in and can't even completely disable. I haven't really used W11 yet but it seems so much worse with the MacOS/dock cloned startbar and just some of the limitations they've imposed in attempting to modernize. Not to mention the absolute mass of different GUI APIs...you have the old style, the 'metro' or whatever it is style, and I think the W7 aero style maybe? You still need to use classic control panel for some things but now you have to wade through a bs metro app to get there. It's just become a mess and a real chore to use. Now I use Alpine as a desktop with a heavily patched awesomewm. I have a perfect W7 like desktop that takes about 20mb of resources and is perfectly tailored to my needs, no third party utilities needed. I have all the software I need, A W10 VM and Wine if I need to run a Windows app, complete control and peace of mind, and perfect stability and security. I'll need to find a solution to run GTA6 natively maybe, but I have years until I have to deal with that problem.
MisterTea 2y ago
> Lastly, Gaming: On Linux, gaming was a constant struggle. I dont game much anymore but I do love BeamNG, Kenshi and the occasional GTA5 slaughter-fest. All of this is ran through Steam under Flatpak on Void Linux Musl running XFCE with the Chicago 95 (Windows 95) theme. Hardware is a 12 core Threadripper, 1920, 1st gen, and a goofy AMD Radeon Pro 5700 I got for the 5 mini DP ports I never used... However, summer of 2023 was when I nearly gave up gaming on Linux. Everything was running just fine then one day late June, sudden instability. Just running the Steam UI would crash the machine within seconds to minutes after starting. And by instability I mean hard lock up - audio skips and machine is dead to the world. At first I thought it was Steam as running as other programs seemed fine. Then I had lock ups using browsers or randomly sitting at the desktop. I started to suspect thermal issues from summer heat and did everything I could including rebuilding the PC to redo thermal paste and re-seat components. No change. Left my AC running 24/7 for a few days to see if that helped. Nothing. I was at a loss and everyone I talked to had the same line of "I dont know why you are messing with that Linux shit. Just buy a windows machine for gaming and use WSL." Sigh. I was about to give up and seriously considered selling the machine and stating over with a new Windows machine. Of course what I did not pay attention to was updates as I updated rather regularly, at least one a week, sometimes twice. Around the middle of September 2023 the crashing suddenly stopped and gaming resumed as if nothing happened. Same hardware, same install. I could run Kenshi for hours on end, leave Steam running and music playing from a browser. WTF! Then it occurred to me: kernel bugs. Then again this year I had a similar issue after updates so I rolled back the kernel and everything worked. So I now have updating PTSD and defer updates because I lost trust. So yeah. I can see why people give up. I just happen to be too stubborn (stupid?) to give up.
- olddustytrail 2y ago
  You have a hardware problem and different kernels are either triggering it or not. Probably RAM but maybe cache on the CPU.
  - MisterTea 2y ago
    I've been thinking that as well but it hasn't given me any major issues in a year. At this point the machine is getting long in the tooth and power efficiency is crap and I'm planning to replace it this coming year.
bsder 2y ago
Anybody who sings the praises of Windows 11 is going to be immediately suspect. If you sit someone down with both Windows 11 and Windows 10, the suck of Windows 11 is completely obvious to even a rank beginner. Windows 11 doesn't "just work"--Windows 10 is actually better at that. I presume the issue is that so many people are used to interacting with the Internet solely from their phone that they don't feel the layers and layers of jank anymore. Consequently, shitty laptops with Windows 11 actually feel "better" to them.
- phendrenad2 2y ago
  The post doesn't even mention a specific version of Windows, so I don't know who your comment is supposed to be addressed to.
samsk 2y ago
I left windows 7 (with payed updates) for linux last year. The reason: I want my system to just work, to not switch UI every other year or month, to not require ultra total upgrades twice a year, to not hog cpu to download and install some multigigabyte upgrade, to not start updating when I immediatelly need to fix my crashed webserver, to not hide basic settings from me etc... I've win10/win11 on other mostly browsing only laptops, where I can ignore that OS is actively preventing me from using my device, but I can't have this on my 'prod' machine.
dnel 2y ago
What a time to switch to Windows. It seems like walking into a burning building. My views softened on Windows after years of exclusive Linux use but after getting Windows 11 on a laptop I can't not see the end of the road and want to switch everything back away again. Linux has several solid distros that "just work" in my view but Windows 11 does not meet that criteria.
isthatafact 2y ago
I suspect this is just an ad. To me, the post is indistinguishable from an advertisement and contains very little information--fairly typical of reddit.
SebFender 2y ago
Haven't been a Windows user in decades, but lately was helping a friend with his laptop and it was an immediate indication it hadn't taken a turn to lure me back in for sure. Decent global interface, but a pure mishmash of elements that just doesn't work for the user...
random42_ 2y ago
I must be the luckiest person alive to use Linux because I keep reading people writing about issues with Linux, issues with Fedora, and meanwhile I have been using Fedora since version 16 and I had virtually zero issues. I'm on my second laptop since then, now running Fedora 41, and still, zero issues. Sure, I had limitations back then using an external monitor (HiDPI) but all that went away once Wayland got stable. My new laptop has a GeForce and I needed a few commands to make it work nice. I'm glad I have never had to resort to going back to windows except for gaming since I started using Linux as my main driver in... 2006 I guess?
beej71 2y ago
I'd try Windows 11, but it doesn't support my hardware. ;-p
- defrost 2y ago
  See Chris Titus, author of many Windows utilities and of a clean and debloat powershell suite that's open and has a knowledable community of windows engineers. * Update Any PC to Windows 11 (2021) Guide going over updating any PC to Windows 11 that “doesn’t meet requirements” or doesn’t use Secure Boot or has a TPM 2.0 chip. https://christitus.com/update-any-pc-to-windows11/ https://christitus.com/update-any-pc-to-windows11/ If it'll run 10 it'll run 11 .. as long as you're not after all the fancy AI, adware, and Total Recall big brother stuff ( .. who is? ) IIRC I think (I'd have to check) you can use this Windows 10 | 11 kitchen sink GUI to create your own stripped down Windows 11 boot | VM disk that has all the crud including the hardware checks removed. Gamers and Qubes users like lightweight VM images, there are forums dedicated to roll your own Win11-lite images.
voidr 2y ago
> I’ve realized that in my current phase of life, everything needs to work seamlessly I have an almost 10 years old MacBook Pro, that I can turn on at any time and I would be able to do modern software development on it easily. I have a similarly aged high end gaming laptop, I turn it on it spends two hours fiddling with software updates, turns on the anti-virus that I never asked for, installs random software that I would never in a million years install, maybe breaks a driver or two on bigger updates and to top it all off, even with WSL2 I can't even get Docker to run things reliably on it. For gaming I find the Steam Deck to be the superior experience.

