[integricho]

I wonder what route existing Windows power users should take after Windows 10 support ends next year.. I don't care about these features at all, I just need a Windows OS, bare, where I can install the tools I need, not what Microsoft thinks I need, and so it also serves as a decent, performant gaming PC. I know for the first point Linux is my obvious choice, which is totally fine, but gaming support on Linux never likely will be on par with Windows... though now that they are ruining even that with Windows 11 and likely 12, I have no idea what to do.

[jprete]

I have exactly the same question. I'm most likely to switch to Linux; I've heard that game support is a lot better than it used to be, and Valve has given developers an extra incentive to be compatible with Linux because of the Steam Deck.

I've heard that MS will offer paid security patches for three years, albeit with the cost doubling each year, so something like $70/$140/$280. I personally wouldn't want to do that for more than a year.

[forbiddenlake]

I switched to full time gaming on Linux (Arch) about six months ago. It is very good, and improving, though it will still often require tinkering (ProtonDB is very good for user reports). And certain games, like those with "kernel anti-cheat", probably won't work at all, indefinitely.

I can say that if you stick to Steam Deck Verified games, you will have very few problems; and if you enable compatibility (Proton) for non-Verified games, then almost every game will work, possibly with some tinkering.

I'm less familiar with non-Steam games, though I know Proton is not intended to be used outside of Steam. I guess that gaming outside of Steam would require more tinkering.

[glimshe]

I really don't understand the Windows 11 hysteria. As a long time Windows user, I did wait for Windows 11 to support the old taskbar style before upgrading, but now that it does... It's basically Windows 10 with a few new useful bells and whistles and a bunch of things that I don't care about but are trivially turned off. I'm yet to see the huge problems people talk about after using it daily for months - for me, at least, it's just a faster Windows 10 with a very slightly different look and feel.

[hakfoo]

The taskbar change is a symbolic thing. The company that spent decades pushing "we don't break the customer's workflow" has decided that's no longer a high priority.

They are playing at a unique scale: even a "narrow interest" feature with .1% take rate is millions of people they snub if they break it. That's a huge responsibility and they used to be very good and respecting it.

The fact they backpedaled some of the changes shows that it wasn't actually a difficult technical limitation, or necessary to enable some new vision. So we can either give them the benefit of the doubt and say they lacked the resources to prioritize these features (on a trillion dollar company?) or we can figure it's a mindset of "if we break people's existing workflow, it steers them into something we prefer" (see, any excuse they can find to monkey with people's default browsers and home pages).

My work sent me a Win11 laptop. I dislike it because of an obvious trifling thing (I miss being able to click on the clock and get a pop-up month calendar), but there are other nuisances:

* Rounded window corners. I don't know who is begging for them, because it's the trend in several newer Wayland desktops, MacOS, and now Win11. It might work well with exclusively new software designed assuming there are keep-out areas, but right now we still have the occasional legacy program with some trim in the corner that's being unceremoniously cut off. This seems like something that would be a themable option, but the ability to style Windows with built-in tools seems to have peaked years ago and is crumbling with every new version. The overall look just felt off, like someone was trying to convince their elderly Grandma that a KDE desktop with Firefox was the Windows XP + IE6 he was used to.

* The constant unasked-for changes. This last week, my machine started displaying a bunch of weather and sports boxes on the lock-screen. I didn't ask for that. I assume it's an extension of the earlier "let's put a bunch of random dialog on the lock screen about the random wallpaper, which happened to of course link back to Bing" feature I didn't ask for. I don't know how to be rid of it offhand, and can't be bothered trying to find out. (It's a work machine, so I'm not going to put that much effort into making it 'mine'.) But I shouldn't have to be going in and making changes to keep the machine I use for work purposes in a predictable steady state (modulo security fixes).

[mcswell]

You don't understand why Rounded Corners are Better? Oh my! It's because they're New and Refreshed! But don't worry, in Windows 12 there will be Square Corners, and they'll be Brand New and Re-Refreshed!

[whywhywhywhy]

The panic of not changing things windows users freak out about is why windows only got a filter-able task manager last year, why command prompt was garbage for decades and so on.

The problem is now they’re finally changing some things that objectively sucked the ad people in the company are also along for the ride. But they always had the power to change things, now things that sucked are finally getting fixed.

Praying explorer gets a rewrite cos it’s slow jacked garbage

[Zardoz84]

The last time that I chekeded Windows 11 was far worse that Windows 10 or 8. They are breaking the things for worse, not for better.

[delfinom]

Personally I wonder if the loudest individuals are just on the spectrum and terrified of change. We still get abuse here and there at our OSS project because we don't support Windows XP, let alone 7.

[integricho]

my wife is using win11 and I was checking it out from time to time. I didn't notice the taskbar is revertible to the old style, since when is that available and is that builtin or achievable with 3rd party software?

most of my annoyance comes down to the increased telemetry, ads everywhere, and the overall look of the system, dumbing the UI down basically.but I do have concerns of them breaking compatibility with older apps as well.

