I have been using windows 11 for more than an year now after some ants (later on that) nuked my drive and I lost my data along with the dual boot (Arch OS, windows 11).
After I bought a new SSD, I just installed windows 11 on it and heavily debloated it. Since then I am finding it very easy and predictable to use. However, it does not get as useful as a Linux distro but it gets the work done.
I am using Firefox as my regular browser both in PC and android device I own along with DuckDuckGo being the default search engine. I happen to use chrome very less now, only for some searches that google shows in a better format. such as casts for some movie or tv series.
After google announcement at I/O may 19, regarding bringing more AI capabilities to the google search bar I felt more of consistent that I have been using DDG for quite sometime and I would not be affected much by it. I have disabled the DuckAI as well.
The main reason that I did not shifted to the Linux after getting new SSD was my graphic tablet HUION. I use it to take notes, annotate PDFs on the laptop. My entire study sessions that includes writing are done digitally using this pen tablet. However there is a Linux based drivers are available for this tablet but the feature of mapping different buttons to different applications is only available in windows driver.
I tried using OpenTabletDriver: an open source driver solution for various pen tablets to make them work in Linux mostly, but that feature couldn't be replicated very well. I had to press a hot key to cycle the application profile. While in windows, it was dynamic. The profiles get changed automatically as you switch to the application. That was convenient.
Also the slider strip did not work in the Arch OS. So I thought for the sake of the study. I will have to use windows. I am still seeking alternatives for that.
This led me to extensively debloat windows and make it bearable. I used Win11Debloat for manually debloating the unnecessary AI slop, widgets, office applications, third party applications, did some windows 10 tweaks such as context menu. It felt great seeing it clean.
However, I am still much likely to switch to Linux very soon. I am just waiting to feel any pain point or finding the solutions that I was having with my pen tablet. In case you are wondering, this is how the home screen looks.
About the ants, they invaded my laptop through the vents and started nibbling onto the foam on the motherboard. I did not know it was the dual boot or the ants that nuked my SSD. But it got very hot to run the laptop and gradually it refused to boot up. Later finding out that my Samsung 512GB NVME SSD was the reason of the raised temperature and then I had to put it down.
Alright, Now I am going to make a pixel artwork for this post.
P.S : Pixel art was bad since I used mobile for it but then I switched to isometric illustration in Figma.