35 points by thunderbong 2y ago

Use whatever operating system you want, but I can't imagine being a Windows "fan". It's like being a fan of traffic and billboards. Linux has community ownership and MacOS has the weird Apple design quirks that you can learn to love. Windows is something you trudge through just to get it to do what you want without shoving ads in your face. It was not created with love.

phendrenad2 2y ago
Hi. I'm a Windows fan. I use Windows 11. I experience no "traffic and billboards" or "trudging" or "ads in my face". I get it - it's "common knowledge" that Windows is full of "spyware" and "ads" and "popups" but I expected better from Hacker News posters. At least do your own research! Spinning up a Windows VM and letting it run for a week costs nothing. I'm sure HN users can handle that.
- int_19h 2y ago
  It's common knowledge because it's true. Ads in the Start Menu, incessant pestering to switch to Edge etc. Source: I've been using Windows as my primary desktop for well over 20 years until finally switching to Mac recently because I'm tired of constantly having to look for workarounds to disable all this crap.
  - boplicity 2y ago
    > workarounds Ironically, that used to be called "customizable."
- dmonitor 2y ago
  I actually daily drive Windows for work (mandatory). It's the source of my seething anger. Just a couple days ago I was greeted with a fullscreen "UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. EXPERIENCE COPILOT" ad on login.
  - phendrenad2 2y ago
    > "I can't imagine being a Windows "fan". It's like being a fan of traffic and billboards. Windows is something you trudge through just to get it to do what you want without shoving ads in your face." > I actually daily drive Windows for work (mandatory). It's the source of my seething anger. Just a couple days ago I was greeted with a fullscreen "UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. EXPERIENCE COPILOT" ad on login. > It's common knowledge because it's true. Ads in the Start Menu, incessant pestering to switch to Edge etc. I'm putting the above quotes in this order in order to remind people that I'm simply explaining how it's possible to be a Windows fan. When Windows 11 preinstalled Edge, as luck would have it, I was happy with it and wasn't one of the... perhaps XX% of users who are adamant about using Chrome or Firefox. Nor am I adamant about using Windows 10 instead of upgrading, because my PC is capable of running Windows 11 and I don't find the arguments for sticking with Windows 10 personally important, just like I don't find the arguments for using Chrome or Firefox personally important. This is my lived experience, please don't try to condescend to me and tell me I'm wrong for having different priorities in life (in the small chance that anyone was thinking of doing that).
scrollop 2y ago
but I can't imagine being a Windows "fan" S/he specifically writes "Although I’m not a big Wind7ows fan, it does what it needs to, and that’s a relief."
- 0points 2y ago
  I refers to the writer, not the subject :-)
tyleo 2y ago
Agreed. I feel like every OS has its flaws. My sense of Windows is that installations deteriorate. My cursor currently doesn’t show in VSCode after an update. My ‘Downloads’ folder also disappeared recently and everything now downloads to my desktop. I’ve learned to reinstall the OS from scratch every year or so on Windows and that resolves my issues.
- exe34 2y ago
  > I’ve learned to reinstall the OS from scratch every year or so on Windows and that resolves my issues that's amazing, I haven't reinstalled my laptop OS since 2016, when I had to replace the SSD. it updated to the latest nixos without fail every time since.
- kyriakos 2y ago
  I don't remember last time I had to reinstall Windows unless upgrading in place is considered reinstalling. I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why. Windows has bugs some very annoying but so does every other OS I used. With Linux it's very likely you'll find an obscure forum post that explains how to work around it (unless it's nvidia related on a laptop) but with Windows you are stuck until Microsoft decides to fix it. Same applies to MacOS though.
