Linux fanboy reviews Windows 11

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00:00 Intro
00:41 Sponsor: QEMUCare
01:32 Installation
04:00 Desktop experience
08:35 AppStore and installating apps
10:35 The crappy stuff
11:39 What do I think?

Installing Windows is still a very simple process if you just want to reformat your drive. While a lot of the install process still looks like what it did in the Vista days, it's relatively straightforward, I must say. It doesn't look amazing, it definitely doesn't really handle as many things as most Linux installers, but it works.

Although it lets you only reinstall just the system WITHOUT needing a separate partition for your user files. That's something we could take inspiration from.

The config screens that come next are really much better than what we usually get in Linux installers. These screens are clean, super simple and enticing, and very reassuring.

These constant loading times and reboots and restarts and "please wait" screens are pretty jarring and don't make for a super nice setup experience.

Unfortunately, unless you remove internet access to your device, there is no setting up a computer without a MS Account, which is very annoying. Then, you get to the multiple screens where you'll decide how much you want to restrict MS Data collection, knowing full well you can't completely stop it.

Now I gotta say, out of the box, Windows 11 is shiny. I also like the customization options, with the dark mode and accent colors. But these aren't picked up everywhere in the system. Some right click menus don't use them, the file manager doesn't use it either, that's where it all starts to crumble, basically.

Basically, everytime I get out of one of MS's revamped default apps, and go to something from the Windows 95 era, I get this horrendous disconnect. It's incredible to me that this isn't fixed yet. They've had the whole lifecycle of Windows 10 to fix it and replace these panels and interfaces with modern components.

The desktop itself is pretty simple, though. The new menu is nice, if you don't like using your mouse to navigate. Because objectively, the list of apps is worse if you're a mouse user. Search is much better and quicker to find something anyways, than to try and navigate nested menus. It was time to move to this way of using a menu, and it's well done.

Of course, you STILL get these terrible ads.

I also liked the fact that you get touchpad gestures on a laptop, although these aren't 1:1 and just trigger in the middle of a swipe, so they're not as good as what we get on GNOME or elementary OS on Linux.

I kinda like the Teams integration out of the box. In general, I don't think the default experience on Windows 11 is bad. It looks good, it's smooth and well animated. The default apps do their job well, **unless you're a privacy nerd like me**, and using the system is pretty simple. Simpler than on WIndows 10, i'd say.

The only real issue is that once you dive any further than one or 2 levels of an app, you realize it's just another coat of paint on top of Windows XP.

Now let's talk about the appStore experience. This new MS Store has progressed VERY nicely compared to what I remember from WIndows 10.

Here, it's basically 10% of what you'd want, and the rest is either shady, paid-for redistributions of open source applications without any respect for branding or trademarks, for example LibreOffice, or it's just not available.

But for now, it's not enough, and you still have to go hunt for .exe files and install them manually like a caveman, without any centralized way to manage updates to these.

[Sumire]

Windows 11 is the distro with the most bloated KDE implementation, it's a mystery how they do it.

[ricardo-kb]

It's honestly sad that caring about privacy and acting to protect your privacy is considered a nerd thing to do 😕

[HPerrin]

The one really nice thing that Windows does really well is backward compatibility. You can run a binary that was compiled for Windows 2000 perfectly fine on Windows 11. And that really matters in the Windows ecosystem, since a lot of people run closed source apps that don’t get updates anymore.

[event]

What MS does very well is laying eggs early - they plant their products into schools, kids learn Windows and when they start working they even don't realize Matrix has got them. Except they get into IT where Neo hands them Linux pill and Windows becomes for them just a typewriter or communicator in VM.

[galgrunfeld]

"If people tolerate this on Windows" - Most Windows users *don't know better* 'cause all they're used to is Windowsland.

[wallyhackenslacker]

It's amazing how blatantly anti-user the post-Nadella Windows versions have been that they actually make me miss the old Ballmer-led Windows XP and Windows 7. Not that I would ever go back to them, but in hindsight I can see how much more respecting of the user those two were over the that Windows has become since 8.

