Linux is performing better than Windows 11 according to this benchmark test
When it comes to benchmarks, most computer users are probably interested in performance comparisons of hardware and software running on the same operating system. Is this or that graphics card better for a gaming PC? Which Android device offers the better performance?
Cross-operating-system benchmarks are not seen as often, but they may provide insight on how well, or not, a particular operating system is doing in comparison to another.
The most recent Phoronix benchmark suggests that Linux is beating Windows 11 in most benchmarks on devices that are powered by Intel Alder Lake processors. Phoronix, for those who have never encountered the site before, has been around since 2004. It is a site that focuses on Linux hardware and other Linux topics.
The site performed the test several times since the release of Intel's Core i9 12900K Alder Lake processor. Windows 11 outperformed Linux in the initial test back in November 2021, and this came down to missing Linux kernel patches according to the author. The Linux kernel received performance fixes for Alder Lake in the meantime, and the author decided to run the benchmarks again to see if the situation has improved.
The same computer system was used in the benchmark. It is powered by an Intel Core i9 12900K processor at default speeds, an ASUS ROG STRIX z690-E gaming WiFI motherboard, 2x 16 Gigabytes of DDR5-6000 memory, a 500 Gigabyte Western Digital Black SN850 NVMe SSD, and a Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card.
Windows 11 Pro, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS after installation of the Linux 5.18 Stable kernel, and Intel's Clear Linux 36580 were tested in the benchmarks.
The author threw lots of benchmarks at all four operating systems. No system came out at top all of the time, but Windows 11 Pro performed worse in most of the tests. While at least one of the Linux systems did better in most benchmarks than Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Pro did beat all three Linux systems in some of the benchmarks.
Some benchmarks had rather bizarre results. Take the data visualization benchmark ParaView as an example: Windows 11 Pro had the worst performance score in three of four benchmark runs, but in the last, it came in first. An other interesting observation is that Ubuntu 22.04 LTS without the kernel 5.18 stable patch fared better in some of the benchmarks than Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with Linux kernel 5.18.
Closing Words
If anything, the benchmarks highlight that Linux performance on systems with Intel's Core i9 12900K processor has improved in the past ten months. That is a good development of course. Windows 11 Pro did not perform overly well in many benchmarks, but performance is just one part of the equation.
Now You: do you run Windows or Linux? Would you switch to Linux as a Windows user?
Windows 10 out of the box = 1.4 Gb RAM used.
Windows 11 out of the box = 2,7 Gb RAM used.
Useless loaded services everywhere. LOL.
Thanks for the article! :]
I call bullcrap on this. You do realize the more RAM you have the more is being used right? A Windows 11 computer with 4GB of RAM will NEVER use 2,7GB of RAM out of the box while a 16GB RAM computer probably could. My computers are all 8GB RAM and they use roughly 1,5GB RAM out of the box using Windows 11. Turn off a whole bunch of services and you can probably shave that down to 1,3GB. Of ZERO use, and you just cripple your computer. Stop thinking like a Windows 7 user and get real, it’s 2022 and nobody cares about unused RAM these days. I bet you still use CLEANMEM too don’t you? To “clear” your RAM.. Geeez….
We rather have a efficient and professional OS like Windows 7. They need to fire everyone who is working on Windows 11. Windows 11 consists of bloatware and its developed by unskilled people who have no clue what they are doing. They have no skills to even use their own native frameworks. They take the easy way with bloated WebView2 trash.
When you add it all up… Useless widgets tied into MSN, useless search box hooked into Bing, bloated Teams, Hello Kitty desktop stickers, it will eat up 5.5GB of RAM and leave you with only 2.5GB to do what you actually need to.
@ElonDorsey: Hold on a second there. Did you say, “Hello Kitty desktop stickers”? I’m in! ;-)
Put all the same stuff that windows supports and runs and then test them out. Then it’d be the same.
So I’d roll this up into an easy to consume wrapper. If you want super fast and limited support for everything from drivers to high level services like Xbox, and you’re up for editing config files, replacing your laptop wifi adapter or fiddling with alsamixer, then linux is your thing.
In other news, even the most baseline celerons these days are more than enough to overcome that “overhead”, and for older/slower hardware chrome os flex is a far more accessible product.