  - bb88 2y ago
    > I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why. I believe it comes down to popularity. The more popular something is, the more corner cases your OS has to deal with as people write software that apparently does weird unforeseen combinations to the underlying OS. I've had to reinstall linux several times because of bad AMD/nvidia driver installs. On windows, a windows update recently disabled my AMD video driver. AMD and NVidia drivers have notoriously terrible histories when it comes to the linux kernel. But with Windows/Mac there's 10,000 times more crap like this. Particularly on windows. Mac has locked a few more things down, so it should be more stable, but I still hear stories of people that do reinstalls on it occasionally.
  - thefz 2y ago
pandemic_region 2y ago
Early windows versions were actually very well designed to not get in your way and be both minimalistic and usable. Things went south after win2k, any OS 'feature' added after that is considered bloat in my book.
- lobsterthief 2y ago
  I dunno, Windows XP was pretty great.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  I am not sure I'd agree with you on that - they were a lot smaller than Windows now, but it was never minimalistic in any sense. Even Windows 1 incorporated several programs (Write, Paint, that cards thing, etc) that, while convenient, wasn't exactly minimal. Every version added something extra (overlapping windows, Program Manager, a trashcan and a desktop-as-a-place) without removing anything (except tiling windows, which weren't fashionable back then, or practical at VGA resolutions). Windows now is a nightmare of layers that seem to go all the way down to NT 4. I wouldn't mind that, but the way the GUI inherits the theme from whatever generation it was first built on creates a jarring and confusing experience. I respect backwards compatibility, but I would suggest Microsoft looked at IBM's MVS and its descendants to learn how it's properly done.
- woleium 2y ago
  win2k didn’t have bluetooth or dynamic disks. Both are useful and not bloat
forrestthewoods 2y ago
Weird comment. Who said anything about being a fan? I wouldn’t say I’m a “fan” of windows. But I definitely hate my life when I’m forced to use Linux.
- dmonitor 2y ago
  That subreddit is for windows "fans"
  - asdfasdf1 2y ago
    says who? it is just a windows 11 subreddit. Users are not the same as "fans".
aagha 2y ago
Just buy a copy of Pro for $89 and nearly all these complaints go away.
- jasomill 2y ago
  Workarounds exist, but official support for disabling telemetry[1] and "consumer experiences"[2] requires Windows Enterprise or Education. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-system#allowtelemetry https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/... [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-experience#allowwindowsconsumerfeatures https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/...
- binkHN 2y ago
  You couldn't be more wrong. Windows 11 is the reason I left Windows for Linux, after MANY years, and I was running the Pro version.
runjake 2y ago
I think Windows is created with a lot of love. I know several past and present Windows engineers and they are passionate about the product. But there’s a whole lot of MBAs forcing user-hostile “features” (eg. Ads and crapware) on top of it. Then there’s the backwards compatibility thing, which is a double-edged sword.
7e 2y ago
I mean, the Microsoft logo is a bunch of squares. That says it all.
thefz 2y ago
Disclaimer: Linux on all my personal machines, Windows on work ones. I feel the most attrition using MacOS for working. The UI is cumbersome with too many animations and things that get in the way; Finder is nowadays idiotic making accessing the file system a chore. Windows in a corporate setting is OK. It does not get in the way, at least.

