On my principal tower PC, the boot display screen lets me select between two working programs: Home windows 11 and no matter model of Linux I am testing on the time. I virtually at all times select Linux. This is why.

Twin-Booting Is Good (When Performed Proper)

I dual-boot each Home windows and Linux as a result of I have to have entry to Home windows. It is a part of my job as a tech service journalist to check Home windows software program and sustain with what’s occurring to the working system, and having the ability to swap over with just a few clicks makes my work handy.

Typically dual-booting might be helpful for my very own troubleshooting, too. I run right into a mysterious drawback on Linux—does if the identical drawback come up when I attempt to do the identical process on Home windows? The benefit of switching over could make fixing my tech points a bit simpler.

I ought to be aware that I don’t necessarily recommend dual-booting Linux and Windows, particularly on a single drive. The possibilities for GRUB problems are excessive in that state of affairs. I’ve not run into main points partly as a result of I put a secondary SSD in my PC for Linux to reside on, permitting the 2 OSes to remain comfortably separated.

Home windows Feels Like Somebody Else’s Desktop

With all of that mentioned, I set free an exasperated sigh each time I select the Home windows 11 possibility in my boot menu. It brings me to a login display screen coated in ads and random details on subjects I do not care about. After logging in, I am get nagged to improve my Microsoft 365 subscription that I do not use. Producer bloatware I’ve by no means used reveals me a popup about updates and yet one more paid subscription alternative.

To not be ignored, the information widget prompts me with alerts about present occasions with no impact on me. The climate updates are ineffective to me due to the window to the outside subsequent to my pc monitor. After I seek for a file or app on my pc within the Begin menu, I am proven Bing internet search outcomes—by nature, not issues on my pc.

Let’s not overlook about Copilot. The taskbar, the Begin menu, and the native browser Edge have all been colonized by Copilot, an “synthetic intelligence” characteristic I did not ask for and have little curiosity in. I do not learn about you, however I solely have so many PDFs that want summarizing.

Granted, a few of Windows 11’s most annoying features can be disabled if you already know the place to look. I’ve accomplished that earlier than, and it is a lengthy course of to make the expertise tolerable. It includes buried settings menus and dangerous registry hacks. The issue’s made worse realizing I will need to do all of it once more the subsequent time I reset Home windows.

That is in distinction to Linux desktop environments, that are typically designed for one sort of particular person: somebody who needs to make use of their PC with as little fuss as doable. There no adverts, no subscriptions, and no uninvited chatbots.

Linux Feels Sooner

On prime of the graphical expertise of Home windows feeling irrelevant and even hostile to me, it additionally simply feels gradual. Particularly on boot up, it appears there’s continually one thing loading within the background.

Admittedly, a part of the slowness might be attributed to the very fact I exploit Home windows so little. The longer I’m going with out utilizing it, the extra updates accumulate that then occur within the background or that I get prompted to use. This all ends in a extra sluggish or nagging expertise.

In distinction, after I boot up my Linux distribution, it masses the purposes I set to launch at startup and nothing extra, whereas updates occur after I’m darn effectively prepared for them. So I simply really feel extra nimble after I select Linux.

Most of My Video games Work on Linux Now

Up to now, gaming on Linux was very restricted. It is come a great distance over the previous decade, although. That is thanks partly to Valve’s push of the Proton compatibility layer into the mainstream with the Steam Deck. You continue to cannot play all the things, after all. Many common multiplayer video games are unplayable due to anticheat software.

The panorama continues to alter, although. For some time I wanted besides into Home windows to play Hell Let Free, however that modified lately when the builders enabled Linux assist for its anticheat. Now it is rated “Gold” on ProtonDB, a database devoted to monitoring Linux sport compatibility.

Past that, I do not do a ton of gaming, and after I do, the video games are typically supported on Linux, if not natively then by way of Proton. With Lutris or Heroic Recreation Launcher, I can use non-Steam storefronts like Epic Video games and GoG with out an excessive amount of problem.

I’ve Discovered Replacements for Home windows Exclusives

Talking of Home windows video games, a knack of Home windows is its near-universal software program assist. If an utility exists for a desktop pc, it in all probability exists for Home windows, whereas that is removed from assured on Linux.

That is very true for lots of area of interest software program for specialised work like 3D modeling, music composition, and graphic design. Functions which can be thought of normal in some industries have restricted or zero assist for Linux. You may typically run it in Wine, however typically it is an outdated model, otherwise you face annoying bugs. Luckily for me, I am not in these specialised industries.

What I can do is edit paperwork and spreadsheets in LibreOffice as a substitute of Microsoft 365. I can evaluation and annotate PDFs in Okular as a substitute if Adobe Acrobat. I could make the picture edits I would like in GIMP or, extra typically as of late, Gwenview, as a substitute of Adobe Photoshop. Whereas I do know not everybody can say the identical due to their distinctive workflows, there is not a lot on Home windows that I miss.

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I am not bothered if anyon else prefers the Home windows 11 expertise. I’ve spent quite a lot of time with Home windows, Linux, and macOS, and I simply choose Linux plain and easy. In the event you resolve to install Linux yourself, you is perhaps shocked what Windows apps also run on Linux.