@cfbcfb: you stated “If you want super fast and limited support …… then linux is your thing”
You mean you get fantastic support from the MS crowd? ROFLMAO
On the whole, the fora of Linux distros are a heck of a lot more helpful than anything MS bothers to give.
You go on “replacing your laptop wifi adapter”
Complete BS.
So, yes, if you want to find arguments to not move over, why not just state I cannot be bothered with the hassle and/or to learn something new?
It has become evident M$ is monetizing the user with every update iteration. Therefore, I am migrating all my laptops/boxes to Debian KDE Plasma with one Win 7 box for retro gaming. Integrity or honor or whatever you want to call it is not M$’ strong suit.
As most of us old-timers agree, Windows has been heading in the wrong direction since Windows 7 (maybe not in terms of support for the latest technologies, but in terms of user interface, user control, user privacy, and quality assurance). Windows 11 looks set to continue down that wrong path.
My “new” (2¼-year-old) laptop is now probably old enough to be well supported by later Linux kernels, but I still have a number of concerns. Most important are battery and thermal management. Most laptop manufacturers provide brand-specific utilities for managing battery life … for Windows but NOT for Linux. (Call me a cynic — aka, a student of antitrust history — but I have to wonder whether the worse the support computer manufacturers offer for Linux, the better the break they get on OEM Windows licenses.)
When Windows 8 came out, I began switching to cross-platform apps in Windows 7 (at least to the extent it was practical), and when Windows 10 came out, I was glad I had: most of the programs I use most in Windows either have native Linux versions (LibreOffice, Pale Moon, Brave, LibreWolf, Handbrake, Shotcut, Audacity, VLC, FreeFileSync, calibre, TeamViewer), or run well in Wine (IrfanView, Notepad++), or run passably well in Mono (Subtitle Edit). But there are some programs I will *definitely* miss when I switch to Linux:
* voidtools’ “Everything” search utility. Everything’s speed and power has spoiled me ROTTEN. It leaves Catfish, Drill, and Recoll in the *dust*. There is an Everything-inspired Linux search utility called fsearch, but I’ve read that it’s still not as good as Everything. Still, though, fsearch is probably what I will have to settle for.
* Macrium Reflect. To my knowledge, there is no utility that allows you to clone or image a Linux system drive *while the system is mounted and running*. (I believe Macrium relies on Windows’ Volume Shadow Copy Service to permit that. I gather than using Btrfs snapshots might obviate the need for imaging, but the edge-case horror stories I’ve read about Btrfs make me cautious about using it.) Anyway, I’m sure a lot of users are fine with a few (or several) hours of forced downtime while their system is being imaged. I’m not one of them.
* NirSoft Utilities and Sysinternals Suite. So many useful utilities, all in one place! (Okay, in *two* places!) Is there a Linux utility that allows me to search my browsing history in *all* of my browsers in a single operation? I don’t know! I’d have to *research* it. Now multiply that effort by each and every non-Windows-specific, non-Office-specific NirSoft and Sysinternals utility you regularly use…
* AutoHotkey. There is at least one AutoHotkey-inspired scripting utility for Linux, but the consensus seems to be that (as with fsearch versus Everything) it’s just not (remotely?) as good.
* Guitar Pro. Okay, so it’s payware and it doesn’t *ever* seem to get fully debugged and optimized from version to version and update to update, but it’s still a lot more sophisticated and fun than TuxGuitar. In Linux, Guitar Pro would have to be run in a Windows virtual machine.
* Virtoo by LG. This a utility that allows people on LG-brand computers to “remote-control” at least some aspects of their Android or iOS smartphones via Bluetooth. You can also use it to transfer media files and documents back and forth, but what I like it best for is the mirroring of phone notifications on my computer desktop and, especially, the ability to respond to text messages on a real keyboard. (I just realized why George RR Martin is taking so long to finish “The Winds of Winter”: he’s probably typing it on a smartphone! ;-) Anyway, to the best of my knowledge, there is no “Virtoo by LG” for the Linux desktop.
*Various other LG utilities. It’s nice to have a small collection of hardware-specific utilities that can check, update, or manage your BIOS, firmware, display, power, and the like. I’ll probably find ways to do without these dedicated utilities, but I strongly suspect it won’t be nearly as convenient and easy.
