Someone asked me to give Windows 11 a spin, because, “you know, it’s really good, you will like it … Best Windows in 25 years!”. Well, truth be told, I was not convinced, what with “really good”, “like”, and “best” in a sentence describing a product leaving the Microsoft factory — and the subtle reference to any of its earlier versions did nothing to raise my hopes, either.

Yet test it I did and I have to admit that Windows 11 is not completely rotten — coming from a die–hard Debianite, that actually means quite something. However, I also did see plenty of room for improvement …

Since I liked the symbolism, I decided to give it a fair crack of the whip on the Easter weekend. What better time to sacrifice for someone else’s sins, right?

In a nutshell, I can see how someone might arrive at the assessment that Windows 11 is the best version in twenty–five years (Microsoft made a similar statement about Windows 10, by the way, with the distinction that they called it the best Windows ever). Twenty–five years or even all time, as someone who has been spoilt for over a decade with a plethora of options (literally at their fingertips) to set up and use a computer as they see fit, though, I didn’t stand a serious chance of learning to “like” it.

Please note that this is not going to be your average rant about how useless Microsoft or their products are. I’m not here to bash them for the gallery’s (or my own) entertainment. I have no dog in this fight, as I, unlike many a user out there, am not depending on the exclusive use of Windows (or any software in that ecosystem). That said, I think a neutral assessment (even though some may sound like tired clichés) — a fresh look from the outside, if you will — may go a long way towards a better Windows (some day), if considered seriously.

Preliminaries

For two simple reasons, I’m not going to reveal any specifics about the testing environment here:

  • In general, it should not make any difference for an operating system — or any one application — which hardware components in particular are used (if general technical requirements are met), as the average user has no obvious way of telling one from the other and, more often than not, has no choice (beyond reasonable limits) as to which components are employed in the mainstream computers they buy
  • In particular, because I have neither time nor intention to discuss the merits of random advice, such as “well, you should use this or that component or setup, instead”; I have seen that sort of “insight” once too often, such nonsense leads to nothing — it’s a waste of time and effort

However, the precious reader may rest assured that — unless explicitly mentioned otherwise — all software discussed in this review was published by Microsoft Corporation (or a trusted partner of theirs) and all hardware components met the requirements (as regards architecture and capabilities) published for Windows 11 at the time the test commenced. The testing environment was reasonably fast and stable and no alterations beyond what’s generally considered advisable were made before or during the test.

What Will Be Discussed Here?

For the precious reader’s convenience, here’s a list of issues discussed in this series of articles (I would not recommend to skip any part, but if that’s what you want, I won’t keep you from doing so):

Published on 18 April 2022 in Software

Tags:  Windows   Review

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