I am an end-user who use both Windows 11 and Linux (Zorin OS) as my daily-drivers on dual-boot. I have recently switched my main workspace to Linux after getting frustrated by various design choices that Microsoft has taken in some of its latest iterations of Windows. While on one hand, I believe that Windows 11 is one of their best finished products ever since the Windows 7, on the other hand I am aware of its problems such as, inflated system requirements, redundant apps, and missing super user features. Still, I believe that Windows 11 is far more robust than the other previous iterations.
Since I mentioned that I am using Linux as my primary workspace, Windows 11 remains my main gaming platform. I would remove it from my system to have more storage space, but my extended warranty period preventing me to do so. Well, in theory, Lenovo shouldn’t be bothered about me using my system as I like to, but these companies expect you to use their product as they decided for you. Microsoft behaves in the similar patterns, and I will discuss this in brief in this article. Windows 11 behavior made me dual-boot Linux.
Should you Switch to Linux?
Switching from one OS to a different another doesn’t sound like a commitment, but it is. You are not switching just an OS, but you are changing your behavior of using your desktop. Windows has the biggest market share in desktop; every app you can ever imagine is available for Windows. However, it’s not the same with Linux. Commercial applications like Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office Suite are not available for Linux. Apps like SteelSeries Nahimic and Lenovo Vantage do not support Linux. I should forget the custom-tailored sound effects and gaming experience that Lenovo has designed for me. You cannot play Valorant on Linux; their anti-cheat software (Riot Vanguard) requires communication with kernel that your WINE/Proton can’t emulate.
If you are willing to make such compromises, or you have a desktop for personal usage, you can have a fully functional, free, and mature Windows 11 alternative. It requires little storage space, very thin system requirements, and comes in various flavors. It’s available for anyone these days and it’s not really that difficult as some are trying to make it. Not just that, Linux can play video games gracefully, especially steam games.
Why don’t we just look over some advantages that Linux has over Windows 11.
Linux Wins over Windows 11
Ad-free environment: Windows comes with many freemium apps pre-installed, Solitaire has its paid tier for some reason, and you will see ads on your login screen, plus the usual news feeds that are everywhere these days, except Linux. Linux doesn’t show any ads, neither it comes with freemium apps.
No Online Account Required: Windows behaves like Android OS that requires Google Account to use its services. Unlike Google, they have a terrible password recovery mechanism that can lock your account. I have been a victim of “Try another verification method” loop. On top of that, MS Store is redundant. There is a work around of using local account. But people still fall for it. You don’t need to sign up anywhere to install Linux in your hardware.
Freedom to choose your own browser: Many distros shipped with either Firefox or Brave, but you can remove them. Good luck getting rid of Edge browser, you can but risks are involved.
Freedom to choose default apps: I don’t want to pretend Linux is bloat free, take KDE for example. But you are free to uninstall many features without breaking the system. Or you can choose bloat free options like Fedora OS or Zorin core. You are allowed to choose any app as your default since you can remove any of the pre-existing app. Don’t like the File Manager? Install another one, make it default, and delete the former.
Light weighted OS experience: There is a beautiful software, WinDirStat, that you can use to track your directory size, you will be surprised how much storage System 32 folder and Windows default apps are taking up. In comparison, you have Linux with light weighted system file directories.
Customizations: Customization is no longer a priority for Microsoft. You work with what you have. Linux is heavily customizable with themes, icon packs, and extensions.
Desktop Environments: You have KDE, XCFE, Plasma, Cosmic, Gnome and handful of others. Compared to Windows 11 only available desktop environment that is not customizable. It is fine for a commercial software to have one but at least let us customize it.
Comparatively good battery performance: It depends upon your configurations. I am getting a better performance on my Zorin OS with TLP service running than Windows 11.
Better performance: Overall performance is better, faster app launches, and reading and writing speeds seems way faster than Windows 11.
Unified Settings: Windows 11 Settings app is still not finished, and in order to compensate with missing features they are shipping Control Panel. Linux distros come with their own unified settings. Checkmate Windows!
Community ran OSes: Linux is made by community (well many of them), you are free to choose any, and you don’t have to worry about a corporate sneaking into your computer and telling you how to use it.
Linux shows Battery Percentage: Oh Windows 11! Why don’t you show Battery Percentage on your Tray? 😔
Aliases: You may never use, or you can’t get enough of it. Aliases empowers you to make your own terminal level shortcuts. I made an alias to enable Python virtual environment with avenv, instead of writing “source .venv/bin/activate” every time I need it.
Dual Clipboard: You can do your regular copy-pasting with context menu or control key combinations, and you can make selections that copies the data automatically and paste it using Middle Mouse Button. You have dual clipboard in Linux, checkmate Windows 11.