* Garmin Express. Garmin stopped supporting browser-mediated updates to its GPSes many years ago. Garmin Express is now the only game in town, and Garmin doesn’t release a version of it for Linux (which feels kind of cheeky, given that the GPS itself runs Linux). I’ve come across a three-year-old tutorial for installing Garmin Express in Wine, but I don’t yet know if it still works, and if it does, how well. This could end up being another program relegated to a Windows virtual machine. Or, I could just stop using my Garmin GPS entirely and use my phone for navigation instead.
* My UPS management utility? Not necessarily. My UPS manufacturer has released a command-line utility for various Linux releases that are only slightly out of date; maybe it will work with the latest releases, as well. Otherwise, the Windows version of the utility is going into my Windows virtual machine (so I can turn off that damn “no mains power” alarm if it ever decides to turn itself back on!).
* MediaMonkey 5. I use this primarily for bulk-tagging MP4s. I haven’t researched alternatives for maybe three years, but last I did, I was unable to find any. I’ve read reports from people who claim to have successfully installed MediaMonkey 5 in Wine, but I’m not counting on it working for me. This may be yet another app that gets relegated to a Windows virtual machine.
* ShutUp10. I’m kidding! (Or maybe not. It’s *definitely* going into my Windows virtual machine.)
* Windows Privacy Dashboard [WPD]. Kidding again! (Except that this, too, is definitely going into my Windows virtual machine.)
* Sordum’s Windows Update Blocker. Boy, I just can’t stop kidding, can I? (Ditto.)
Apart from that, well, maybe setting up a LAN is a bit more work in Linux because you have to manually assign static IP addresses to all member devices. (On the other hand, Microsoft didn’t do Windows any favors by getting rid of the quick-and-easy Homegroup Wizard, or whatever it was called.) And maybe setting up and administering a firewall is a bit more work in Linux, too, or at least presents a new learning curve.
Apart from that, if you choose a desktop environment that suits you — for me, coming from Windows, it’s KDE Plasma or Cinnamon — and if you give yourself time to get used to a few new “alternative” apps, running Linux is not that different from running Windows, day to day, except that the OS doesn’t keep trying to spy on you and you remain in control of what happens to your system. It’s entirely doable for more Windows users than you might expect, though maybe only worth the new learning curve for people who are especially concerned about privacy and controlling what happens to their system. If you’re fine playing cat-and-mouse with Microsoft where your personal information is concerned, and you’ve done well with Microsoft’s non-beta-tested, “blob roll-up,” “drive-by” updates so far, it’s a lot easier to just stick with Windows.
@Peterc: clear, well-built argument, as usual from you ;-)
You state: “Macrium Reflect. To my knowledge, there is no utility that allows you to clone or image a Linux system drive *while the system is mounted and running*.”
Timeshift does that, and I believe does it a lot faster than MR.
You list a whole lot of apps that are so much better on Windows, and while that may be true, is the gap insurmountable.
You also state that the difference between Windows and Linux is the spying, which is a very good point. But ine can protect oneself against that. However, 1 thing one cannot protect oneself from is the absolutely shoddy Windows update system, which is crap. Furthermore, MS is not interested in home users anymore so can afford to treat them with disdain. You don’t get that in Linux, and if there is a distro that tries it, well there is plenty of choice to change to another, better one.
@Klaas Vaak:
“clear, well-built argument, as usual from you”
[Resting my head in both hands like a flattered schoolgirl:] DO go on! ;-)
I’ve used Timeshift to make backups in Linux Mint and … Kubuntu? … but (no surprise here) I’ve never had to restore any of them. I do remember that Timeshift does NOT back up *user* files/directories (just *system* files/directories), but if you have a good separate backup system for user stuff, that doesn’t have to be a fatal shortcoming. The big question for me is: What is involved in restoring a Timeshift backup to an existing system drive that has gotten fatally corrupted, to the point of unbootability, or to a replacement system drive if the original drive has suffered a catastrophic hardware failure?
Another area in which I was spoiled ROTTEN dates back to the days when it wasn’t hard to find a laptop with one, or even two, externally accessible hard drives. I would very deliberately choose either a Thinkpad or a Dell Latitude with a primary drive in an externally accessible drive bay and mount an identical secondary drive in an externally accessible multipurpose-bay adapter. Once a month, before applying Patch Tuesday updates, I would clone my primary drive to the secondary drive using Macrium Reflect, provided the system was running well. [In the days before widespread UEFI, GPT, and 64-bit OSes, I used xxclone rather than Macrium Reflect, and, since xxclone only copied file/folder changes and was consequently very fast, I ran it once a day — again, provided the system wasn’t showing any signs of problems.] Anyway, after I began using Macrium Reflect, I used FreeFileSync and RealTimeSync to keep my clone drive up to date between monthly clonings with my latest data files and select (“non-bork-o-genic”) configuration files.
