Windows 11: The little engine that could, eventually Advertising company AdDuplex has published its latest set of Windows usage figures and it looks like there might be light at the end of the tunnel for Windows 11. Only the most ardent Microsoft apologists would insist all is well with Windows 11 adoption. Share growth of the OS stalled earlier this year and between March and …
Maybe if Microsoft produced an operating system that provided users with functionality they wanted and could see an advantage in using?
Instead, it seems that every version (since W7) has been worse. Pointless rearrangements. Harder to use. Bloated with crap. More intrusive updates and becoming more of a platform for advertising than an environment to get things done.
I assume it's because I have the Enterprise version coupled with a PiHole that I don't really see the advertising but I know what you mean - my dad and brother in law both use Home versions of 10 and the adverts are dreadful and even on a home PC they have no place scattered throughout the entire OS.
I also don't understand MS's constant need to fiddle with the UI. I am not a Luddite but I often have to stop and wonder if the likes of me, a veteran of IT since before Windows 3 sometimes struggles to find the way to do what I want to do, then how is the average user supposed to manage?
Things like removing the task manager option when I right-click the taskbar. Why? What possible reason is there to do that? Did it really take up so much real estate that it had to go?
Why are there *still* duplicated ways to change settings in Control Panel and Settings? And what the fuck MS...why have you removed all the OK dialogues and apply the changes in real time?
Ok I know most of these are Windows 10 related as well but it just highlights this constant need of theirs to fiddle in ways that make users' lives harder.
And of course there's the elephant in the room: working in the EUC space for the last few years I've seen companies go through the pain of moving to Windows 10. Often they bought new hardware to do just that.
Why the hell would these companies then want to move to Windows 11 so soon? Given the ridiculous hardware requirements combined with Windows 10 support being good for another 3 years?
And no...I absolutely do not want to use an online MS account to log into my Windows machine. Stop it.
Advertising? what advertising, I haven't seen any in my win11?!?
Win11 on my laptop is the leanest it's ever been and most stable. I know it can be quite subjective depending on the machine but I'm finding it the best version of windows so far. If a restart is required then it is usually scheduled for when I'm not using it. I have more problems with O365 and it's updates than I do Windows.
I put Windows 11 on one laptop out of curiosity, it is stable and lean as you say and the laptop isn't even qualified hardware, I had to use the hack.
Some less mainstream device drivers don't work with it, but that's the vendor of the device being the problem (yes you Yaesu).
As near as I can tell the Windows GUI team must not use Windows themselves (Maybe Macs?). Every iteration seems to require more mouse clicks to do the things people do most. Every iteration makes it harder to work efficiently.
My company (market cap $4B) doesn't allow Windows 11 on any corporate machines, and only since the start of 2022 upgraded all the PC's on the factory floors OS's from Windows 7. To Windows 10. Plan is to stay with Windows 10 (Enterprise) until EOL. Too expensive to waste time on Windows du jour written more & more for people who don't do any work on PC's.
"Instead, it seems that every version (since W7) has been worse."
For the user it is, but the copious info vacuuming built into Win 11 benefits Microsoft big time. All that rich creamy data from you they can sell onto advertisers and provide wholesale to national security agencies. Every time you peck a character on your keyboard, they get a copy.
If you think anyone in Redmond cares about you in the slightest, think again.
Anyone with more than, say, 50 machines will have custom images for their machines, independent of what the machine comes with, and they will stick with Windows 10 as long as possible. When Windows 11 was announced, Microsoft also announced EOL for Windows 10 and that is the only stick that matters.
Multiple surveys from multiple systems gives a flavour of what's going on. Even MS and it's telemetry has imperfect view of what is actually out there.
But TBH market share of 7, 8, 10, 11 makes little difference to MS beyond perhaps deciding on an early EOL for certain products; or third party vendors deciding what platforms they support. Heck, in our IT estate, legacies of NT4 can still be found (e.g. how the AD is configured).
Intel's e-cores somewhat force the use of 11 which will be a factor in market share movement.
Beyond that I see little or no reason to move from 10, at least, within the choices of Windows. We do generally prefer one desktop build in circulation rather than multiple in parallel.
If the new OS has some feature that makes you sit up, blink in surprise, jaw dropped open in awe, thinking "Dayam, I gotta have me some of that!", then you will happily spend the money to get the upgrade.
But we're talking about Win10/11 which doesn't have anything even remotely close to anything that you want, instead being full of shite you *don't*. And you have to buy a brand new machine to get the hardware that is *barely* an upgrade from your current hardware (if at all) AND relearn where MS has rearranged all the deck chairs on the Titanic yet again? It's no wonder why uptake is low, folks are sick of jumping through all the hoops just to wind up back where you started if not farther back than before. =-/
Indeed. The only reason to get Win11 is because you bought a new computer. I just bought a new laptop (my old one started acting up), and the new one comes with Win11 (but I'm about to install Linux on it).
Which means Win11 is bound to become more and more common, but slowly, over a period. It's not something people want, it's something people will get nevertheless and no matter what.
Which is why Microsoft doesn't really bother to make it appealing. They know they can't lose market share, since there is no alternative: For a vast majority of businesses there isn't really a possible replacement for a Windows PC, simply because of the software (I'm talking serious businesses here, not those only needing a browser and half an office suite!).
Windows 8/8.1 - need MS Account to download from Windows Store.
Windows 10 - removed need for MS Account to download from Windows Store.
Windows 11 - Re-instated need for MS Account to download from Window Store.
Hard pass on Windows 11 unless I'm forced to buy new computer.
You forgot (unless it has changes again) that in non-enterprise versions you will have to have MS account to install/activate, no more local accounts.
Perhaps you can afterwards create and use local account but i'm not interested enough to even find out.
When time runs out on W10 then I suppose any game that doesn't run under Wine/Proton will lose out.
Any software that doesn't adequately run via Wine or some derivative thereof (Proton, etc.) belongs on a VM running W7 or earlier or W10 at the very most. Such a VM deserves GPU passthrough but no virtual networking unless said software absolutely requires it.
To think there was a time not long ago when we were more concerned with malware on (especially post-EOL) Win systems rather than the system itself being as dubious, dysfunctional and ad-ridden as whatever dodgy app your old mum, aunty or dog had installed because 'the website said...!'
A pleasant minor side effect of MS's recent change of MO these past 5-10 years, and to a lesser extent the Fruit Company's ever-increasing focus away from the desktop, is a slightly greater uptake in Linux distros that in the past decade or so have generally become usable for The Average User, as illustrated by countless anecdotes to the effect of 'my nan just needed an internet machine, so I installed Mint, which she hasn't realised or doesn't care isn't Windows'.
We've all seemed to have moved past the 'year of the Linux desktop' nonsense, maybe because of all the above - that is, if it hadn't already come and gone long ago.
I see Windows 11 as a good reason to upgrade my PC, because while my machine is hardware compliant my wife's is not so she get the internals of my old PC and I get some shiny new bits. But not yet as Microsoft will be supporting at least one Windows 10 release until October 14, 2025 so I have plenty of time to wait till there is a glut of chips on the market.
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I don't have that many machines to support & with only two build processes for desktops & one for laptops.
I do have other machines, that drive robots that check verify, then sort aircraft engine parts into balanced\matched pairs & measure turbine blades after grinding, not to mention the ones that record & log engine data under test.
The build process for the standard machines, takes 12 hours approximately, I'm hoping there's no new drive to upgrade to 11 as the process may drive me to icon.
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