With the stock installer? Not really. However, technically the installer itself is a very, very minimal windows. Just open up a cmd (with Ctrl + F12 or smth I believe) and you can open notepad from there, meaning you have a graphical file “manager”. And from there you can do things such as executing BIOS installers, which will actually work - even though the WM looks pretty weird, you will be able to use very simple programs just fine - such as cmd, or the Intel BIOS installer.

Windows does not really have a version afaik, so I just update it every few months. Debian live is just for visually editing/moving partition in complex setups, and I can fix my Arch install with an installer/live iso that’s months old. It’s just that I don’t want multiple USB-Sticks, and need multiple ISOs at the same time (eg. Arch and debian live for rescuing my installs, or Win 10/11 for new Installs for more tech illiterate people - Win 10 is the “just functions” thing for my father, when we need a laptop for proprietary laptops, and 11 is for other people who need something set up. Additionally, I use Windows’ installer environment to update my Laptops, servers and workstations BIOS.)

Different Linux distros and Windows. Because I regularly need them.

NVidia borks my installation sometimes. Then my stupidity to choose the non-dkms beta driver from the AUR. But all in all, my non-NVidia-devices (server, workstation and laptop) run fine on arch testing, updated every time I use one of those devices.

Even that looks and probably IS better than Windows is, was, or ever will be.

Sounds like Windows.

but.punctuationwouldntbefun!!!

Windows 10, but before Windows 11 was even leaked I believe.

It’s a Dell Latitude 5420, with a Broadcom Corp. 58200. Per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Dell#Latitude, the 5420 is supported with libfprint-2-tod1-broadcom. And of course, I use Arch btw.

Like nearly all drivers lol

Drivers I needed to pay special attention to:

• NVidia (we all know the official stance on that topic)
• e1000e needs patching because my Laptops NIC somehow reports the wrong NVM checksum
• Some obscure chinese “USB to DVI-D” adapter
• The fingerprint sensor in my Laptop, as it’s still experimental

As someone who routinely installs new Laptops for various reasons:

Installing

• Preinstalled Windows is unusable, due to preinstalled spyware
• No torrents
• No multiple versions
• No real support for actually chaning the locale, what you download is what you get. Even if that means redownloading 5 GB for every language, even though the interesting parts are just a few language files, which every OS can also replace while running (Note: OSes, not spyware with a program loader strapped to it)
• No live version
• Unnecessarily complex/long installation (Locale settings being required two times, circumventing the M$ account with cmd, denying all spying stuff)
• Installer does not have drivers for many things eg. some Touchpads, special storage setups etc.
• Installing takes a long time overall
• Removing bloat, with varying success (sometimes uninstalling Edge is one click, sometimes it requires powershell hacks) takes ages (my hand always hurts afterwards because removing one thing takes three clicks at different locations)
• Installing stuff is extremely annoying, inconsistent and insecure (VLCPlus …)
• Everyone loves hunting down 10 different obscure drivers from various websites, each with unique installers, right?
• Windows fucks itself up within a few days with a non-insignificant chance … eg. by entering S-Mode (halfway) somehow

Usage

• It may be in part due to me being used to a tiling WM with dozens of workspaces, but even with KDE I have much better workflow - somehow, Windows’ way to multitask is really strange to me, and I can only use it like a 70 year old with only 10% sight in one eye and 0% in the other: very slow and inefficiently
• You can’t integrate anything with anything, except if you have dozens of accounts of services, some even with costs, and only use everything exactly like daddy manufacturer wants you to
• Literally no support. Windows fucks itself up in so many ways, and the only “reliable” fix is a reinstall
• Even with the dumbed down nature of Windows, users are morons. I’d rather teach my grandparents (including my very loud grandfather and said nearly-blind grandmother) Linux from scratch (yes, also LFS) than teach them the “correct way” to use Windows
• Even when knowing how to use Windows properly, with all tricks applied, it’s less powerful than a pregnancy test running BASIC
• Paying 250+$ to get served ads to pay even more, money and data, is obviously stupid

I never configured anything on X with a DE, let it be KDE, Gnome or Cosmic, but configure everything with config files I can just copy on sway. It has nothing to do with X or Wayland, but the DE/WM you use.

*sharks.

Mine was not really long and stretched out over multiple devices. First Ubuntu Server, on my server, then a Kali dual boot on my main PC (which was actually useful), then PopOS. Then Ubuntu/Debian, after some time LFS and finally Arch on my old laptop. Then Arch on my PC too, and my new Laptops, and finally Arch on all devices.

That does not oppose Kaspersky being malware in any way … so what’s the point of noting Microsoft?

I switched 4 years ago and I experience the same. But to be fair, I also use an atypical setup designed for efficiency, so basically the opposite of windows in every aspect.

They fixed one specific issue afaik, not by actually fixing it but working around it, and they didn’t address the real, main issue: The driver being closed source. Until then, there are and will always be issues that aren’t present for AMD, because the latter has thousands of experts working, fixing and adapting other programs for it for free, around the clock.

Also, NVidia.

What I noticed is that alternatives to most electron apps are much better anyway. Spotify-tui is more efficient, and Discord in a separate Firefox instance is even more memory efficient that the normal Discord.

Solution: Create a new standard (always works so well)