Okay, that’s all very boring, but the end result was that if my system got irreparably corrupted, or my primary drive suffered a catastrophic failure, it took me 15 minutes tops to get back up and running, usually with no data loss whatsoever and only the *very most recent* app configuration changes needing to be redone. All I had to do was swap in the cloned drive for the system drive, and the only reason it took 15 minutes was because a number of tiny screws were involved and I have poor eyesight. On my previous laptop, this system saved my butt after a WireShark update made the system unbootable. I set up the same system for a friend, and it saved *his* butt three times, after — wait for it — *buggy Windows updates* made his system unbootable. (He was back up and running with zero loss in less than 3 minutes as opposed to my 15, because he had a tower computer with mobile drive racks. No tiny screws.) Prior to that, xxclone saved his butt several times, because he was using IBM “Deathstar” drives that failed. And roughly concurrent with that, xxclone saved my *parents’* computer a couple of times, because they were using WD drives that fell prey to the infamous “WD click of death.”
Anyway, it’s that kind of very fast, comprehensive, mostly lossless, mostly idiot-proof recovery system I’m looking for. It’s not obvious to me that I’m going to be able to find it with the great majority of modern laptops. (Well … maybe if I can find one I like that has a “maintenance hatch” over user-replaceable parts and that doesn’t cost a king’s ransom. Well-drafted “right-to-repair” laws would come in handy here.) In the meantime, I need to nail down the answer to my “big question” about Timeshift.
“You list a whole lot of apps that are so much better on Windows, and while that may be true, is the gap insurmountable[?]”
Honestly, if fsearch is truly not yet in the same class as Everything, then Everything is the sole Windows-only app whose absence in Linux is going to *cost me blood*, every hour of every day. For a smooth, uninterrupted workflow, nothing beats genuinely *instant* search results, and once you’re used to them, anything less can be *extremely frustrating*. (My mind still goes numb when I think back to that time, three years ago, when I waited 10 minutes for Catfish to finish updating its index, and another ten minutes for Catfish to complete my search — without finding the file I was looking for!) I may miss the other apps I mentioned, but I can probably live without them.
“One can protect oneself against [Windows’ spying].”
Yes, and I’ve done my best to, but it’s a continually changing assault and it’s tedious to have to keep monitoring and countering its latest manifestations. I have similar reservations about modern Firefox. I have a vague recollection that even Ubuntu dipped its toes into monetizing user info in a limited way several years ago, and was soundly rebuked for it by its user base. (And now Ubuntu has a monopoly repository for self-contained Snaps. Big corporation’s gonna big-corporate, I guess. Thankfully, Canonical’s Ubuntu is not the only distro in town, and Canonical’s Snaps are not the only self-contained-package format.)
“However, 1 thing one cannot protect oneself from is the absolutely shoddy Windows update system, which is crap. Furthermore, MS is not interested in home users anymore so can afford to treat them with disdain. You don’t get that in Linux, and if there is a distro that tries it, well there is plenty of choice to change to another, better one.”
As the kids say, “THIS.”
Good to hear from you again, Mr. Sandman!
@Peterc: happy to hear from you directly again, it’s been such a long time.
I remeber, fondly I daresay, how you took me by the hand on this forum and guided to set up VirtualBox on Windows so I could try out Linux distros before taking the plunge. That VB set-up went soooo smoothly. However, I now see that VB is far from perfect, it certainly biased my exprience with various distros negatively.
When I bought a new Lenovo laptop 3 years ago with Win10 on, 1st things did was wipe it clean with the Mint installation – no more Windows for me. Period.
Then I bought a MacBook Air (I splashed out like a spoiled brat) and forgot about my Lenovo and Linux, until recently I realized my Mac won’t last forever, I probably won’t be able to buy another one, so I had to be prepared for the other world: Linux.
I got fed up with Mint, esp. when upgrading from 19.3 to 20.3 f*c ked up my system, so with Timeshift I reverted back to 19.3.