Linux beyond the Pros
Modern Linux is just all glitters and gold. There are still so many shortcomings that Linux has that Windows 11 don’t. It comes with a fact that there is no dedicated multi-billion-dollar company is funding their development. Linux is a community driven project, for better or worse. Better because you don’t have deal with ads and there is no handholding or gatekeeping involved. Worse because a community can pivot the development on the basis of their ideologies.
But we should let this politics behind and let’s talk about 🎊 GAMING!!! 🎊
Gaming Performance on Linux
I have watched this videos and many other comparing Linux distros and Windows 11 gaming performance side-by-side. It is interesting to see how closer Linux has come to defeat Windows in their own game. It doesn’t mean that you have to switch to Linux. In fact, you don’t have to buy a Windows license anymore to play Video Games, just build your PC from scratch and install the lates gaming distro on it.
Motivated by such videos, I earlier decided to use Linux as a gaming space. But I didn’t get the similar experience like such benchmark videos available on YouTube. Infact, the finding was quite opposite.
I installed European Truck Simulator 2 through Steam, the easiest game to run and one of those games that is available for Linux. I did my test on POP OS, Zorin OS, and Windows 11, and these were my findings:
- Windows 11 gave me 70+ FPS with all settings high, 400% resolution scale.
- POP OS was struggling at 50+ FPS with 300% resolution scale.
- Zorin OS was getting bit less FPS than POP OS but hanged my system multiple times.
I also plated Control (Epic) through Heroic Launcher, but it failed to run. And when it ran, it crashed. Keep in mind that I forced my Nvidia to run at highest possible performance, with power settings running on Performance mode (in Zorin OS), charger connected, and on a very decent gaming laptop.
But it was still impressive to play video games on Linux using Proton. Steam Deck itself is running on Linux, and it is the best among all handheld available on market.
I have already mentioned the points that put Linux on good light, not just in comparison to Windows 11, but as a general Operating System. It doesn’t mean that Windows is defeated by Linux. Remember, the market share of Windows is 200% more than Linux for obvious reasons. Beyond that, I have a list of few points that shows where the Linux is still lacking behind.
Windows Wins over Linux
Limited Commerical Software Support: I have already mentioned it before. You are very limited when it comes to commercial software suites or the System companion software.
Gaming performance can be hit or miss: Depending on your hardware and/or the distro you choose to go with.
Imbalanced File Explorers: Windows 11 has a better file explorer in general. It balances both look and utilities. Nautilus looks good but is very limited, you can try other file manager with little bit of tinkering but either you theme is not applicable on it, UI be a mess, or comes with its own learning curve. I have Nautilus and Nemo.
Editing system files can brick your system: It’s a very unpopular opinion but Windows 11 out of all its iteration has the best self-healing system implemented into it. In Linux, you either don’t mess around with system files or ready to brick your system. Unless you have experience with Linux or you are very tech-friendly person with time in your hand, you are less likely to fix it yourself.
Limited software library: I have already mentioned it; large market share encourages developers to build for Windows. For me, Kindle is missing from Linux. I am aware about their web-app, but Kindle really shines with sideloaded E-books, something that you can’t access through their web-app.
Flatpaks: Flatpaks’ can be very expansive, as compared to MSIs. They are known as fatpaks among forum users.
UI inconsistency: I have this issue where custom cursor is not matching with the dash. I have that feature enabled where single click opens the directory, however the cursor shape on file picker and Desktop doesn’t match with cursor shape on file explorer. QT and GTK apps have different UI. Libre Spreadsheet has white foreground and background on hovering over menu. These little inconsistencies irk me a lot.
Distro Hopping, FOMO, and Compatibility with your device: I clubbed them all out of my own experience. One of them leads to another one. Distro Hopping comes out of FOMO. Incompatibility with your device triggers Distro hopping. You are going to spend a lot of time until you settle down to one. Reading reddit threads make me believe that commitment to stick with one distro in not the biggest forte of Linux user. They hop on to another when a shiny new update come.
Conclusion
To sum it up, Linux is getting better and better for personal use thanks to updated features and freedom of personalization. The recent development of Proton made it easier for gamers to migrate to Linux. Flatpak pull the restriction of using terminal for every single installation. It is becoming more of a default way of installing apps in Linux.
Windows on the other hand, is experimenting with NPUs to deliver AI friendly experience to their user. It is believed that AI PCs will become default option specially in the laptop market.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, AI laptops will be the only choice of laptop available to large businesses, up from less than 5% in 2023.
But currently you have a mess of a system that snoops on you. It forces you to use an online account and put your Desktop directory on OneDrive. It shows you countless ads and there is no escape from it. And above all, inflate system requirements with every update.
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