esskay 2y ago

Threads like this are just rage bait. - Anyone claiming one OS is the "best" is often either incredibly misinformed, or intentionally trolling. - Use whatever OS does the job you need it to do, nobody cares. They're all great/suck/win/lose.

graemep 2y ago
It also makes some weird claims such as "The constant need to tweak and fix things when something breaks has become too frustrating". its hardly typical.

pkulak 2y ago

I don't know why folks think Windows is easier to maintain than Linux. Sure, if you're running Gentoo maybe, but Bluefin is the most hands-off and stable operating system I've ever encountered; and I've used ChromeOS. I've never seen a Windows install over a year old that didn't have ad popups, corrupted drivers, 100 apps starting and running in the background at startup, or was just slow as all hell. Every one of these posts boils down to "I wanted to play Fortnite, now I can, that makes me happy." Sure, you've now given some random company access to your machine at the kernel level, but if you wanted to make that tradeoff, good for you. It's not a terribly interesting take though.

mardef 2y ago
Everytime I read someone saying Linux is so easy, they name yet another distro I haven't heard of yet. I'm squarely in the "use what works for you camp", but it seems like people forget their learning curve for what they are now used to. My last foray into Linux included browsers that couldn't play videos, audio codec issues, and tons of other things that weren't worth the effort. I bet that's not the case for most, but that was my experience. My windows systems have been running for years, with multiple hardware upgrades, and I have none of the issues you mention. Maybe it's because I don't play Fortnite? I have seen trashed Windows, Linux, and Mac computers over the last few decades. It tends to depend on the user much more than the OS, and you're obviously going to find more windows users than any other desktop system.
- ASalazarMX 2y ago
  Ubuntu is mainstream and nearly flawless these days in modern (but not bleeding edge) equipment. Veterans don't mention it because it has snaps, but regular users couldn't care less, they just want something they can use for their daily needs. No need to name niche distros.
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    I've been using Ubuntu and Fedora and I LOVE the simple and straightforward Gnome shell I have on both. It's useful out of the box and that's perfect for me. It's very Mac like in its way to promote a sane default rather than endless configurations. I don't want to waste time changing the screen background.

bsnnkv 2y ago

Not a "fan" by any means, but I am a full time Windows + NixOS in WSL user and for me it's really hard to beat this level of general "it just works" plus an officially supported Rust crate covering pretty much the entire Win32 API surface to make the DE do (mostly) whatever I want[1]. [1]: https://youtu.be/5XVG9dL5XY0?si=yBJZ7ANzYMnUi7B8 https://youtu.be/5XVG9dL5XY0?si=yBJZ7ANzYMnUi7B8

pandemic_region 2y ago

I can imagine Windows being an ok-ish work OS once you manage to switch off all the assistants, ad pop-ups, cloud logins, password savers, home pages etc. But then, what's the difference still with a normal user focused Linux distro?