[FenrirTheGray]

Nested Menus of old Windows operating systems (7 and earlier) are far superior to Windows 11 Start Menu.
A simple list of pinned apps and quick access folders is far superior to any search.
Start Menu Search should only search for installed programs and Control Panel/Settings App settings.
If I need web results, I'll open up a browser. If I need file results, I'll open up Explorer and use the Search function there.

[chlorobyte_projects]

I am a hobbyist developer and a gamer. I exclusively use Linux. I used to have Windows as well on this machine, but after a bit of just never booting into it (and at the time it was BSoDing on boot for some reason), I decided to just get rid of the partitions.

[diurnalowlgames]

Ah yes, that moment when you turn into Sméagol when Microsoft does something stupid, I think we can all relate to that one, well done Nick.

[lordmoose]

When i first tried out linux (KDE Neon) at the recommendation of a friend, the first thing that stood out (besides the confusion of only having a taskbar on my second monitor and trying to fix that, along with the single click app opening) was how coherent and consistent the settings menu and store were. No more random control panel opening when i want to mess with microphone settings, nothing like that. I still use Windows 10 for compatibility reasons, but god damn do i miss KDEs aesthetic

[a_p_vox]

They even didn't care to redesign the clean install GUI. How'd you expect them to clean up the pre-Metro GUI stuff? Furthermore, they're still struggling about remaking Settings panel.

So no, I have no significant expectations for them.

[mattx]

They just moved icon task bar to the center, modified the app search/launcher and made the system even heavier than Win10. This is 'innovation' that nobody in the Linux world cares much. Linux users could have that interface for years with KDE and working fine on years old hardware.

[TazerXI]

I wonder if you could do an 'is x user friendly' on windows/mac os. I think it would be interesting to see how a new user may look at windows and how user friendly it is.
Imo it gained popularity due to it being the only option (aside from macOS) in the 90s, and from there people didn't want to switch

[furiousfellow]

Microsoft knows that most users wont use things like device manager so they wont use resources on eye candy for those programs. Side complain: Microsoft teams is horrible!!!

[mmil]

After decades of using Windows including Windows 11 since the first dev preview, I have now moved to Linux and the main reason was, funnily enough, the UI experience. I cannot believe that a company of their size and wallet ended up with a product that makes no sense UI wise (to a user that has been with their products since version 3.1). If I had to pick one thing that pushed me over the edge was the File explorer having a black background with smaller fonts and not matching any of the theme choices I made. And of course there are tons of other idiotic things like the task bar's next to 0 customisation options etc.
Gnome/KDE with a few extensions look and feel 10 years ahead of anything MS has delivered so far on the desktop end. The only thing that is missing from Linux is better support for Wayland (NVidia wake up) and desktop wise I will be completely satisfied.

[webxorcist]

I haven't touched MS products since 2001. Life is good.

[marufbepary]

It is absolutely unacceptable that Windows, something that is paid is so unpolished and messy. Most Linux distros look nicer and more consistent despite being free.

[Redeem]

The last time I installed VLC from the Microsoft store it was the Mobile / Touchscreen interface and not VLC proper.
Although I must admit that's been several years. I've learned my lesson to never use it since then 👍

[KTSpeedruns]

Coat of paint is all MS knows at this point. Windows 11 is a coat of paint on windows 10, which is a coat of paint on Windows 7, which is a coat of paint on Windows Vista, which is a coat of paint on Windows XP, which is a coat of paint on Windows 2000...

[YiChi]

You summed it up pretty well:
Windows is a Frankenstein piece of crap made out of pieces from DOS, win 9x era, windows Xp, Windows Vista... and they never bothered modernizing/cleaning up anything!
For a Mutlti THOUSANDS OF BILLLION worth company, this is absolutely scandalous. This laziness and lack of perfectionnism makes me faint everytime.

What are they doing with their time (decades) and employee(thousands) seriously ??? How can this OS still be so... abandoned ?