[fffrantz]

Honestly, if you're not playing video games or require Windows for certain apps and if you're a little tech savvy, why are you still using Windows?

It's not a rhetorical question, it's a real one. I'm really interested in what's keeping people on Windows nowadays, considering all the spying, nagging and overall hostile attitude Microsoft has against its users.

[tonymet]

I'm a linux developer and I run Windows 11 Pro on my devices ( a mini PC desktop & a laptop).

My development is done with VS Code + Windows terminal into WSL2, linux VMs and remote instances.

I use Windows for the great hardware support : power management, printers, scanners, webcams, usb microphone, usb wifi adapters, yubikeys. HyperV is great for VM management. MS Edge has great performance and cross-device sync. One-Drive has excellent OCR & search indexing. I use it to search & manage legal documents for various partnerships. MS Co-pilot is excellent for engineering & legal research. MS Designer (image gen) has been great for generating logos & designs. I've learned more about Powershell https://github.com/tonymet/powershell-scripts

I've spent time to remove all of the recommendations, news, online content, ads and bloatware features from Windows 11. I turn on "max performance" and everything is very snappy.

It's been the best OS experience I've had since Windows 2k.

Every tool requires time investment. I also don't like Windows 11's online /entertainment content. Many industries are going in that direction e.g. automotive.

Give it a try.

[ana_lysis]

What did you do to remove the news, ads etc.? A while ago I tried relatively hard to delete the news and I couldn’t.

[tonymet]

https://www.webnots.com/how-to-completely-disable-ads-and-su...

that's a pretty good overview

Also do start --> "adjust the performance of windows" --> choose "adjust for best performance". You can turn on essential stuff to your liking.

If you want to go down a rabbit hole, checkout Windows 11 debloat on github and then selectively disable those services & settings .

[tonymet]

also get the sysinternals suite on Microsoft Store and then run "autoruns" to disable all of your background / startup apps and services

[emnudge]

Having things "just work" can be really appealing. I once had an issue where my Linux distro of choice was having a tough time with my monitor orientation. I got quite a few linux gurus involved and none could figure it out. I'm sure it eventually would have worked, but that's not an experience I'm particularly fond of.

And then software that does exist will often have bugs for Linux that are overlooked due to how small the market is.

[tonymet]

this too. I used to be an obsessive linux geek who ran gentoo and knew every config file format .

Now i'm an old man and I want my tools to get out of the way so i can get the job done.

[recursive]

Inertia. I don't have a lot of mental energy to think about operating systems. Which distribution should I use? Will my hardware be supported? I ponder these things for 2 or 3 minutes. Then I defer the question for another year.

[timbit42]

Try Linux Mint.

[louthy]

I dual boot. I spend most of my time in Linux, but need to use Windows to use my soundcard for music production