TekMol 2y ago

I wouldn't even know how to go about using Windows. On Debian, there is a universe of software in the repos. I can install anything I need with just a apt install <something> and use all these programs in concert with pipes like dothis somefile | dothat | thendothat I was wondering how all that works on Windows these days and typed "How do I apt install ffmpeg on Windows" into Perplexity. It gave me this drama: Download FFmpeg from the official website or a trusted source Extract the downloaded file to a folder, such as C:\FFmpeg Add the FFmpeg bin directory (C:\FFmpeg\bin) to the Windows PATH environment variable Holy moly. I can't imagine going through this "hunt it down, make sure it is from a trusted source, manually tie it into your system" for every little tool I want to quickly use. UPDATE: Thanks for the replies. Looks like Windows has a repository and now too and you can install stuff from it via a program called winget.

phendrenad2 2y ago
On Windows, if you want to use open-source command-line tools, it's best to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which gives you a full Linux environment running in a VM that's tightly-coupled with the Windows OS (you can run windows .exe files from a linux terminal and they magically work). However, the Windows Way is to typically avoid CLI tools and use a GUI program. For instance, you might use Handbrake instead of using ffmpeg directly. These two rules solve the following problem: > Holy moly. I can't imagine going through this "hunt it down, make sure it is from a trusted source, manually tie it into your system" for every little tool I want to quickly use
tokinonagare 2y ago
Just use winget if you can a command line style install. It's strange (to not use a stronger word) to expect apt to work on Windows instead of the native alternative. It's like if someone complained explorer.exe does not work on a GNU/Linux distribution.
wumeow 2y ago
winget install ffmpeg
dgrin91 2y ago

seltzered_ 2y ago

A counter example by Ed Zitron, buying a popular cheap laptop off of amazon running windows ( https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/ Dec. 2024 - scroll down): > "When I opened the start bar — ostensibly a place where you have apps you’d use — I saw some things that felt familiar, like Outlook, an email client that is not actually installed and requires you to download it, and an option for travel website Booking.com, along with a link to LinkedIn. One app, ClipChamp, was installed but immediately needed to be updated, which did not work when I hit “update,” forcing me to go to find the updates page, which showed me at least 40 different apps called things like “SweetLabs Inc.” I have no idea what any of this stuff is. I type “sweetlabs” into the search bar, and it jankily interrupts into a menu that takes up a third of the screen, with half of that dedicated to “Mark Twain’s birthday,” two Mark Twain-related links, a “quiz of the day,” and four different games available for download. The computer pauses slightly every time I type a letter. Every animation shudders. Even moving windows around feels painful. It is clunky, slow, it feels cheap, and the operating system — previously something I’d considered to be “the thing that operates the computer system” — is actively rotten, strewn with ads, sponsored content, suggested apps, and intrusive design choices that make the system slower and actively upset the user. [...] The reason I’m explaining this in such agonizing detail is that this experience is more indicative of the average person’s experience using a computer than anybody realizes. Though it’s tough to gauge how many of these things sold to make it a bestseller on Amazon, laptops in this pricepoint, with this specific version of Windows (Windows 11 Home in “S Mode” as discussed above), happen to dominate Amazon’s bestsellers along with Apple’s significantly-more-expensive MacBook Air and Pro series. It is reasonable to believe that a large amount of the laptops sold in America match this price point and spec"

don-code 2y ago
It's telling that - as the family IT person who buys the computers - any time I buy someone a new computer, I need to spend _at least_ a few hours hammering out the rough edges. There's software that needs to be installed, software that needs to be _uninstalled_, drivers that need to be updated (I once bought a laptop that was shipped with a non-working mic; driver update available), software that needs to be bought ("what do you mean Office isn't included?!"), and so on. Most users aren't able to navigate that themselves. Moving someone across ecosystems isn't always possible, either. While I've made some Linux migrations, and might consider Mac in some others, there are use cases where Windows is a must. Of the Windows installs I'm theoretically in charge of, there's Windows printing to a 20-year-old ribbon printer, Windows "because I need, specifically, QuickBooks Pro 2016", Windows on a cash register (!) that the vendor no longer supports, Windows for an autistic girl who I wouldn't ask to adapt, and so forth.

