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**ZDNET’s Key Observations**
Jack Wallen, an experienced technology journalist and dedicated Linux advocate, devoted an entire week to examining Windows 11 as his primary operating system. Throughout this deliberate experiment, he encountered a striking variety of issues—some technical, others experiential—that profoundly reshaped his perception of Microsoft’s platform. Ultimately, the ordeal reinforced his appreciation for the elegance, flexibility, and reliability of Linux.
“Why do people willingly use Windows?” That bewildered thought crossed my mind less than an hour after I began my trial of Windows 11, and during the ensuing seven days, not once did I manage to uncover a convincing answer.
My name is Jack Wallen, and I admit to a sort of technological masochism. Exactly one week ago, I made the questionable decision to replace my beloved Linux setup with Windows 11 as my daily computing environment. I began the process without bias, consciously striving to maintain an open and optimistic attitude. In fact, I sincerely hoped the experience would prove to be refreshing and even enjoyable.
**Also:** Interested in leaving Windows behind? There’s a Linux distribution that makes migration a truly graceful process.
My intention was simple: to immerse myself fully in Windows 11 and to discover—through first-hand experience—precisely why so many people rely on this operating system for both professional and personal use. Given its reputation and marketing, I anticipated a system that was efficient, responsive, user-centric, and stable. Unfortunately, my expectations were swiftly dismantled.
To be fair, I’ve spent years in the Linux ecosystem, accustomed to an environment that grants me absolute control over how my system behaves, looks, and performs. In that world, my desktop exists to serve me, not the other way around. Using Windows 11, however, felt like being unceremoniously demoted from driver to passenger—stranded in the back seat as unseen “adults” dictated what, when, and how things should be done.
Let me provide a detailed account of my experience. My hope is that, by the end, you too will understand why the freedom and precision offered by Linux are so difficult to relinquish.
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**1. The ordeal of creating a local account**
Immediately after installation, Windows 11 demonstrated its uncanny ability to frustrate. I wished to sign in using a local account rather than a Microsoft online account—a reasonable desire for anyone seeking privacy or independence. What should have been a straightforward task instead became a maddening process of hidden options and irritating prompts. By contrast, on Linux, I could simply issue the terminal command `sudo adduser jack`, provide a name and password, and be done. The simplicity is liberating; the difference, staggering. Windows, on the other hand, seemed to demand a symbolic pledge of allegiance to Microsoft before granting me basic access.
Your first interaction with a new operating system should inspire confidence, not lead you to pull your hair out in frustration.
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**2. Google Passkeys refusal**
Next, I tried to set up Google’s new passkey system for authentication. Whether the fault lay with Google’s implementation or Microsoft’s security model, I could not, under any circumstances, get my Google account to recognize the Windows environment. Ironically, I could create a new Linux virtual machine and connect instantly. Windows required enabling the “Hello” service—a cumbersome extra step—and even then, passkeys refused to function properly. Holding my Google passkey physically in hand, I still faced a wall of incompatibility. The experience was exasperating.
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**3. The catastrophic email client saga**
In search of a reliable email solution, I turned to Microsoft’s App Store and selected Mailbird. Installation was easy—initially. But the moment I set up my account, the application displayed an intrusive pop-up aggressively pushing its paid version. Unlike a typical dismissible advertisement, this one hijacked control of my entire workspace, preventing access to system tools or terminals that might close it. The only escape was to reboot the system repeatedly until I could swiftly uninstall the app before it launched itself again. On Linux, this scenario would never occur; a single SSH command could remove any misbehaving application without interrupting my workflow.
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**4. The paradox of “natural” scrolling**
My next challenge involved what Windows 11 calls “natural scrolling.” Whoever conceived this idea clearly forgot to ensure it worked as expected. I quickly navigated to the settings and attempted to reverse the scroll direction to my personal preference. Yet, regardless of how many times I toggled the option, the operating system ignored my decision entirely. My hands and mind had to constantly recalibrate as if I had entered an uncanny alternate dimension—“Bizzaroworld,” as I came to think of it.
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**5. Advertisements within the operating system**
To my astonishment, Windows 11 surfaced advertisements directly inside its user interface—on the left panel and within the desktop menu itself. Seeing promotional material embedded in the core environment of a professional operating system felt almost surreal. The concept of ad-free computing, something Linux guarantees by design, suddenly seemed like a luxury. To preserve my sanity, I installed the Seelen window manager to bypass the intrusive design. The fact that such a workaround was necessary at all is both absurd and revealing.
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**6. The tyranny of OneDrive defaults**
Within an hour of work, I went to save a document and discovered that the default storage location was Microsoft’s OneDrive—even though I had not logged into it, nor did I intend to. For privacy and efficiency reasons, I prefer to keep files local, free from involuntary cloud synchronization. Windows 11’s insistence otherwise was discouraging and unnerving. Although I briefly considered removing OneDrive entirely, I resisted, unwilling to invest additional effort for what was supposed to be a temporary evaluation.
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**7. Excessive resource consumption**
Before long, I noticed that my laptop’s fans roared incessantly. Investigating further, I found the culprit: a background process named `msedgewebview2.exe`, part of the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime, which inexplicably consumed vast system resources. What made this particularly baffling was that I had replaced Edge with the Opera browser, using it exclusively. Even so, this process devoured more CPU power than Opera running a dozen active tabs. Whatever its purpose, its impact on performance was indefensible.
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**8. Confusing security management**
Given Windows’ long-standing vulnerability history, I expected robust layers of built-in protection. To my surprise, when I opened the Windows Security dashboard, several modules—including Virus & Threat Protection—appeared disabled. Strangely, another page simultaneously listed them as active. This inconsistency left me unsure which status was accurate. Linux, by contrast, rarely requires such defensive overhead at all. I had anticipated overprotection; what I found instead was ambiguity and risk.
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**9. Power management absurdities**
While testing Windows 11 on a laptop, I realized that the display never dimmed or entered sleep mode automatically—something Linux systems routinely detect and handle. Without intervention, I could have easily drained the battery mid-task. This default oversight suggests a lack of attention to energy-efficient behavior on portable devices. For an operating system as mature as Windows, such a lapse should be inconceivable.
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Throughout the week, an unsettling sense persisted: a constant fear that at any moment Windows might crash, freeze, or restart itself for an unwanted update. Not once did I feel comfortable enough to simply work without vigilance. Predictability, efficiency, and trust—all missing.
And so, as I write these final reflections, I am preparing to transition back to my comforting digital refuge: Linux. My brief tenure with Windows 11 illuminated one clear truth—Linux remains, by every rational and experiential measure, the superior operating system. It offers not only control and performance but also a sense of harmony that its proprietary counterpart fails to emulate. For me, this journey confirmed what countless open-source enthusiasts already know: once you have lived in the freedom of Linux, it is nearly impossible to return willingly to Windows.
Sourse: https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-ditched-linux-for-windows-11-9-big-problems/
