The Roll-Out of Windows 11 Is the Perfect Time to Decide to Switch to Linux

One of the first things I do when I setup Windows is setup an instance of VirtualBox running Ubuntu in headless mode. Then I can SSH into that and do anything I could do with Linux plus do all the windows things.<p>I&#x27;m not really sure what the overhead is since I usually have 16GB or 32GB of ram anyway.<p>That aside I feel the article is applying a double standard. Someone who properly can use Linux can easily resolve most of the authors criticisms. It&#x27;s also possible to run Windows (haven&#x27;t tried on 11, but is possible with 10) on a USB stick or external hard drive. You can also install Windows (10) trivially on most machines. Certain Linux variants also have telemetry, etc.<p>I enjoy Linux, I also enjoy Windows. There&#x27;s no need to create a false dichotomy. It&#x27;s very easy to just run both. Best tool for the job and what not.

I know the main issue with Windows here on HN is usually around the telemetry that Microsoft collects but I don&#x27;t have an issue with that.<p>Windows 10 for me has been a rock solid OS for years. I think I&#x27;ve had 2 bluescreen issues since i&#x27;ve been using it. One was plugging in a very faulty USB device and the other was caused by code I wrote.<p>WSL2 is a great addition and has replaced the places where I used to use a Linux VM or even a dual boot system.<p>I&#x27;ve only tried Windows 11 on a spare laptop so far and while I didn&#x27;t like the changing of the start menu, it seems like a decent OS.<p>I have to use windows for my job as I still need to use some old embedded development tools that are only available on Windows. MacOS has some nice features but I&#x27;ve never got on with Macs that well and now I have a full Linux command line I can use.<p>Unless you devleop iPhone&#x2F;iPad apps, I would say that windows is becoming one of the best operating systems for development these days.

It would only be the perfect time to switch to Linux (or one of the BSD&#x27;s) if most, if not all, the applications you use are available immediately.<p>Expecting users to leave their desired&#x2F;trusted applications behind (in most cases) is pretty much a non-starter.<p>Beyond the title, there is a lot of FUD in the article, and that coming from someone who uses both Windows 10 and FreeBSD (and prior to that Slackware).

I can speak as somebody that&#x27;s been working off of a 2010 MacOSX up until now, and briefly tried Win10 for two months this summer - I brought a linux-installed machine from System76 and should be switching permanently over to linux if all goes well(1).<p>Apple continuing to censor erotic artists was the last straw for me, and I&#x27;ve heard encouraging things about how solid Ubuntu&#x27;s UI is in particular. Windows? Their UI plus accessibility is hot garbage and I&#x27;d rather go back to a M1 MacPro than ever touch it again.<p>All of this to say -- I can&#x27;t be the only one that&#x27;s finally had it with both companies, and I&#x27;m not particularly &quot;techie&quot;. As much as one can be when posting on HN, at any rate. ;)<p>(1)I say if all goes well because I and a more geeky friend had a disastrous time attempting to install kubuntu on an Asus that plain refused it. I see the ol&#x27; linux curse is still effective.

I heard the same arguments back in 2006 with Vista, in 2009 with 7 and later with 8 and 8.1.<p>And I’m still hearing every year that next year is the year of the Linux Desktop

&gt; because the requirements have been in such flux over the past few months that no one seems to really know for sure which computers will eventually be able to run Windows 11<p>It&#x27;s laid out in a table on Microsoft&#x27;s website, in addition to a compatibility tool available for standalone download or via Windows Update.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;windows&#x2F;windows-11-specifications" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;windows&#x2F;windows-11-specifica...</a>

This article has so many factual inaccuracies and opinion-presented-as-fact about both Windows and Linux that it&#x27;s just adding noise and confusion to new users.

A lot of these are frankly ridiculous. Windows doesn&#x27;t come with a compiler? Huh? Ubuntu doesn&#x27;t come with build-essential installed by default either.

I am sure Linux is fine, if they want it, for everyone here. But my wife is not at all confident technically. I recommended a Chromebook for her to move off an underpowered Win 10 machine. She is very happy and self sufficient on it. I suspect most people out there are more like her than us.

I’ll take the liberty to copy a comment from an earlier thread:<p>I don’t really care what OS other people choose. There will probably never be an OS that <i>everyone</i> will love.<p>So my stance is this: Just let people use whatever OS they’re happy and productive with. And where they can find <i>applications</i> they like. IMHO, having a nice selection of applications is just as important as the OS itself. For me, that is a compelling argument in favour of macOS. But if people can find applications they enjoy on Windows and Linux, then bully for them.<p>And when it comes to regular users who just want something that works – then it might be wise to not even use a traditional desktop OS. iOS&#x2F;iPadOS and Android&#x2F;Chrome OS are much more user-friendly than Windows&#x2F;Mac&#x2F;Linux will ever be.

The reason to switch to Linux is that it keeps getting better, not that the alternatives keep getting worse.<p>These days people mostly just need a web browser.

I wouldn&#x27;t consider Windows 11 until there is a LTSC version out, and I haven&#x27;t seen one on MSDN yet.<p>It looks raw enough that it needs another year or so for Microsoft to finish it. Operating systems are down to the standards of AAA video games these days.

There are so many lies, half truths and FUD statements in this article that it completely discredits whatever valid argument the author may have had. Switching to a politician career may be a better fit for such talents.

I think this comes down to personal needs. The first step might be to check what applications was running recent week and what applications have been opened during last year. Then rank the applications based on importance and look if they have alternatives. Sometimes there is also other ways to look at the tasks&#x2F;problems. Certainly for gaming there could be better ways such as gaming consoles, for productivity&#x2F;multimedia a mobile device may do the job better (due to app availability). Everything aren&#x27;t bound to be solved on a single computer as was mostly the fact 20 years ago.<p><i>Although, I am certainly opinionated and biased as I&#x27;ve opted for open (mostly GPL#&#x2F;BSD licensed) solutions where they apply for at least 20 years and always in some </i>nix-based operating system on my desktop. I feel miserable whenever I am forced to be on a Windows desktop, but that tend to be the case on an Apple mobile device or Android device too.. (but I happily use Apple and Android devices for certain tasks).

The perfect time for me was when I realized that WSL doesn&#x27;t have IPv6 support. I appreciate the work Microsoft put in with WSL, but it frankly feels incomplete without full native Linux environment to go along with it. Managing <i>all</i> of your software with package management feels so futuristic, too!

I&#x27;ve been on Manjaro with Gnome for the past year on my Dell xps 9310. The experience is near perfect. Wayland and Gnome 40&#x27;s multi-touch realtime gestures closed the gap for me. I wouldn&#x27;t use a Mac or Windows laptop if they were given to me for free, because I consider the experience inferior at this point.

But which Distro?<p>Ubuntu is such a productivity killer since it has not taskbar.<p>Anybody here using Ubuntu and changed the desktop environment to one with a taskbar? If so, which one and how did things go?

Been there done that. I did it when XP was released.

I was kinda thinking wsl GUI for browsing and keep windows for the gaming and streaming high res Netflix.

There still are five years of support for Windows 10. I’ll consider switching if by then the Windows 11 situation hasn’t improved. But if I switch, it will likely be to a Mac.<p>I try not to think too much about this because what Microsoft is doing is really pissing me off.

Or macOS with the new MacBook Pros rolling out these days