Brian_K_White 2y ago

After (well) over 10 years on Linux, relief is not what I ever feel when I have to use Windows. I still get regular exposure. I know what I'm "missing". It does not just "do what it needs to", and is not a relief. One individual opinion exactly negated by another. Result: null.

legitster 2y ago

> Although I’m not a big Windows fan, it does what it needs to, and that’s a relief. Ironically, Windows has become the "It just works" platform. Apple is so afraid to change their OS that it's forever locked into worship of itself. And desktop Linux refuses to make any choices for you. To everyone's point, it doesn't mean you have to pledge allegiance to Microsoft. But I also take umbrage with the Linux community's idea that you are personally supposed to endure suffering to build character or for the greater good.

MrMcCall 2y ago
> But I also take umbrage with the Linux community's idea that you are personally supposed to endure suffering to build character or for the greater good. I gladly take the pain of freedom in lieu of suffering under penny-squeezers.
- SauciestGNU 2y ago
  Windows just feels hostile to me, like X and Reddit and the Meta products. Everybody's trying to squeeze me for a dollar to show me ads or change my behavior or bombard me with the latest meme/influence op. With Linux I can at least configure something non-commercial that's a tool for me and not trying to control me in some way.
exe34 2y ago
> And desktop Linux refuses to make any choices for you. hah, you haven't used gnome in 20 years.
- bachmeier 2y ago
  I use the Mate desktop, which means I've been using the same desktop for 20 years. And that's the way it should be.
cosmic_cheese 2y ago
> Apple is so afraid to change their OS that it's forever locked into worship of itself. Don’t agree with this, there’ve been changes made over the years, mostly to make the platform more palatable to users who were brought into the Apple fold by way of iPhones/iPads. The parts that haven’t changed aren't out of worshipping itself but more out of trying to not alienate its existing userbase - much as longtime Windows users don’t like longstanding conventions thrown out, neither do longtime Mac users. The conventions just happen to differ from those popular on the Win9X-desktop-paradigm side of the fence.

cynicalsecurity 2y ago

That's a really nice way to trick people into subscribing to a subreddit. Create a controversial post and watch angy bystanders join and participate.

nottorp 2y ago

TFA says: "I’ve realized that in my current phase of life, everything needs to work seamlessly." Humm. I realized that a while ago, but I switched to Mac OS not Windows. I regularly work with Windows (and Linux for that matter) boxes as well and I don't understand how you can use "seamlessly" in that context.

_blk 2y ago

My wife got a new laptop that came with a windows 11 pro license, so I let her pick. She wanted to try Windows after about 10y or being on Ubuntu. It's only been a few weeks, so time will tell her side but for me, the setup was a hassle. On the system end, it came with 22H2 and didn't want to self-update to its newer self without manual update package downloads. Some KB number is all you get. Log wasn't helpful either. Not just that the system doesn't come with a package manager is a pain but also tweaking Windows to stop showing ads ("suggestions") on every corner and disabling all sorts of telemetry. I do occasionally manage windows terminal servers, so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with the windows platform, but I wasn't expecting a "pro" license being this riddled with ** that's obviously not in the interest of the user. The enterprise edition seems much more professional in that sense.

PKop 2y ago
For every new laptop it's best to just install the latest stock Windows iso downloaded from their website, not OEM versions which often have unnecessary bloatware added or old versions.

Someone1234 2y ago

I don't feel like with Windows 11 in particular "everything works seamlessly." Windows has a lot of technical debt, heck, arguably that's Windows' USP: Backwards compatibility via technical debt. However, Microsoft has had a lot of the originals retire out in the last few years with a huge number during 2020 for obvious reasons; taking a lot of institutional knowledge with them. So what we have now is a bunch of younger engineers at Microsoft who don't REALLY understand why a lot of things within Windows are the way they are, and therefore are afraid to improve core functionality. So we get almost all of Microsoft's efforts go into front end improvement, and gimmicks. Places where people can make a mark without needing to deep dive into the mysteries below. Let's look at Windows 11's timeline: - 21H2/2021 initial release: With a Start Menu/Taskbar that was half-baked and lost tons of functionality. - 22H2/2021: Fixed the Start Menu/Taskbar to what 21H2 should have been. - 23H2/2023: Half-baked "AI" stuff. Touch Gesture improvements. - 24H2/2024: Tries to make the horrible search basically functional (and fails). Windows Recall (privacy issues). HDR backgrounds.

whalesalad 2y ago
6 days ago on the same subreddit, https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/12/19/microsoft-confirms-windows-11-24h2-issue-is-breaking-games-yanks-update-for-more-pcs/ https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/12/19/microsoft-confirms-...

