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Windows 11 has made the “clean Windows install” an oxymoron
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Been using Windows since XP, watched it get worse with every iteration while getting a shiny new exterior. Was finally forced from Windows 7 to Windows 10 a few years ago and the day Windows tries to foist 11 on me is the day I go fully down the Linux rabbit hole.
I've used Windows since 3.1. I thought XP was such a great advancement. I feel like 7 is overall better than XP, but not an all out improvement. 10 is worse than 7, but they're forcing 7 out. I hate 11. I want to by a new PC, and 11 is the biggest thing holding me back. Could I buy it and install something else? Sure, but I don't want to pay for this terrible program.
Getting "professional" versions and installing them has generally been the way to work around Windows bullshit. I haven't gone to 11 yet, and the vibe I get from folks is that there is no escaping it. But folks have been saying that about Windows forever.
I have used professional versions of 10 through work, and they are better, but they still have a bunch of junk. I hear that Windows 11 is worse in this regard. It also still doesn't fix the problem of encouraging MS to do these things. I'm not looking to build a PC, so I'd be buying something that comes preloaded with a consumer version, then need to buy a pro version, and now I've bought this crap twice, greatly rewarding MS for their poor practices.
System76 can sell you a computer with PopOS or Ubuntu installed straight from the factory!
I looked into this and didn't find quite what I wanted, but it did lead me into a whole world of small computer assemblers I didn't know about.
If your machine is capable of running windows 7 (properly) it's not capable of running Windows 11.