I recently dumped W11 off my wife’s ROG Ally handheld and replaced it with SteamOS. It’s a day and night difference in performance. ASUS is absolutely fucking themselves by shipping it with this vibe-coded trash OS. W11 is total dog shit. The only good thing it does is drive a lot of people into the arms of Linux.
Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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WINDOWS 11 IS GREAT IF YOU DONT VALUE YOUR TIME
Even with that caveat I wouldn't agree.
But there's something to it.
For me, a decade of Linux user, having been forced to work with a bunch of Windows laptops recently, even the difference between 10 and 11 was palpable. Not only in resource usage but also in just getting around the system, running updates, trying to disable the stock ticker (?WTF?) etc.
Lately I often reminesce on the time SSD has become available. My previous laptop would take 5 minutes to fully open the system, and suddenly BAM! SSD and it was 30 seconds. I remember being blown away. How the fuck did we end up back here. How is it 5+ minutes to start a stupid OS again.
I remember that too! My crappy old computer. I bought the cheapest SSD they had and it was so much faster.
And I've been thinking about the latter too.
BTW I truly hope your Windows takes 5min for a cold boot, and not your Linux, because that would mean there's something wrong with it or the hardware.
My work laptop is only allowed windows 11 [*] At least I wait for it on company time.
trying to disable the stock ticker (?WTF?)
Geeze I should have invested in "?WTF?🔺" years ago. Look how ?WTF?🔺 is everywhere now! Especially the tech industry. 😭
Windows is great! Unless you value privacy...or RAM... or Bandwidth efficiency...or easy networking... or owning your system
I have to use it for work, and the difference between how my work laptop and my personal laptop (Debian 43) handles basic tasks is stark.
The stuff like "will my headphones work?" has been solved for years at this point. I'm talking even more basic, like rendering the UI and loading menus.
"will my headphones work?"
It was Linux the one you had to check if basic peripherals would work.
Now it is windows the one that gives issues with headphones, the one in charge of the equipment at my office is fed up with all of the complaints related to windows and headphones (the ones provided by the employer and the personal ones).
Last Friday windows decided to stop working with the laptop’s webcam, and it was stuck as in use despite even turning off the camera in setttings.
All our work Teams calls are colleagues swearing because their Bluetooth is messed up, or Windows changed their default audio device (again)
The webcam being stuck on sounds like a Microsoft "feature" that would accompany "We've made updates to our EULA" that you'd be forced to accept to start Windows next time. 😬 Lol
You still will run into issues with certain Bluetooth headphones on Linux because they either need proprietary codecs that just aren't available or fall back to really shitty ones. Not Linux' fault, but users will only see (or hear) that it doesn't work properly.
Examples you have noted, sir; for awareness' sake.
I'd have to ask, they weren't mine. But part of the problem was that it's either high latency and no mic or very low quality both ways, neither very usable for video conferencing. Was fine on Windows. I'm sure their Thinkpad's shitty Mediatek Bluetooth module didn't help either.
My Jabra ones work but they're kind of janky.
you know what's funny, is that my noise cancelling headphones started to have serious problems when I 'upgraded' to windows 11. it would pick up the noise cancelling mics and decide they were the primary, not my standalone dedicated microphone.
in the process, it would also downgrade the sound quality for some fucking reason. no matter how many ways I disabled them, it would either re-enable them or I'd find a new way to try.
with Linux? just works.
100%. I'm not quite as ardently anti-Windows as most on this community from a UI/UX standpoint, but both Bluetooth and audio device switching are genuinely terrible experiences in Windows. I find myself pairing audio devices from scratch all the time on my work laptop, and it's painful every time.
It really is.
I’ve been a Unix maximalist since I can remember, but I’ve never convinced my peers to follow.
Since windows 11 has dropped, every single one of them now has a Linux machine for one purpose or another. Some are now considering a complete purge of MS products, as I have.
It’s happening.
Friend!
It's been a long road, getting from there to here.
It's glorious, isn't it?
Yep, been over a year now on Linux, I'll never go back.
About a year and a half ago I got a laptop to prepare for moving countries. Figured "I'll probably distro hop a bit see what I like so let's start pretty plain with Arch". I've uh never distro hopped, Arch my beloved, great daily driver does exactly what I tell it to
They're isn't one positive thing to say about it at all. Not even one.
Of course there is. It's compatible with almost any software and hardware (if you ignore their arbitrary W11 "requirements" which you can in most cases) that you can get your hands on. Microsoft and Windows deserve most of the flack they're getting, but we should be honest.
Take Linux as a comparison. Compatibility is pretty good nowadays and is only getting better, especially with all the work going into Proton from both Valve and the community. But certain things are simply not supported which can make it either difficult or straight up impossible to get to work. Not that Linux is to blame for that, of course, but it is reality.
Sure there is: Sometimes it doesn't boot. And nobody can deny that it's been great for driving linux adoption!