Then I decided I would look at/experiment with various other distros, Debian/Ubuntu-based, independent, Arch-based. And I could use my Lenovo for that: metal on metal.
Long story short: I wanted an Arch-based rolling release and eventually stumbled on Endeavour. Wow!! That is a heck of a nice distro with a wonderfully helpful community – I wrote about it elsewhere on this page.
All I can say is: I accept the shortcomings of Linux (hardly any, if any at all, for me) any time above Windows and those traumatic updates.
I am by no means a Linux expert, I consider myself newbie+, but I can now take my time to learn and set up a system that suits me.
Tot de volgende keer!
Oh cool, just another ‘benchmark’ to show information for the people who are a bunch of Linux fanboys to come in their pants and cry because their almost no marketshare OS is ‘faster’.
But the reality is all these benchmarks are dumb, starting with the fact they are completely different Operating Systems, like, different everything, how can you make a benchmark about it unless you want to be biased about it and get some clicks in the process?
Only because they have the same components doesn’t mean anything, it is just as trying to compare 2 ‘similar’ processors or GPUs on the same computer.
Of course I am sure we will not know the real scenario that were used in the computers anyway, it is like when people compare privacy on browsers with default settings, yeah, it makes sense to do that but the truth is that many defaults are bad, and yeah, you can say Windows is more ‘bloated’ than Ubuntu, and the updating process is different and takes longer on Windows and etc etc. That shows that you have to be careful how you perform these benchmarks so they are a little more comparable.
What people don’t realize is that computers are all about 1s and 0s, so the only way to really see which performs faster is to see how fast each OS would transmit and translate the 1s and 0s, so comparing Windows vs Linux is just more than just “oh CPU was faster”.
I mean, even comparing software in different CPUs on a same OS have the problem because matters the programming language used and the way it was compiled and etc etc. That’s why C++ is faster but harder to learn, since it tries to stay closer to what a computer would understand than Python or Scratch which is closer to how humans do logic and then the compiler does the job to ‘translate’ it to computers.
That’s why some programs will perform better in Linux and then others on Windows, and then in same OS with different components, especially the CPU.
What matters in the end is the programs you can install in each OS anyway, that’s my whole point. It is stupid to keep this “oh but CPU performed better in X condition in Linux” If you want to do professional design like photography or graphic design and architecture or achviz and stuff like that, you usually go Windows or Mac, and that’s the reality. You try to run those Windows only or Windows/Mac software in Linux through wine and it will glitch or not perform well.
I know some fanboys wouldn’t care about it, but professionals will use the software where their software performs better.
Some VFX studios have Linux based computers but they have to still have Mac computers for video editing or Windows for Zbrush for example. So even if some studios use Linux in most of their computers, they will not start doing dumb stuff and try to run those software on Linux.
They can personalize more their linux computers, make them consume less storage, less memory, and just focus on their VFX workflow, so who care if the benchmark says that Linux is somehow faster?
If you are in music industry, graphic design, vfx, videogames, photography, video editing, color correction and those type of industries, you are probably going to be using Windows or Mac, I am not talking about normies who use Blender to make a cube and troll every possible video about how blender is superior to the paid professional software, I am talking about the real people who earn money working with those programs.
VFX can be used mostly on Linux, but for example, Zbrush which is the most popular and still best sculpting program around is Windows and Mac only, 3dsmax still Windows only, Marmoset toolbag which work glitchy on wine is still Mac and Windows only as well, then we have more vfx being done in Unreal or Unity, Unreal Engine Editor being run on Windows and Unity for Win and Mac, Cinema 4D still Windows and Mac only with support for Linux on the rendering side. I mean, look how pain the butt is to just run Nvidia on Linux, and still many software has Nvidia only features like CUDA or Physx. Like I said, most 3D programs support Linux but the point is how some people will have to run Windows or Mac just for their specific software like Zbrush.
So maybe next time people should forget about these lame benchmarks, they will not change the reality, and to be honest, you can disable so many ‘bloated’ stuff on windows and run it offline or with a firewall and you can even close Explorer process and run everything through a Launcher like Wox or Flow, and disable like many services and uninstall anything unnecessary, of course, unless people want to do that, they won’t do it so I don’t expect a benchmark to be done in such barebones Windows that will make things more comparable.
