[BigMackCam]

Good to hear Mike. When I'm sure Autodesk will run OK, I'll move to Win11. What's the main differences between Win10 and Win11 you've found so far?

Not a huge amount, frankly. I'm probably doing Microsoft a disservice here, but so far (after a couple of days use) it feels like a user-interface refresh of Windows 10 - though I understand there's a lot under the hood that might come in useful to me later on regarding virtualisation / integration of linux, android etc. Anyway, it looks nicer with the rounded / flat window appearance. The start menu has been integrated into the task bar along with tiling and multiple desktop icons, and everything's centered "a la Mac". It doesn't look or feel as cluttered. The tiling options are quite nice, but I've never been a big user of these so it may just be a better organised and presented version of what already existed. Notifications seem less "in your face" and have been subtly combined into the date and time icon.

Overall, it just seems faster and smoother, and the UI and animations look nicer - but essentially it's the Windows OS we're already used to, at least from a casual user's perspective.

One thing I did notice is that the upgrade reverted me to a standard Lenovo display profile... I thought everything looked a bit "cool" compared to before. Now I've set it back to the last Argyll profile I created, and the colours look good again...

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Last edited by BigMackCam; 01-27-2022 at 02:20 AM.

[Dartmoor Dave]

I believe it's possible for both OS' to mount the other's drives (though I'm not certain), but I use separate partitions or drives.

Linux can read and write NTFS drives, but Windows can't read or write the ExtFS format that most Linux distros use. Although there are Windows utilities that will give it that option (Paragon does one). Either way, I agree with you that it's best to save your work on either a separate partition or physical drive that can be read by both OS.

I upgraded two PCs from Windows 7 to 10 for a charity last month, and as usual I found completely empty D: drives on both machines, with the C: drives full of people's work that they'd somehow managed to save in all sorts of crazy places. It drives me mad that people can't observe the simple self-discipline of saving their work inside some sort of a coherent directory structure on a drive other than the one with the OS on it. And modern operating systems and software seem to actively encourage people to scatter their user files around in random places.

Sorry about the off-topic rant.

[GUB]

Linux can read and write NTFS drives, but Windows can't read or write the ExtFS format that most Linux distros use. Although there are Windows utilities that will give it that option (Paragon does one). Either way, I agree with you that it's best to save your work on either a separate partition or physical drive that can be read by both OS.

I upgraded two PCs from Windows 7 to 10 for a charity last month, and as usual I found completely empty D: drives on both machines, with the C: drives full of people's work that they'd somehow managed to save in all sorts of crazy places. It drives me mad that people can't observe the simple self-discipline of saving their work inside some sort of a coherent directory structure on a drive other than the one with the OS on it. And modern operating systems and software seem to actively encourage people to scatter their user files around in random places.

Sorry about the off-topic rant.

Naaa totally agree with you on this one. Even Linux follows the windows stupidity and has custom "pictures" etc prearranged. And people like sheep obligingly fill them.

[BigMackCam]

Naaa totally agree with you on this one. Even Linux follows the windows stupidity and has custom "pictures" etc prearranged. And people like sheep obligingly fill them.

That similarity has actually worked out quite well for me... I have my NTFS data drive set up with the same broad user directory structure that Windows and Ubuntu provides by default, but then I have my own subdirectories under those - so for instance, under Pictures I have a Photos folder purely for my photographic files, then one for each year, then individual dates (per Lightroom's default) etc. Even my encrypted virtual drive follows the same basic folder structure for Documents, Pictures, and so on... so it's all pretty consistent. But I never, never store my data on the same drive and/or partition as my OS and apps...

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Last edited by BigMackCam; 01-27-2022 at 03:15 AM.

[MossyRocks]

Hopefully by then the printers will be more compatible with Linux.

I've found that most printers seem to work without issue in Linux unless there is some specific unique feature you are after. Most printers support postscript which makes compatibility easy. Scanners on the other hand kind of suck with Linux support but is slowly getting better.

[ThorSanchez]

Linux can read and write NTFS drives, but Windows can't read or write the ExtFS format that most Linux distros use. Although there are Windows utilities that will give it that option (Paragon does one). Either way, I agree with you that it's best to save your work on either a separate partition or physical drive that can be read by both OS.

