Andy Young, an ex-Microsoft senior software engineer, posted a message on X/Twitter bemoaning that even with his $1,600 Core i9 CPU and 128 GB of RAM, Windows...
This is what I’ve been saying for years. Windows 11 is a big step backwards for performance.
I have a beefy laptop with W11 and a Ryzen 9 5900HX and 32GB RAM and a high end SSD, but the start menu takes up to a full second to open, the File manager takes 2-3 seconds to open and 1 second to “work on” the directory I entered, task manager takes like 5 seconds now, and sometimes my CPU randomly spikes to 80+ degrees C while the desktop is idle.
On Ubuntu (not known for being lightweight, quite the contrary in the Linux world), there is extremely minimal lag and basic system functions are near instant. I’d use it more if the WiFi was more reliable (my average packet loss is 39% in some frequently visited areas where Windows doesn’t struggle at all)
Also, for work I used a W10 desktop with a i7-8700K CPU and random SSD, and nothing in the OS lagged or was unresponsive. File manager was nearly instant, even when the system was hit with significant load elsewhere.
At work I have your standard corporate Dell laptop running Microsoft 365. I run Linux in a VM to do my work and it’s pretty funny how responsive it is compared with the host OS running on the actual hardware. Funny in a sad way, really.
And this is still on windows 10, not even updated to 11 yet.
My mother in law’s laptop was getting slower and slower and finally went BSOD with a memory error. She was going to toss it but I suggested trying Ubuntu first because all she did was in a web browser anyway . Installed. Ran fine. For 6 more years.
When it launched it was lauded for having similar system requirements to Win7, and was easier to run than 8/8.1, but it just got more and more bloated over time as MS transitioned from a “sell Windows for a profit” business model to a “sell Windows for a profit and collect as much personal information and show as many ads as we can get away with for profit” business model.
Imagine what Microsoft could be achieving if they actually gave the slightest shit about actually improving their product? Windows could be amazing. But it isn’t.
Windows 10 got a new kernel that was unquestionably better than the previous ones. This meant that even though it was a step backwards in some ways from Windows 7 (and 8 isn’t even worth mention), it was capable of better performance.
I’ve asked a few times if anyone can give any good reasons for switching to 11 from 10 other than “it’s newer” or “ms is sunsetting win10” and have yet to see a compelling response. Virtual desktop support is the best answer so far, but I had that on Windows 20 years ago with litestep (I think that’s what it was called, it was an alternate desktop program).
It seems that Microsoft has just decided that they are going to throw their market dominance and reputation (which for some reason is good in the business and government world) around rather than offer good products.
that could be it. I never asked, the person that relayed that says it was significant enough for win11 to run faster than win10 for them. No idea how much i trust them on that one though.
if you really want to hit minimalist in terms of linux environments, WMs are the way to go. They strip all the fluff from a DE and only give you the bare essentials. Everything else is something you bring, which honestly, not as big of a problem as you would think.
This is what I’ve been saying for years. Windows 11 is a big step backwards for performance.
I have a beefy laptop with W11 and a Ryzen 9 5900HX and 32GB RAM and a high end SSD, but the start menu takes up to a full second to open, the File manager takes 2-3 seconds to open and 1 second to “work on” the directory I entered, task manager takes like 5 seconds now, and sometimes my CPU randomly spikes to 80+ degrees C while the desktop is idle.
On Ubuntu (not known for being lightweight, quite the contrary in the Linux world), there is extremely minimal lag and basic system functions are near instant. I’d use it more if the WiFi was more reliable (my average packet loss is 39% in some frequently visited areas where Windows doesn’t struggle at all)
Also, for work I used a W10 desktop with a i7-8700K CPU and random SSD, and nothing in the OS lagged or was unresponsive. File manager was nearly instant, even when the system was hit with significant load elsewhere.
At work I have your standard corporate Dell laptop running Microsoft 365. I run Linux in a VM to do my work and it’s pretty funny how responsive it is compared with the host OS running on the actual hardware. Funny in a sad way, really.
And this is still on windows 10, not even updated to 11 yet.
My mother in law’s laptop was getting slower and slower and finally went BSOD with a memory error. She was going to toss it but I suggested trying Ubuntu first because all she did was in a web browser anyway . Installed. Ran fine. For 6 more years.
Win10 is the same these days.
When it launched it was lauded for having similar system requirements to Win7, and was easier to run than 8/8.1, but it just got more and more bloated over time as MS transitioned from a “sell Windows for a profit” business model to a “sell Windows for a profit and collect as much personal information and show as many ads as we can get away with for profit” business model.
Imagine what Microsoft could be achieving if they actually gave the slightest shit about actually improving their product? Windows could be amazing. But it isn’t.
Windows 10 got a new kernel that was unquestionably better than the previous ones. This meant that even though it was a step backwards in some ways from Windows 7 (and 8 isn’t even worth mention), it was capable of better performance.
I’ve asked a few times if anyone can give any good reasons for switching to 11 from 10 other than “it’s newer” or “ms is sunsetting win10” and have yet to see a compelling response. Virtual desktop support is the best answer so far, but I had that on Windows 20 years ago with litestep (I think that’s what it was called, it was an alternate desktop program).
It seems that Microsoft has just decided that they are going to throw their market dominance and reputation (which for some reason is good in the business and government world) around rather than offer good products.
uhm, i believe win 11 has a better scheduler. It schedules more efficiently. That’s the one argument i’ve heard in favor of win11.
I think that it’s scheduler is better for those Intel bigLittle CPUs
that could be it. I never asked, the person that relayed that says it was significant enough for win11 to run faster than win10 for them. No idea how much i trust them on that one though.
What are the lightweight Linux distributions?
There are multiple tiers of lightweight.
“Middleweight”: Something like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, or anything with KDE or XFCE, or MATE
More lightweight: Lubuntu, anything with LXQt
Super lightweight: AntiX, something with Trinity Desktop Environment or just a window manager instead of a full desktop environment
Most lightweight: Just a command line with no GUI (barebones Arch maybe?)
if you really want to hit minimalist in terms of linux environments, WMs are the way to go. They strip all the fluff from a DE and only give you the bare essentials. Everything else is something you bring, which honestly, not as big of a problem as you would think.
Compared to windows 11 all of them are