I mean, if there was an alternative to Windows where I can run all the software I need, I would take it, but there is not, the ones where you can create, play and run pretty much anything, even Linux, yes, you can run Linux on Windows so surveillance software which is mostly dominated by Linux on the free and open source side, now can be run under Windows.
So just pick what you want, don’t pay attention to these benchmarks, like I said, most people don’t even understand the 1s and 0s and how computers work, they think it is a simple 1+1 = 2 but there are too many variables and things done that are not so simple and are not really visible by the human eye so in the end it doesn’t matter.
I mean, in the times where you can easily get Win11 for free even on a new computer, just as easy as Win10 license was officially got through Win7, even if that Win7 was activated with Daz. So I really don’t worry about my OS much anymore as long as I can run my software, even if I have to disable or remove 300 things on Windows to make it run ‘faster’.
I think Win11 is better than Win10 and Win10 was faster than Win7.
And don’t get me wrong I have used Linux but it gets boring to have to do a lot of things for the simplest thing, like enabling Echo Cancellation for calls or depending on your distro you have to install things on different ways or having to find a repo that will update the program faster than the official ones, etc.
I mean, people complain so much about Windows but still today you can run software from the 90s, compare that to what MacOS has done through the years, first with powerpc, and recently with Intel, where people can’t run software anymore or software doesn’t work great on new computers and some devs just can’t support new Apple processors.
And even if people say Windows 11 TPM requirement and all that, you can bypass it so easily, it doesn’t matter.
So at least, even if you hate Microsoft like most people, even myself, Windows does everything 99% people need. there are few exceptions, some software Mac only and some Linux only that might not run the best in Windows, but it does the job and that’s all that matters in the end.
C’mon, everybody know that 10 is shite and 11 is around 20% shitier than 10.
So that is not brand new fact.
Enjoy 7 ESU. Peace!
There are a few niggles with Linux generically that keep me from switching to it.
One is the ease of installing devices. Windows is far slicker for device installation. My Bluetooth mouse takes about half an hour to install on a fresh install of Linux mainly due to Linux being finnicky about how to set up Bluetooth devices. If I struggle as an IT professional then a typical end user stands no chance.
Additionally, in South Africa, there are multiple unofficial locale “standards” that are accepted accross organisations. Linux cannot handle this. I have raised it with several people and it gets bounced back that Linux only supports the specified standard. i.e. Linux refuse to allow “.” as a decimal separator and only use “,” and for date format. This breaks files such as Excel type files when moving between Windows and Linux. Windows deals with locale settings with ease. Linux cannot.
Another thing that is a problem is that the mainstream software typically does not support Linux. Windows is domininant but the main reason is that Microsoft Office is made for Windows. That is the biggest catch. If you could have Office easily installed and running on Linux, you would have other major software players making their software available for Linux. Unfortunately, LibreOffice and OpenOffice are poor substitutes for MS Office.
That is really the crux of it.
@Max: you stated “Linux refuse to allow “.” as a decimal separator and only use “,” and for date format. This breaks files such as Excel type files when moving between Windows and Linux. Windows deals with locale settings with ease. Linux cannot.”
That most certainly is NOT true, to put it mildly. Each and every Linux distro I have tried/used (and that is quite a few of Debian/Ubuntu based, independent, Arch-based) and they could all handle that.
@Klaas Vaak
You use the South African locale? You are able to have your currency and numbers with point instead of comma separators? You have opened Excel files from Windows PCs on your Linux distro with the South African locale configured?
How do you get to customising the South African locale in Linux so that you have a point instead of a comma across the OS and applications? How do you get to customise the date format to YYYY-MM-DD with the South African locale?
@Max: what is so special about the South African locale?
In Excel you can determine what the decimal separator and thousands separator should be, and you can determine what the date format should be, all that irrespective of whether it is Windows or Linux.
@Klaas Vaak
I cannot select the South African locale and then customise the decimal and time formats in Linux.
Yes, in Excel you can determine the decimal separators. The South African locale in Linux ONLY uses comma as a separator. Even if I try to use point as a separator, when I receive Excel files from Windows and open them in something like LibreOffice with the South African locale, it breaks.
The experience is far from seamless. That is a deal breaker for me for Linux.
Give it a try with the South African locale yourself to see what I mean.
@Max: how about using a non-South African locale? You can find one that is close but does not mess up your separators. How about a UK locale or a Dutch or French one?