I upgraded two PCs from Windows 7 to 10 for a charity last month, and as usual I found completely empty D: drives on both machines, with the C: drives full of people's work that they'd somehow managed to save in all sorts of crazy places. It drives me mad that people can't observe the simple self-discipline of saving their work inside some sort of a coherent directory structure on a drive other than the one with the OS on it. And modern operating systems and software seem to actively encourage people to scatter their user files around in random places.

Sorry about the off-topic rant.

You can tell a lot about a person just by seeing how many icons they have on their desktop, and how many unread emails they have. There's a guy who works for me that has every square millimeter of his Windows desktop full of random icons, and Outlook has 13,488 unread emails. Explains a lot...

[Haenzel]

... so far, everything's working just fine. Tested:

Lightroom 6 stand-alone
RawTherapee 5.8
Darktable 3.8.0
GIMP 2.10.30
Pentax DCU 5.9.3
... and a bunch of other photography-related apps...

All working as expected

Boot-up time on my Lenovo Legion 5 17IMH05H seems just ever-so-slightly longer than with Windows 10, but once logged in the OS feels a bit snappier than 10. Web browsing, in particular, feels more responsive... I don't think I'm imagining it; I was fully prepared to dislike it and revert to Win10 if necessary.

My laptop is set up for dual boot with Windows and Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS, and I still prefer using the latter much of the time... but so far, Windows 11 seems very nice, and very logical to use. I rather like it

I run Fedora 35 next to windows 10. Never bothered to upgrade windows to be honest....can't remember the last time I booted windows!

[BigMackCam]

I run Fedora 35 next to windows 10. Never bothered to upgrade windows to be honest....can't remember the last time I booted windows!

Yeah, I'm a big fan of linux too... Sadly, though, a number of apps that rely upon don't have linux versions, and I've had varying degrees of success running them under WINE. Installing Windows as a VM would be an option, but then I may as well have it installed as a full native OS for dual boot. As it stands, I probably spend half my time using Ubuntu, and half using Windows...

[AstroDave]

And modern operating systems and software seem to actively encourage people to scatter their user files around in random places.

Nah, it all goes in "documents"! I knew somebody once who had something like 7000 files in his documents folder. I suspect he was not aware that he could do anything else.

[aldo taddia]

Last night Windows 11 made an update and the PC remained unusable for 2 hours

[Michail_P]

I’ll test win11 with the next PC.... win10 OS is serving me well and for now it’s my only choice.

[GUB]

I've found that most printers seem to work without issue in Linux unless there is some specific unique feature you are after. Most printers support postscript which makes compatibility easy. Scanners on the other hand kind of suck with Linux support but is slowly getting better.

I need to try again - last time I found it was a very basic environment with little controls.
For scanning I find "simple scan" works really well. Once more it's interface is pretty basic but contrast and dpi control are there. (That is on an older Canon multifunction).

[BigMackCam]

Last night Windows 11 made an update and the PC remained unusable for 2 hours

Sorry to hear that. Have you checked your update history, isolated the update ID and looked it up online? Which one was it, out of curiosity?

[MarkJerling]

Not a huge amount, frankly. I'm probably doing Microsoft a disservice here, but so far (after a couple of days use) it feels like a user-interface refresh of Windows 10 - though I understand there's a lot under the hood that might come in useful to me later on regarding virtualisation / integration of linux, android etc. Anyway, it looks nicer with the rounded / flat window appearance. The start menu has been integrated into the task bar along with tiling and multiple desktop icons, and everything's centered "a la Mac". It doesn't look or feel as cluttered. The tiling options are quite nice, but I've never been a big user of these so it may just be a better organised and presented version of what already existed. Notifications seem less "in your face" and have been subtly combined into the date and time icon.

Overall, it just seems faster and smoother, and the UI and animations look nicer - but essentially it's the Windows OS we're already used to, at least from a casual user's perspective.

One thing I did notice is that the upgrade reverted me to a standard Lenovo display profile... I thought everything looked a bit "cool" compared to before. Now I've set it back to the last Argyll profile I created, and the colours look good again...

Thanks for the detailed information Mike.
I understand that the centralised layout can be changed for those of us who are set in our ways.
The tile thing is not something I ever used, except on my phone. I would have thought that they'd put that to bed.

[E-man]

My Windows laptop came with Win 10 but barely runs it and doesn't meet the minimum specs for Win 11 so I'll run Win 10 on it until support ends in three years and if it's still functioning, it'll live out the rest of its days running Linux Mint.