Report: Just updated to Windows 11
 

I use Windows in a dual-boot setting with Slackware-current. The boot manager is GRUB and both OSes are in a single SSD, with appropriate partitions.

I'm writing this from Firefox on Windows 11. I got the update prompt and took the plunge. After some time of download and install, and perhaps something like 3 reboots, I was able to boot into Windows 11.

I'm happy to report that the update process went smoothly, Slackware is intact and even GRUB was not affected. Dual-booting with Slackware is business as usual. Needless to say, I'm relieved.

Very cool! I pretty-much gave up dual booting Windows and Slackware on the same SSD; Windows clobbered my partitions when I ran Windows 10 and -current. These days I run Windows 11 on its own PC. I quite like Windows 11.
I'm also happily maintaining four Slackware64-current units.

Windows's goofiness, slowness, lack of power and ease, and lack of transparency keeps me grateful for Slackware. But there are some programs that don't run on Linux. It's easier to set up multiboot than to fiddle around with Wine to see if it will work "this time". Linux and Windows can share NTFS partitions for read and write. I keep a several hundred gb HDD for just that sharing purpose. Just make sure you shutdown windows cleanly.

Sounds like a downgrade to me

I think we tend to like what we get used to. I'm quite glad I gave up getting used to Windows and instead found the power and freedom of Slackware. I'd sort of like to be more "mainstream" and use Facebook, Twitter and Windows but they just come at too high a cost for me. I don't fault anyone who actually needs those for their job or whatever or if they've never tasted the power of Linux. My only general concern with Slackers who cave to staying used to Windows is the design of the slippery slope that MS does and has always done to eliminate any perceived competition.

I'm betting Billy and the Boys had bad experiences "on the playground" and bought in to the whole "Bullies Rulz" thing. As just another nerd in the sandbox, I find that threatening. I'm betting that slowly but surely MS will create some standard that will thwart any other OpSys far more successfully than UEFI, SecureBoot, and TPM. They almost certainly won't stop trying. Adopt. Extend. Extinguish.

Indeed. I stopped using all forms of social media; Facebook was the last to go.
Slackware is my main operating system. However, I'm not opposed to alternative ways of computing.

Sure some games are still no goes on Linux. Beside that there is nothing I can do on Windows but can not on Linux. Perhaps proprietary software which requires Windows and is a must. But at many points Windows is so poor comparing to Linux.

Did you did the Windows 11 upgrade as Microsoft recommends and supports, then with the usage of SecureBoot?

I have not dual booted in years. The last time I was dual booting it was to Slackware, Windows XP(?) and eComStation. I decided to go 100% Slackware on my computers a long time ago. I do have Windows 10 installed in a VirtualBox virtual machine. I only use it to do my taxes (installed program) and every month or so (last backup was in June) for updates. It the last legal copy I have, it's an upgrade from Windows 7. If the install breaks, then I guess it's over for Windows. I do backup the VM after I am done with it. It eats a lot of resources (I give it a 4096 MB base, half of what's installed.), so pretty much when I have it up that is all I am doing is Windows 10. If I loose it, then I'll do my taxes on-line (not fond of that idea). My daughter has a laptop with Windows on it, so I could use that for that one time a year. I hear the VirtualBox is working a make it compatible with Windows 11 but I'm not so sure my underlying hardware will support it. I have no interest in dedicating a machine for Windows. Since I retired over 18 years ago, I've not need to Windows. I play a few games, most via Steam, a couple native. Most of my gaming is done on my cell phone. I do Facebook, only on the computer, not on my cell phone.

That all said, it's good to hear the Windows 11 and Slackware can coexist.

There's another perspective that tends to be ignored here.

The Tech Support/QA industry (yes, it's an actual industry) has spent the last 20-30 years gathering a lot of empirical data regarding the "value" of well known software products and services. If you bother to move past the shitstorm that is ISP customer service the first thing everyone learns is that Microsoft is incompetent and "Mac Users are the WORST".

Sometimes it seems like MS wants to exclude all the people who spend their day talking to end-users since we are the ones who get all the good stories. I'll never forget the day I saw a dude with one arm open up a laptop running Xubuntu 12.04 and start telling me all about how happy he was with it. I fine it difficult to accept the "linux is hard" attitude once I've seen someone get work done in XFCE with only 5 fingers and an elbow stub.


Totally random off-topic thought, but it's been on my mind for some time now....

Now that I've been retired for 5 years I'd like to get into some Windows gaming and maybe try setting up a proprietary media server. It's good to have options.

Agreed Pithium. Besides several young people, even those in some form of IT, who are Windows users and advocates have very much enjoyed my Linux boxen (once in a GUI) my Mother who is 96 years old owns an iPad which she likes, and a WOW PC she loves.

The WOW PC is all Linux and is designed for old folks who "just want it to work" mainly for email, social media, some web browsing, photos, games and movies and never give them a problem or force a reboot. They do this in what seems to me a rather Draconian manner by basically not allowing the User to install anything... only the manufacturer has root privileges. It is limiting in that regard but it is exactly what my Mom wants, a digital appliance that never gives her any trouble.

I think I disabled SecureBoot when I put Slackware on this machine, just after it arrived here back in 2019. Can't remember for sure, but I think I did.

Having that said, my Windows Update app showed my PC as compatible, and then once day told me Win 11 was available if I wanted to install it. I did, with the results as reported.

So I guess:
- No problem if you have SecureBoot disabled but..
- You need a suitable processor and TPM 2.0 enabled

Windows never reported any compatibility problem with my PC for the upgrade.

Maybe, but I like it better than Win 10 once I get past the annoyances. Seems a lot like a mixture of XFCE/Plasma/Mate/Cinnamon on the UI mechanics. There is a fully vissible command line box now, for example. And you get a taskbar button for virtual desktops. Nice to see them adopt that after Unix had them for ages.

On the other hand, about half of the start menu icons are stubs for paid/freemium apps which are installed on click, with no clear delimitation between these and real apps installed on the system. Pure adware crap and an unnecessary aggravation.

But really, for a Linux user going to Windows is much less of a trauma than it used to be.

Windows 11 install and run fine with SecureBoot disabled. To do it though, you have to bypass the check on installation.

Of course, how long it'll continue to honour those registry settings is anyone's guess.

Thankfully we have Slackware keeping it sane.