@Klaas Vaak
That doesn’t solve the problem. I need to use South African currency and time formats.
The point decimal separator is far more widely used than comma in South Africa but Linux doesn’t recognise that.
As I mentioned before, that is a deal breaker for me and an absolute blocker for Linux adoption as a desktop option in South Africa.
If a user cannot easily transfer data/Excel files for use between Windows and Linux then Linux wont get out of the starting blocks.
Ubuntu of all things too! That’s not a light or fast distro anymore, it’s “snappy” =) Still, looks bad for windows when it gets beaten by a sluggish behemoth distro. I love it. I guess all the spyware and telemetry, combined with overprotective and bloated AV does make a difference. Imagine a “clean” windows, THAT would be something great… Too bad we can’t have that..until that day when the source code leaks hahaaaaa.. Imagine that! Windows source code, just remove all the garbage and compile a lean mean OS and share it. Chaos. Mayhem. Freedom.
What a stupid post.
I have Dell Latitude with good Linux support, work as developer, made some tests and Linux had better results than Windows but I use WI sows 11.
Why?
Pure performance is not all, not for me.
I use this notebook with external 4K display and fractional scaling is real pain on Linux (Only KDE can handle that, but also with some limitations. On Windows i can set such things, separately for each display in just few seconds.
Other thing: window managing. With snap assistant it’s far far better on Windows. With PowerToys I can’t compare anything to Windows
So, even if I lose some performance, I still gain a lot of comfort and productivity. For me winner is clear
So why are we not getting more Linux reviews here? Seems it’s mostly Windows news.
Where is Mike Turcotte?
@Anonymous: +2
@Anonymous: +1
> Linux is performing better than Windows 11 according to this benchmark test
In benchmarks and other software nobody heard of. Sure, those programs have Windows versions, but i bet they’re just there because of “here are compiled exes for Win, now stop bugging us!” and aren’t actually optimized for Windows usage. Tell us when it will be performing better in 3DMark, CineBench, CrystalDiskMark, PCMark or even UserBenchmark and we’ll accept it; native of course, not via WINE or other similar “hacks”.
Yeah, Linux is nice for its intended use. I’m running over 20 instances of Debian, Ubuntu Server and Alpine without any GUI and would never consider it for desktop usage (not that i’ve never tried)…just like a plane is great for travel from Berlin to New York, a lawn tractor for mowing lawn, a VW Golf for driving to work and slippers for walking from kitchen to bathroom; they can’t be substituted for each other.
The only reason why many users remain Windows is because a lot of softwares are too good on Windows and have no good replacement for Linux, like video editor, nothing match SonyVegas or Adobe, so many games…
for video editor, not even davinci resolve? i thought davinci resolve have quite a excellent reputation in video editor world.
as for game, anti cheat and drm is the bane most of the time.
@userpassadmin: that argument is a decade old, the Linux world has changed.
From last March:
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-moving-away-sw-checklist.html
@anonymous: LOL. In the list of most important apps, most are deemed compatible/not needing work.
He then goes on to state “I’ve been using Linux in my production setup for many years now”, so he thus contradicts his own quandary.
His 2 main areas of gripe are Office apps and game apps. For Office there are good alternatives, for games I cannot judge because I don’t use any.
So, have you really done the research yourself regarding the availability of Linux alternatives?
No surprise here. Windows 11 is a bloated piece of garbage, and it keeps getting worst.
They need to start over with Windows 7 as the base. Windows 7 has a usable interface, light on resources, and no WebView2/cloud/server-side bloated garbage funneling data to Microsoft 24/7.
The only thing really keeping me away from Linux is the fact that Office 365 is way superior than other software,including Libreoffice
I haven’t used Office 365 so I don’t know what features it has that makes it superior. I’ve used the regular Microsoft Office, but not in a hardcore way, just like an Average Joe and I don’t see any difference between it and LibreOffice. A friend of mine needs MathType for formulas inside spreadsheet files and when I was convincing him to switch to LibreOffice, we were both concerned if MathType will work with LibreOffice and when I found out that it did, it completely sealed the deal for me – LibreOffice is everything one needs.
@Mortov Molotov: there is the Softmaker Office suite that closely resembles MS’s Office and there is a Linux version.
