[ActorNightly]

>Too bad the software is awful.

I swear, people just live in their echochambers these days. Win 11 pro + WSL2 is literally the best, do it all OS you can get these days.

Most peoples experience is with Windows home, which ironically is about as intrusive as Mac OS. When you get Windows Pro, you can disable all the annoying AI/Advertising shit that comes with Windows, and at that point, you get a system that is cleaner than Mac OS.

Then you install WSL2, which is a full linux environment down to being able to run graphical apps, use gpus natively, and even talk to usb ports.

Ive been on Win11 Pro for 4 years. The only major things that are installed under windows for me are VPN Software, Steam (with games), Ollama, and Browser. Everything else, I run under WSL2.

[HexDecOctBin]

> you can disable all the annoying AI/Advertising shit

What Stockholm Syndrome is this? Why should you have to do this in the first place?

[ActorNightly]

Are you pretending that Apple doesn't spam you with endless advertisements?

[VerifiedReports]

They don't. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't use a Mac.

[halffullbrain]

Well, they keep pushing the Creator Bundle when I open up the Numbers.app I bought bundled with the system. Perhaps they are implying creative bookkeeping?

[fortran77]

I open settings on my iPhone (settings!) and it says "Don't Miss 3 Free Months of Arcade" and a misleading notification red circle icon.

[VerifiedReports]

First... the comment was about the Mac.

Second... I just opened settings on my iPhone and not only didn't see any ad, but not even a place to put an ad. Where in the UI would an ad appear?

[ActorNightly]

They absolutely do. If you don't have a paid iCloud account, you get spammed urging you to upgrade for example. I really don't know why you feel so comfortable just blatanly lying when this is easily verifiable.

[VerifiedReports]

I don't have a paid account and don't get spammed. I don't know why you weren't able to specify WHERE you see all this "spam."

[HexDecOctBin]

Wouldn't know.

[fortran77]

I agree. I'm running Windows 11 Arm on an Asus Zenbook A16 right now. Lighting fast. I'm typing this comment while I'm compiling code and having Claude analyze packets coming from Wireshark that's on this machine. It's got 18 cores and 48GB of integrated memory, great battery life, and an OLED screen for $1699

I run Linux in a VM and Docker on it, and WSL2. No problems with anything.

I don't see any ads. I turn a number of "intrusive" features off, but nothing is hacked; these are just settings you can switch off.

(I am running Pro, though.)

[elxr]

That's one of the laptops I've been sort of looking into.

Can you run stuff like hyprland, and the linux-version of ghostty on it? Not familiar with the state of WSL2.

I'm honestly happy just using linux, but that zenbook a16 is just better value than a panther lake or mac alternative with a similar spec (RAM and display quality mainly). So if WSL2 essentially lets me just treat it as a linux laptop, or a close enough approximation without any real downsides, then it might sway me.

[fortran77]

I run Windows 11 Pro on it. I like it. I use WSL2 for command line/Docker stuff. If you're not insterested in using Windows 11 Pro as your main OS, I'd make sure someone's figured out how to run Linux native on it (and make sure all power management/audio/etc works!) before buying.

[elxr]

Thank you for showing the other side of the coin.

I doubt most of these "windows bad" regurgitators are being fair with their takes. Or they're gamers who don't even develop on their windows machines.

There is no way it's as bad as people are saying. If you really are able to use Win 11 pro and just run linux for 99% of your work, then that sounds pretty good to me.

[rrgok]

W11 Pro is awesome. I think currently it is the best OS.

Professional softwares, WSL2 and awesome native apps (Dopus, AHK2...)

I always try Linux but the fragmented nature just is not for me for desktop usage.

[rustcleaner]

> Win 11 pro + WSL2 is literally the best, do it all OS you can get these days.

Qubes OS enters the chat.

Spins up over a half-dozen disposable Windows qubes, variously behind VPN netvms, Tor netvms, and no netvms.

Qubes OS exits the chat.