Mastodawn

Had cause to installWin11 on my gaming PC last night. On a fresh SSD with the main one disconnected, of course, so it doesn't decide "Hey, all of this is mine now".

And my god, it's a shitty experience.

First, I had to use another Windows PC to make the installer, because WIndows is a special snow flake.

Then I figured I'd save myself the arsehole of having to open the PC up by installing it via a USB>SATA adapter I have. Nope. Windows can't be installed on a device connected by USB. Because fuck you.

Then I had to dig about in the BIOS to change boot order and set secure boot.

Then it took half an hour to install.

The two saving graces were that I used Rufus to create the installer, so it copied the user account and set the installer up so I didn't have to figure out how to swerve setting up with an MS account. And the Nvidia drivers downloaded and installed automatically.

And to make matters worse, after all THAT, I had Windows 11 on my PC. Horrendous.

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DJDarren Mar 13

It makes me realise that a good part of the reason why Linux users handwave away many of the issues inherent in that OS, is because the general experience of setting it up is so much less hassle*.

You can make the installer right there in Disks without any special settings. You can install it wherever you want: Hell, for the first three months I had that PC, I had Kubuntu running off a 1Tb USB3 SSD. Never had a problem with it.

And the entire process of installing takes 10 minutes.

The only area that a Winstall is better is in setting up the Nvidia drivers, because fuck Nvidia.
_
*acknowledging, of course, my privilege of not needing any accessibility features to install an OS

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Geoff Mar 13

@DJDarren I haven’t really used Windows in years but I’ve had to use @shezza_t ‘s Windows ‘puter for A Thing the last few days and OMG!

I was a long-time Windows user and developer for years so I expected the experience to be like putting on comfy slippers. It was not like putting on comfy slippers. It was horrible.

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@shezza_t Mar 13

@OpinionatedGeek What can I say? Three decades in the corporate Windows world has irretrievably programmed my brain. I still struggle on the MacBook, even after all these years.

@DJDarren

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Charles Anthony Mar 13

@shezza_t @OpinionatedGeek @DJDarren finally managed to get Work to let us use (and buy us) MacBooks instead of Windows +WSL.

For the last 2 months, my life has been _so_ much better (nb: 20+years dev on Win, 5 deploying sw on and using Linux. been MacOs at home for 10years. I don’t want to think too much in my spare time )

(Linux as a boot/dual boot is a hard no due to Enterprise IT and having to do Compliance for work with Banks)

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Geoff Mar 13

@spoonrefuter @shezza_t @DJDarren The last place I contracted I started out getting a Windows laptop but then I moved project and got a Macbook. Everyone there wanted Macbooks! They kept asking IT for Macbooks! IT were plagued by the requests.

They asked why everyone wanted Macbooks and were told "It's because you IT folks have locked the Windows systems down so much we can't do our work."

"Fair enough", says IT, who then proceeded to lock down the Macbooks.

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Charles Anthony

@OpinionatedGeek @shezza_t @DJDarren there’s is a touch of that, true. The virus checking on Windows completely screws compiles&builss, though (windows defender) even with exclusions. (Intercepts every file io, even if ignored) : macOS virus checks seems to have a minimal impact. (Yes, neither are stock os things - but we had the same with other Windows Virus Checkers too)