So here we are, just on the other side of the end of support for Windows 10. And I'm sitting, USB stick in hand, ready to install Linux on my laptop1. And unlike many of you, I'm not really excited by the prospect. You see, I've been here before.
Way back in the late 90s I downloaded Slackware 3.2 off of the AOL files section. I was curious about this new Linux thing and it was free! It just took hours of my time and a couple dozen floppies. And truly, there was an opportunity to do better than Windows 98. It was crashy and improving the underlying quality really didn't seem to be Microsoft's priority2. And Linux was this very attractive intellectual frontier! A system so open and flexible you could do anything. A moral antithesis to the carefully curated on-rails experience you got from Windows or Macintosh.
So I daily drove Linux from about 1999 until about 2011. And not just
casually. I compiled my own kernel while running svgadoom on another
VT (don't recommend 😆). I ran a
MOSIX cluster of 486s. I got
deep into tiled window management3.
The command for configuring four space soft tabs with autoindent in VIM
is in my muscle memory4. I lived
and breathed it.
So what happened?
Well, Windows got better. Microsoft largely fixed the reliability issues by bringing NT into the consumer space and developing a quality assurance program for drivers. They started giving a shit about security and frequent updates. And they made some really strong advances in UX. Windows 7 was such an influential change in how the taskbar works that you probably don't even remember the big horizontal buttons from 95 through Vista. Windows 7 taskbar is just how it's done now - see KDE, ChromeOS, LXDE, Cinnamon, etc5). But I'm getting sidetracked, this isn't really about Windows.
The other thing that happened over a decade of Linux was... well, not a whole lot. Linux was slowly meandering towards being a worse Windows XP. I actually kept a foot in both worlds through virtualization. Windows for a nice shell, Linux in a VM. And I guess over time (and discounting Windows 8) the Windows side got better and the Linux side became more and more containable. WSL really sealed it, and Windows 10 started with so much promise.
And of course they cocked it up because they're Microsoft. With Cortana and Candy Crush and Bing in the search widget and Skype and News and Copilot and culminating in Satya Nadella's Service-Driven Submission Dungeon, Windows 11.
And while all of that has been happening, I am increasingly frustrated
with Linux. I don't even mind systemd or Wayland or immutable distros
or whatever. I think that for the most part, the trajectory of Linux
technical development has been positive. I have just become so much more
aware that Linux is a pile of hacks built on older, ossified hacks
inspired by truly prehistoric hacks and that's not a thing the community
can change because there is no center. Linux as a practical object
you use is a conglomeration of independent projects, each with their
own goals, values, and desires. The best a distro maintainer can do is
to combine these into something that has the veneer of consistency. But
because there is no overarching architect to unify approaches and guide
software to a consistent path, it is now and forever will be hacks on
hacks on hacks.
And I think what's really galling about Windows 10 is not that it's unsupported now. It's that it has felt increasingly unsupported for years. It feels like Linux now. So like, why would I keep using it when I can get that experience for free6? And Windows 11 just seems like a Sisyphean nightmare of keeping its aggressive user capture behavior at bay7.
So yeah, that's where I'm at. I'm stuck between two things that both suck8 and I guess I'm slowly tipping towards inserting the Linux boot USB because at least then I own the problems. *sigh*
1: Metaphorically, of course. I am currently procrastinating by writing this.
2: Of course with the benefit of hindsight they were working on better things. Windows 2000 was my Windows of choice basically until Windows 7 came out. And let's not forget the gem of Windows Fundamentals for Legacy Products.
3: My tiled window manager of choice was ion,
created by Tuomo Valkonen. Tuomo ragequit the Linux development scene in
2009 due to its persistent dysfunction, a move I have always respected
greatly.
4: :set ts=4 sts=4 sw expandtab ai. expandtab
is spelled out because I tab complete it and I have only just this
second read the manual and realized I could just abbreviate it et. :|
5: Okay, some of these trace this icon dock lineage back to macOS/NeXTStep, but I still think Win7 substantially influenced their modern presentation.
6: Because Windows still has better plaform security, which is a thing that matters to me. It is in fact the real reason Win10 is getting the axe - Win11 requires TPM 2.0, which excludes many older laptops. And Microsoft understands after many, many PC security issues that whenever there's a PC security problem, even if it's in a part of the system they didn't design, they take the hit. TPM 1.2 isn't exactly broken but I can understand why they want to be rid of it, especially when Apple has progressed the state of the art of boot security so much further.
7: And of course, the dealbreaker for me that you cannot attach the taskbar to the right side of the screen.
8: Let's not even talk about Apple. This is distressing enough.