VariousPrograms 2y ago

Use whatever works. If gaming is a top priority and things like FOSS, surveillance, and ads aren’t OS dealbreakers I don’t know why you’d force yourself to game on Linux. I’d guess for many Linux fans Windows isn’t even an option for those reasons, so any of its benefits are moot.

ruthmarx 2y ago

Huh. I switched away from Windows to Linux about 2 years ago. I actively like Windows. Not so much these days, but it was a substantially better user experience than MacOS for those of us that liked to tinker/didn't want to be nannied and for a long time a better experience for anyone that wanted to game or needed some apps that Linux had no equivalent for. Plus, as an OS hobbyist, it often had some very interesting and well designed aspects, even if the flaws took the limelight most of the time. Windows has gotten so bad though. First with W10 taking away the security-only updates channel as well as allowing users to select which updates they ant to install. The telemetry. The bloat. Bloody cortanna and spotify trials and zune and just garbage I have no interest in and can't even completely disable. I haven't really used W11 yet but it seems so much worse with the MacOS/dock cloned startbar and just some of the limitations they've imposed in attempting to modernize. Not to mention the absolute mass of different GUI APIs...you have the old style, the 'metro' or whatever it is style, and I think the W7 aero style maybe? You still need to use classic control panel for some things but now you have to wade through a bs metro app to get there. It's just become a mess and a real chore to use. Now I use Alpine as a desktop with a heavily patched awesomewm. I have a perfect W7 like desktop that takes about 20mb of resources and is perfectly tailored to my needs, no third party utilities needed. I have all the software I need, A W10 VM and Wine if I need to run a Windows app, complete control and peace of mind, and perfect stability and security. I'll need to find a solution to run GTA6 natively maybe, but I have years until I have to deal with that problem.

MisterTea 2y ago

> Lastly, Gaming: On Linux, gaming was a constant struggle. I dont game much anymore but I do love BeamNG, Kenshi and the occasional GTA5 slaughter-fest. All of this is ran through Steam under Flatpak on Void Linux Musl running XFCE with the Chicago 95 (Windows 95) theme. Hardware is a 12 core Threadripper, 1920, 1st gen, and a goofy AMD Radeon Pro 5700 I got for the 5 mini DP ports I never used... However, summer of 2023 was when I nearly gave up gaming on Linux. Everything was running just fine then one day late June, sudden instability. Just running the Steam UI would crash the machine within seconds to minutes after starting. And by instability I mean hard lock up - audio skips and machine is dead to the world. At first I thought it was Steam as running as other programs seemed fine. Then I had lock ups using browsers or randomly sitting at the desktop. I started to suspect thermal issues from summer heat and did everything I could including rebuilding the PC to redo thermal paste and re-seat components. No change. Left my AC running 24/7 for a few days to see if that helped. Nothing. I was at a loss and everyone I talked to had the same line of "I dont know why you are messing with that Linux shit. Just buy a windows machine for gaming and use WSL." Sigh. I was about to give up and seriously considered selling the machine and stating over with a new Windows machine. Of course what I did not pay attention to was updates as I updated rather regularly, at least one a week, sometimes twice. Around the middle of September 2023 the crashing suddenly stopped and gaming resumed as if nothing happened. Same hardware, same install. I could run Kenshi for hours on end, leave Steam running and music playing from a browser. WTF! Then it occurred to me: kernel bugs. Then again this year I had a similar issue after updates so I rolled back the kernel and everything worked. So I now have updating PTSD and defer updates because I lost trust. So yeah. I can see why people give up. I just happen to be too stubborn (stupid?) to give up.

