[HN Gopher] Windows 11: Microsoft's pointless update
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       Windows 11: Microsoft's pointless update
        
       Author : behnamoh
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2021-10-18 17:37 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.computerworld.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.computerworld.com)
        
       | dxxvi wrote:
       | I'm dreaming of a day my workplace giving me a Windows 11 machine
       | that I can install WSLg on. Maybe 5-6 years from now.
        
         | 420official wrote:
         | Curious why not? Won't WSLg be included with wsl2 on windows
         | 11?
        
       | G3rn0ti wrote:
       | I am not a Windows fan either but I kept my pitchfork in the
       | garage after I watched a fair review of Windows 11, recently, and
       | it argued MS seriously tried to streamline its messy UI,
       | especially with respect to system configuration:
       | https://youtu.be/_G4aql8_shw
       | 
       | Not sure why they couldn't do this clean up using incremental
       | updates of Windows 10 but maybe the underlying changes were
       | actually too drastic and therefore too risky to ship in a rolling
       | release.
        
       | nodejs_rulez_1 wrote:
       | My CPU has a special feature where I will not be bugged with
       | prompts to update to Windows 11.
        
       | pjmlp wrote:
       | But those corners, look how nicely round they are!
       | 
       | Even for Windows developers it hardly has anything worthwhile,
       | note that most of the new stuff is UWP with WinUI 2.6 and not
       | WinUI 3.0, as they still have a pile of bugs and missing features
       | to take care of.
       | 
       | I bet some higher ups decided it was time to release Windows 11
       | no matter what, specially after Windows 10X being dropped.
        
         | nix23 wrote:
         | It would have been a really good idea to integrate ReFS
         | (optional) in all Windows-editions.
         | 
         | However, the Windows11 presentation touched my heart, Microsoft
         | is for me now a lifestyle brand and not just a software
         | producer anymore...it really touched me.
        
       | heybrendan wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/dwquU
        
       | Hokusai wrote:
       | I upgraded to Windows 11 beta. I get green Blue Screens of Death.
       | The right click button (contextual menu) does not cover all
       | previous functionality so it has a 'show old menu' option to
       | bring back what is lacking. Edge and Teams are installed by
       | default. It feels like an UI refresh and not much more.
        
         | peakaboo wrote:
         | It's only a matter of time before we find out how much extra
         | user spying they added in Windows 11, in exchange for having
         | icons in the middle of the taskbar.
         | 
         | Seriously, switch to Pop OS now. Windows is not going to get
         | better, only worse.
        
           | kloch wrote:
           | Will Pop OS run Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020? That's
           | literally the only thing I use Windows for.
        
             | peakaboo wrote:
             | Yes. Linux run most games now. In practice there are a few
             | small bugs here and there so Windows is still prefered for
             | some games but I can play 90% of them on Linux with no
             | issues at all.
        
             | squarefoot wrote:
             | It runs fine on Arch Linux, so it shouldn't have problems
             | with Pop OS or other distros.
             | 
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgPjOh_zPx0
             | 
             | Check also:
             | 
             | https://www.gamingonlinux.com/
             | 
             | https://appdb.winehq.org/
        
               | circularfoyers wrote:
               | https://www.protondb.com/app/1250410 is the best source
               | to find out how any given Steam game will run on Linux.
        
               | heavyset_go wrote:
               | You can also use Proton to run Windows games and apps
               | outside of Steam.
        
         | hrrsn wrote:
         | The new contextual menu is great in places like the desktop,
         | where after choosing 'show more options' you get... the exact
         | same options, in the old style.
         | 
         | I was semi interested in a native Teams (wishful thinking that
         | it may be a little less resource intensive) until I found out
         | it's the 'personal' version only.
        
       | m0zg wrote:
       | Not just pointless: dumb. It doesn't support Skylake or first-gen
       | Threadripper, which happen to power almost all of my machines but
       | one, which uses third-gen Threadripper and will never see
       | anything other than Linux.
        
       | Barrin92 wrote:
       | >Some otherwise-fast processors can't run it. And without Trusted
       | Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, you're going nowhere. Out of the half-
       | dozen Windows 10 systems I or my partner owned in 2020, not one
       | could run Windows 11.
       | 
       | The 8th gen processor requirements are really craziness. what
       | kind of mainstream operating system is supposed to not run on
       | four year old hardware?
        
         | cogman10 wrote:
         | Android
        
       | ocdtrekkie wrote:
       | The reason why is obvious, it just isn't for the consumer:
       | Microsoft needs to significantly raise the support requirements
       | going forward, without telling a bunch of people their now
       | "current" computer is being dropped based on how old it's
       | processor is. Windows 11 exists to offer a final support coda for
       | a lot of old PCs that Microsoft doesn't want to maintain support
       | for.
       | 
       | Also, banner features like Android app support aren't part of
       | launch, so there's only minimal change currently.
        
       | wutbrodo wrote:
       | > If you're using Windows 11 Home, you must have both an Internet
       | connection and a Microsoft account to run Windows 11 at all. No,
       | Internet, no Microsoft account, no Windows 11. You can't set up a
       | local user account or use your PC at all.
       | 
       | I feel like this is really burying the lede. This is another one
       | of those gaps that truly makes me wonder how anybody thinks that
       | Microsoft considers Windows anything but a toy OS, not suitable
       | for doing any tasks that the user considers remotely important to
       | them. (Another example is one I've brought up here before, where
       | Windows 7 would restart your computer without your consent, in
       | the middle of whatever you were doing, if you went long enough
       | without updating).
        
         | electroly wrote:
         | The article goes a little too far -- the quoted statement isn't
         | true. You can create a local account after the OOB experience
         | finishes. You only need a Microsoft account during the setup
         | process. It's still dumb but the author isn't telling the whole
         | truth here.
        
           | throwaway946513 wrote:
           | While this is true, the user shouldn't be forced to setup
           | near-required internet connection for the device to get it
           | running. Seeing the dark patterns with Windows 10 has already
           | motivated me elsewhere to switch to a Linux desktop at home.
        
         | Silhouette wrote:
         | You could always disable that sort of nonsense completely with
         | Windows 7. That's (one reason) why Windows 7 was qualitatively
         | better than the modern junk. Some of us actually do run multi-
         | day jobs from time to time, and not having 100% control of your
         | own computer in that environment is simply not an option.
        
       | MrYellowP wrote:
       | Pointless? They _had_ to bring out a new version due to the TPM
       | 2.0 requirement. They could not possibly put that into Windows
       | 10, because millions of devices don 't have TPM 2.0.
       | 
       | The rest is just everything around this one thing that requires a
       | version upgrade compared to just adding it to Windows 10.
        
       | tacker2000 wrote:
       | Mandatory microsoft account and online connection needed to
       | install the OS? No thanks!
        
         | alphakilo wrote:
         | Noted that it's only required for W11 Home, not Pro or
         | Enterprise
        
           | throwaway946513 wrote:
           | Shouldn't be required for Home users especially.
        
             | NoPicklez wrote:
             | Well technically, it makes more sense for it to not be in
             | Enterprise especially.
        
           | glandium wrote:
           | And it was already the case with Windows 10 Home.
        
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       (page generated 2021-10-18 23:02 UTC)