Windows 11

[Humboldt]

My father keep asking about it, available as an option at the university I think.

Any opinions?

Everything I've read is that it's still pretty buggy and to wait for the fixes.

[Philip]

I don't run it yet on my main desktop, I will wait for a bit more mature build, but it is very usable.

With Windows 11 MS moved the menu down to the middle of the taskbar, seems like another move closer to OS-X and Linux GUIs, even though one can still move back to the original menu system. You can no longer move the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen. The Start menu is simplified, tiles are replaced by widgets, and some features are removed (Windows timeline, tiles, naming of sections in the Start Menu, etc.), Online search is forced, I think you can only disable it by Group Policy which implies using the Pro version.

[Easto]

Philip, thanks for the info. I will probably install it once it's made available to me through Win Update. What does give me pause is why they just didn't make it available to everyone immediately. Why are they distributing it in increments? My build is only about 6 months old and can surely handle it, but they haven't made it available through Win Update yet.

[Philip]

I suppose they're randomly selecting their beta-testers

[YeOldeStonecat]

Installed it on my main workstation at the office back in July or something like that...when the preview insiders became available. 2x other guys here did also.
Did not find it buggy at all, really just a GUI enhancement over Windows 10. It's like Microsoft brought in a designer from the Apple team....task bar centered by default (like Apples Dock), softer windows, etc.

If you want it NOW, just get the Windows 11 installation assistant..it's similar to the Windows media creation tool...and kick it off.
There are registry tweaks to make if your hardware isn't up to snuff and gets denied.

We got new workstations at the office so my main rig is back to Win10 now, just got them a week or so ago, but I'll upgrade it again when I have time.

[Ahren]

I like it, I guess.
I installed it on my work laptop (Lenovo T15) and it looks nice but the changes seem mostly cosmetic.
My workstation (Thinkstation E31) at work is too old to run it, and though I could install it with the reg hack, MS saying they might not provide security updates is crappy.
MS forcing folks to upgrade hardware (a first) after saying Windows 10 would be the last OS they would release screams "whoops, we can't make money if we only put out rolling updates".

[BMED]

MS forcing folks to upgrade hardware (a first) after saying Windows 10 would be the last OS they would release screams "whoops, we can't make money if we only put out rolling updates".

There is no good answer that is true, unfortunately MS and Apple suck at being transparent. Good luck!

[Leatherneck]

I wondered what the heck happen on my Laptop. It did some updates and then stuff was very different. Not too crazy about the menus, but I'll get used to it. I don't remember even being asked.

[YeOldeStonecat]

MS forcing folks to upgrade hardware (a first) after saying Windows 10 would be the last OS they would release screams "whoops, we can't make money if we only put out rolling updates".

The operating systems upgrades are "free".

As for the hardware, MS doesn't make much selling computers. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Acer, etc etc....they sell the hardware.
However, Microsoft has to deal with those CPU exploits, and decide where to draw the line as far as investing billions or trillions of dollars getting old, outdated, legacy hardware to run stable and secure. Why should Microsoft pay a team to develop patches for Windows 100 to patch spectre or meltdown on old Gen3 Intels? When hardware fixes by CPU makers started coming out around Gen8 and newer. One of the reasons older operating systems were wonky and unstable and exploitable was...MS was trying to make them support older hardware and support old software. Lesson learned!

[BMED]

I wondered what the heck happen on my Laptop. It did some updates and then stuff was very different. Not too crazy about the menus, but I'll get used to it. I don't remember even being asked.

They own you, your OS and all you do! I agree that it sucks...analog seems better these days!

[Debbie]

I have it and like it.

[Philip]

They own you, your OS and all you do! I agree that it sucks...analog seems better these days!

All the big companies are fighting over to track you, give you "free" services to collect big data and analyze it. Oh well, such is reality, unless you unplug from the world.