Windows 11 is crap. What’s new? I have pointed in the past, I think I’m losing about 30% off PCI bandwidth compared to Windows 10. GPUs usually don’t feel it, because they don’t saturate the link, but PCI storage devices do.
Ubuntu–an African concept that means “the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others.”
I am because you are.
Thanks.
I’ll take Linux; I much prefer working with the OS because everything is simplified. Unfortunately, Windows is the dominant system in the US, and I found it nearly impossible to use only a LInux OS.
That Windows has market dominance (not just in USA) is the nub of the issue. We are a species of followers. MS are smart. They have deals with manufacturers to pre-install Windows. They give schools (get ’em young) and business inexpensive software and make their money out of Mums and Dads who get the same for home.
I supported MS products for years and was supplied with Windows and Office for Windows software for home use. Why would I choose Linux in that circumstance? I no longer support MS based software but continue programming office products (notably Excel), including calls to Windows libraries. Shifting would result in a significant need to re-write. Back to step #1. No thanks. Linux users have reasons they use Linux. Windows users have reasons they use Windows.
Favoring Linus over Windows becomes a religion for some people. Brand me an Atheist. People need guidance before they make their choice. I recommend people use what suits their needs, and not listen to slick advertising or religious nutters.
The reality is many people do not understand operating systems and are wary or afraid to switch. Skilled users telling people Linux is better does not help others make the right personal decision, nor does it help them change.
“I use Linux because it is the best is rubbish advice”. “You don’t have to stick with the OS that came with your PC” is a statement that fails to help anybody. “If you want to think about a less problematic system than Windows, here is a list of resources that will help you make a personal decision” is better advice.
You are absolutely right. Although I wish to abandon Microsoft with all my heart, the alternative requires some knowledge in computers which I don’t have as a user (I understand it is very simple for people that knows the inside of is). Potty, I hate that cooperations enforce on us what ever give them more and more and more … money over our freedom of choice and privacy.
@Amir Bezalel: if you are interested in Linux, there are a number of user-friendly distros, esp. some that make the switch by Windows users easier.
Zorin comes to mind, as do Mint, Ubuntu, perhaps some others.
I started with Mint, and then some. The thing that annoyed me with Mint, Ubuntu, apart from the bloat, is the fact that every 5 years (in practice more like 3) you have to uninstall it and install the next major version.
I have opted for rolling versions which are updated all the time, evry day, byt you never have to uninstall/install to have the latest. Note: I am not a Linux expert …… at all!!
If you want to go for rolling AND get to choose your apps AND get a user-friendly interface AND get an amazingly helpful forum community, try Endeavour OS. You won’t regret it.
“…you have to uninstall it and install the next major version.” No need to uninstall anything; just backup your data (/home), optionally format de partition and install the new version.
It is good practice anyway to occasionally re-install your OS, whether Windows or other flavour. Most users would benefit from a 3-yearly “spring cleaning” ;-)
I think if you have to use Windows, then you might as well just try to debloat it and then use it. If you don’t have to, then use a rolling release GNU/Linux distribution. My preferred choice is RebornOS which is so much like Vanilla Arch, but with the ability to choose the Desktop Environment that you can adapt to. Community support via Discord is there as well, it is the younger ‘just as smart’ little brother to Endeavor.
I would not say I have computer knowledge, besides knowing some names of the parts. I can google and replace memory or hard drives. I use Linux. Most command line or terminal is done by copy and paste from google(carefully checked) or nice people, when I want/need to use it once or twice a year. If you can use Window’s OS software you should be able to use Linux.
@Anonymous: while I agree with your reasoning, it smacks somewhat of Windows religion.
You state: “I no longer support MS based software but continue programming office products (notably Excel), including calls to Windows libraries. Shifting would result in a significant need to re-write. Back to step #1. No thanks.”
There programs out there that are compatible with Excel, such as LibreOffice, or better still, Softmaker’s Planmaker. You would not have to rewrite entirely.
That people are afraid to switch is understandable, but then they really have 2 options:
– investigate the alternatives thoroughly, and if they think they have found a good alternative get help and make the switch, or
– stick with what they have and are used to, but then STFU and stop whining about what you are using.
They cannot have their cake and eat it.
Linux is way lighter than Windows, so I would expect it to perform better than Windows on most benchmarks.
This is the same obviousness that I was going to point out.
Just raw meat to start a nerd fight for engagement.