Windows 10 gone in 2025, Windows 11 on the way

[crosscourt]

Working with desktop users out here depends on personalities and backgrounds. Most are desperate to get their systems back up and running and in most cases, they were the ones that screwed it up, followed by update issues, software issues , then hardware issues.

[wove]

A big Win 11 update was downloaded overnight. I had read it was to include an update to Notepad and Windows Media Player as well as enabling the Amazon Android store.

It was kind of a bust. In the end the Amazon Store needs an 8gen core processor and 8GB with 16GB recommended. That is a lot of horse power to run simple arm apps. The Surface go does not meet the processor requirements, which gives me something of a chuckle. It meets Win 11 requirements, and it is the one device I have where tablet apps would be very useful. It will install on the IdeaCentre, but I can think of no need for tablet apps on a 24" AIO.

I think the updated Notepad just adds a darkmode, and moves from being a system installed application to one that comes from the Store. The Surface Go updated the app, but has no darkmode, while the darkmode did show up on the IdeaCentre. Neither machine has updated the MediaPlayer.

I like Windows Media Player. It organizes media well and does an alright job of playing the media. Windows is also top notch at working with bluetooth devices, connecting, disconnecting, reconnecting and pair seem almost automatic. My wife and I both enjoy music and movies, and the ability to play them through a variety of devices, without interfering with each other's enjoyment in the same room is fairly easy if the bluetooth speakers are well behaved, and with Windows they always seem to be.

[crosscourt]

Bluetooth and wifi both are well supported in Windows. This is where I run into problems with people who want to try Linux, as there are still hardware issues to deal with at times.

[tlmiller]

weirdly, in general, Bluetooth is much better supported than WiFi in linux. I dont' know how many times I've bought the latest wifi+BT card out, the BT works, the wifi portion is nowhere to be found....

[CaptNoize]

I hope you get a better job. At this point in your life, you deserve it. Good Luck..!

[crosscourt]

Its interesting as surveys coming out this month show some bad news for Win11. Adoption rate for Win11 isnt as high as MS has reported and in March the adoption rate dropped. Among gamers its bad news as well, as the majority of gamers have stuck with Win10. Adoption among Enterprise users isnt good as well. The fact that MS has now designated 21H2 as a broad deployment further cements the fact that no one is in a rush to move to Win11.

[tlmiller]

Each time I try Win11, I'm not at all shocked by that. It seems like it's getting worse, not better. They're not trying to improve the basic UI to be usable or efficient, just concerned with "it must be minimal and pretty!!". This doesn't make for an efficient workflow if you're used to doing things on a fully functional OS.

[crosscourt]

Agreed and my guess is by 2025 they will slide a bit more in the functional direction.

[dai_trying]

I've found a way to bypass installation blockers (tpm/cpu) but I have not yet installed (or upgraded) any of my systems with it. My main laptop is upgradeable but I only really use it (on windows) for playing fortnite with my son/grandchildren and do not really want to have problems with windows as I have no time for the OS itself, so Win10 is staying for now.
I haven't really looked into it but have many issues been reported with Win11 yet?

[wove]

I purchased a Surface Go2 as a replacement for an older Android tablet. I supports Windows 11 and updated to that several months ago. I do not have much time for the OS either, but on the Surface Windows is sort of what you get to use. I just do tablet sorts of things with it. I have an RSS reader, and ebook reader and a pdf reader. It does handwriting and drawing quite well.

Neither Win10 nor Win11 is a very good tablet OS, but I have not had any real problems with either. The most annoying problem is that anytime I join a network that has a printer on it, Windows feels compelled to install drivers for it and make it available. I do not think there is any compelling reason to update Windows 10 to Windows 11, and I can not think of any reason I go to the effort of circumventing install blockers to do so.

Windows 10 and 11 can be annoying and aggravating, however both seem robust and stable. There are many reports of oddities and updating troubles, but I have not experienced them. MS is always playing with the UI, which for me resulting in no sooner do I figure how I am expected to do something, it is changed and I have to start all over.

I tend to think of productivity, work-ability and suitability to be mostly a function of the applications used, and while I know very little about the Windows ecosystem I have been able to find useful functional and stable applications to accomplish the tasks I want to do.

Playing with grandkids on the computer is indeed about the most fun you can have with a computer. When I spend an afternoon with kids, I find Cheese, Tuxpaint and Krita to be real hits.