olddustytrail 2y ago
You have a hardware problem and different kernels are either triggering it or not. Probably RAM but maybe cache on the CPU.
- MisterTea 2y ago
  I've been thinking that as well but it hasn't given me any major issues in a year. At this point the machine is getting long in the tooth and power efficiency is crap and I'm planning to replace it this coming year.

bsder 2y ago

Anybody who sings the praises of Windows 11 is going to be immediately suspect. If you sit someone down with both Windows 11 and Windows 10, the suck of Windows 11 is completely obvious to even a rank beginner. Windows 11 doesn't "just work"--Windows 10 is actually better at that. I presume the issue is that so many people are used to interacting with the Internet solely from their phone that they don't feel the layers and layers of jank anymore. Consequently, shitty laptops with Windows 11 actually feel "better" to them.

phendrenad2 2y ago
The post doesn't even mention a specific version of Windows, so I don't know who your comment is supposed to be addressed to.

samsk 2y ago

I left windows 7 (with payed updates) for linux last year. The reason: I want my system to just work, to not switch UI every other year or month, to not require ultra total upgrades twice a year, to not hog cpu to download and install some multigigabyte upgrade, to not start updating when I immediatelly need to fix my crashed webserver, to not hide basic settings from me etc... I've win10/win11 on other mostly browsing only laptops, where I can ignore that OS is actively preventing me from using my device, but I can't have this on my 'prod' machine.

dnel 2y ago

What a time to switch to Windows. It seems like walking into a burning building. My views softened on Windows after years of exclusive Linux use but after getting Windows 11 on a laptop I can't not see the end of the road and want to switch everything back away again. Linux has several solid distros that "just work" in my view but Windows 11 does not meet that criteria.

isthatafact 2y ago

I suspect this is just an ad. To me, the post is indistinguishable from an advertisement and contains very little information--fairly typical of reddit.

SebFender 2y ago

Haven't been a Windows user in decades, but lately was helping a friend with his laptop and it was an immediate indication it hadn't taken a turn to lure me back in for sure. Decent global interface, but a pure mishmash of elements that just doesn't work for the user...

random42_ 2y ago

I must be the luckiest person alive to use Linux because I keep reading people writing about issues with Linux, issues with Fedora, and meanwhile I have been using Fedora since version 16 and I had virtually zero issues. I'm on my second laptop since then, now running Fedora 41, and still, zero issues. Sure, I had limitations back then using an external monitor (HiDPI) but all that went away once Wayland got stable. My new laptop has a GeForce and I needed a few commands to make it work nice. I'm glad I have never had to resort to going back to windows except for gaming since I started using Linux as my main driver in... 2006 I guess?

beej71 2y ago

I'd try Windows 11, but it doesn't support my hardware. ;-p

defrost 2y ago
See Chris Titus, author of many Windows utilities and of a clean and debloat powershell suite that's open and has a knowledable community of windows engineers. * Update Any PC to Windows 11 (2021) Guide going over updating any PC to Windows 11 that “doesn’t meet requirements” or doesn’t use Secure Boot or has a TPM 2.0 chip. https://christitus.com/update-any-pc-to-windows11/ https://christitus.com/update-any-pc-to-windows11/ If it'll run 10 it'll run 11 .. as long as you're not after all the fancy AI, adware, and Total Recall big brother stuff ( .. who is? ) IIRC I think (I'd have to check) you can use this Windows 10 | 11 kitchen sink GUI to create your own stripped down Windows 11 boot | VM disk that has all the crud including the hardware checks removed. Gamers and Qubes users like lightweight VM images, there are forums dedicated to roll your own Win11-lite images.

voidr 2y ago

> I’ve realized that in my current phase of life, everything needs to work seamlessly I have an almost 10 years old MacBook Pro, that I can turn on at any time and I would be able to do modern software development on it easily. I have a similarly aged high end gaming laptop, I turn it on it spends two hours fiddling with software updates, turns on the anti-virus that I never asked for, installs random software that I would never in a million years install, maybe breaks a driver or two on bigger updates and to top it all off, even with WSL2 I can't even get Docker to run things reliably on it. For gaming I find the Steam Deck to be the superior experience.