[gertrunde]

I'm not sure I would describe it as revertible to the old style at all.

What you can do is change the alignment to the side instead of the centre.

There are still quite a few annoyances in the taskbar/start menu/system tray area, things that feel like they have changed for the worse.

[tom_]

The task bar is still a bit limited - you can't dock it to the side of the screen, nor can you make it taller, nor (if only shown on one display) can you move it off the primary display.

[glimshe]

I've never seen an ad on Windows, and mine came with the laptop - I believe that's because I disable all personalization features when first setting up my laptop. Anyway, the old school bar has been available as a built-in "feature" for probably around a year, you can select "Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels: Never" in the taskbar settings.

[anamax]

Windows 11 won't run on my current desktop.

Also, Windows 10 is the last Windows OS that supports many "not subscription" services. (Desktop Quicken 2016/2017 does everything I need, so why should I pay for a subscription?)

[delfinom]

Quicken shouldn't be able to tell the difference between 10 and 11. Especially if it's an old release. Windows 11 reports itself as Windows 10 in the win32 API and the only way to tell is to look at the "build numbers" instead of major minor. Hah.

[jareklupinski]

when LTSC stops being supported, I'm just going to install Debian as my primary OS

it was the News popping up uninvited in the Start Menu that ended Windows for me

i was just about to get into a groove for a project, and a News article popped up with a headline that totally knocked all the wind out of my sails

[daveoc64]

I was really concerned about the direction Windows 11 was going in, but after trying it out, there's really not much I don't like.

I don't even have to use any of the third-party tools that remove OS functionality - just changing easily accessible settings and Group Policy is enough to get it working how I want it.

Windows 10 feels dated in comparison now.

[5e92cb50239222b]

LTSC IoT will get you to 2032, and something is likely to change by that date. Of course, if you absolutely insist on using a "genuine" license (even though we're taking about a company that has zero respect for its users — eye for an eye IMHO is a suitable option), there is no choice but listen to the overlord.

[abrookewood]

The only thing that kept me on Windows on my personal machine was gaming and the Steam Deck has pretty much solved that. I've been running Kubuntu for ~10 months and can't think of anything I really miss.

That's not to say that there aren't issues (I rushed the Nvidia drivers and that resulted in a blank screen), but I'm definitely less annoyed - no more constantly trying to get rid of OneDrive only for it to re-appear, no more removing apps that I never asked for etc

[Zardoz84]

> I know for the first point Linux is my obvious choice, which is totally fine, but gaming support on Linux never likely will be on par with Windows... though now that they are ruining even that with Windows 11 and likely 12, I have no idea what to do.

I keep using the last 4 or 5 years using Linux as my gaming OS (and everything). this includes AAA games, and I don't had issues. Plus, I can update my whole system at same time that I'm playing Stellaris without any issue.

[Am4TIfIsER0ppos]

Keep using it. There isn't a kill switch that microsoft is going to throw on that date. Probably.

[CLiED]

I held the 'upgrade' from 7 to 10 for more than a decade, when I did I had to remove a lot of stuff to get back my baseline usability, so once more unto the breach when I get around doing that methinks.

[integricho]

wow, that was brave, were you disconnected with that PC from the internet and so had no concerns, or just behind a good firewall and you browsed the internet sensibly?

[brudgers]

I wonder what route existing Windows power users should take after Windows 10 support ends next year.

I no longer think of myself as a power user and that seems to make my life easier and more productive.

I think about it like cars on the road. Getting from A to B is the point. Sure sometimes the complexity of an alternate route is more efficient but oftentimes sitting in the slow down is the fastest way.

That's different from making a hobby of driving backroads. There's nothing wrong with making computers a hobby "also." It's also ok to choose other hobbies and just treat computers as tools.

As cattle not pets. Have a cow that doesn't connect to the itnernet. Have a cow that runs Linus. Have one that doesn't pretend it can outgun Microsoft. You'll have more surfaces to put stickers on for aesthetics.

If I gamed, I'd buy a console. But that's me. YMMV.

[flohofwoe]

> I think about it like cars on the road. Getting from A to B is the point.

That's also a reasonable requirement for power users, I don't even consider myself a Windows power user since I mostly live in the terminal, browser and IDE - and play games of course, but gamers are hardly 'power users' either).

But Windows has been on a long downward spiral both for 'regular' and 'power' users (unless one counts stupid ideas like displaying ads in a desktop OS as a useful feature).

[brudgers]

Windows has been my primary OS since 3.1 except for six or eight years when I drove Linux everyday. I went back to Windows when I stopped believing myself a snowflake.

Sure there's a bunch of bullshit in Windows. But I see ads on my desktop when I browse the internet anyway. I'll live.

[lostmsu]

I don't really play any games that would not need mouse. Strategies, MOBAs, and and FPS are shit without one. So a console is useless to me.