Why I Ditched Windows 11 for Linux in 2024

After years of battling Windows 11 woes, I decided to switch back to Linux. Here's my journey from Microsoft frustrations to discovering CachyOS — and why it feels like coming home.

Why I'm Leaving Windows 11 Behind

Windows 11 Woes

Maybe this was all my fault...after all, somewhere, deep down inside, I knew my machine wasn't compatible. But after running Windows 11 in some weird 'Frankenstein' format for the past few years, I have to admit I'd grown reasonably comfortable.

You see somewhere along the way, I became acutely aware that SOMETHING seemed off with my computer and Windows 11. I appreciate Microsoft is doing everything they can to make the Windows Update experience better and better (P.S. kids -- when the computer expert in your life tells you to turn off Windows Update...that's what we call 'bad advice'). Things just didn't seem as frequent...

But maybe that's good, right?

What Went Wrong Here?

Held Together with Duct Tape

A few years ago (probably more than I'd care to admit...OK, I looked it up, it has been NINE years) I purchased a new computer for my desk at home, after years of using a Macbook Pro (a computer which sits on my desk to this day). This computer offered the latest generation of Intel i7-6700K processor, tons of RAM, and a great NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card. This computer offered me years and years of enjoyment as I delved back into the world of 'World of Warcraft' (no, seriously, stop laughing...), and even learned a little bit about how to mine crypto-currency (before ethereum moved to proof-of-stake).

As you might expect, eventually, I knew I was going to have to upgrade to Windows 11. So imagine my shock when I found out my reasonably new gaming rig wasn't going to cut it for Microsoft's latest operating system.

I'd assumed for years this was a challenge with the TPM (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/what-is-tpm-705f241d-025d-4470-80c5-4feeb24fa1ee) -- turns out the culprit was actually my CPU. My reasonably powerful, 4Ghz CPU...was somehow preventing me from moving to Windows 11. That...couldn't be, could it?

Not for Lack of Trying

If you've spent any degree of time looking into these kinds of issues or reading the news about the upcoming 'end of support' date for Windows 10 (October 2025 incoming...VERY QUICKLY), you'll have no doubt heard or read about people "throwing away" perfectly good computers because of issues like mine, or issues with the lack of a TPM (see reference above). You'll also no doubt come across countless little ways to work around it (in the form of registry hacks, or alternate ways to install your operating system). Given I wasn't prepared to dispose of my computer already (it's water-cooled...did I mention that? Most of the day it's whisper-quiet!) I dove in, and through some kind of magic and a 'Windows Insider' build, I ended up running Windows 11.

The Green Screen of Death

Fast-forward a bit to my challenges around Windows Update and all of the sudden, there I am, trying to repeat things again. It had seemed like years since I had last installed a 'Windows Insider' build of the operating system, and while I can certainly do without some of the uncertainty of knowing whether it was going to brick my home PC, I was definitely getting antsy about where this was going to leave me come October.

This led to multiple attempts to bring myself up to the latest edition -- I changed how quickly I was to receive Windows Insider updates to no avail, downloaded every possible version of installation media, and made every registry change conceivable.

I would keep coming back to a lovely green screen --

After spending a few days with this (credit due here to Microsoft -- after getting this and rebooting to this screen a few times in a row, Windows was smart enough to self-heal itself back to a state that was usable...it could be worse, right?), I had given up all hope and was strongly considering figuring out how I could work a Macbook Air into my future...but, then I considered another option. One we joked about at work all the time. What about Linux on the desktop?

Back to Linux?

My First Time (with Linux)

My first foray into the land of Linux came back in 1999/2000 -- I had just headed off to univeristy and had prided myself on the "robust" homelab I had developed at home (now running somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve computers in my bedroom and the storage room next door).

I wonder now if my parents took as much pride in the size of the electrical bill as I did in the number of computers I had running...🤔

Prior to running off to university, while we had nice things like access to broadband and a CD-burner (this made me almost semi-popular in the dorms in university...😂), I remember going to 'Chapters' (a bookstore in Canada for the uninitiated) and buying the physical media for...RedHat 5.2! After struggling with the installation for some time, I put getting Linux up on my computers on the backburner for a bit (and soon discovered Mandrake Linux which became my distro of choice for a LONG time).

I went off to university with a fresh home-built computer and...I guess it would have been Windows 98SE...

And as you can predict...things...rapidly fell apart, and we got to the point where enough was enough and I was GOING to make Linux work. So one Saturday or Sunday morning, when it was very early, I wiped out my computer and started down a Linux desktop path.

And it lasted...weeks? I distinctly remember trying to burn CDs during this period and until I found software I actually liked, trying and downloading anything I could find on Sourceforge.net and wiping out my entire /home directory (a slightly more important/comprehensive version of 'My Documents' for those who have no idea what that means) due to a software bug (or a configuration error...I'm blaming open-source on this one!)

Rediscovering Linux Years Later

Around the office, Linux was there, but still very much in a lightweight fashion. People ran it at home, and a few die-hards ran it on their 'daily-drivers', and those that did often spoke of the joys of the rolling release distro known as 'Arch'.

Of which I knew nothing...and as I asked for a recommendation, I ended up with an install of Linux Mint on an aging laptop.

Which breathed a surprising amount of life into yet another "robust" device that I thought ought to live longer than Microsoft had decided it should.

A little further digging and I was elbow-deep into bootable media with the November 2024 ISO and figuring out the inner workings of 'archinstall'.

It's easy...but not that easy!

And then, I hit the same problems! I was more than a little miffed -- the installer effectively kept bombing out during something to do with the audio configuration, and then even worse, it took me about an hour to realize that instead of just going back through the relatively easy menus and trying again, I was actually intended to reboot, relaunch the bootable media and 'archinstall' and start again!

A little bit of digging...and somehow, I stumbled upon CachyOS, a 'Blazingly Fast & Customizable Linux distribution' (it's worth noting I agree with them on this...so far!)

A little bit of work downloading and making bootable media and I was into the cachyos-installer and not too long thereafter, I was into a fresh new Linux desktop.

Rediscovering Linux with CachyOS

And here we are today...roughly enjoying the merits of an operating system where I can tweak more than I ever wanted to (which, to be fair, has a lot to do with the open-source authors and communities that love to tweak every single possible little setting), including a new love for a color palette called 'Catppuccin' (which I'll strongly encourage you to check out -- having now played a bit with 'Dracula' and having heard terms like 'Unicorn Vomit' thrown around, this is clearly not the end of the road for me!)

I'm not regretting it...in the slightest. And while I'm running KDE on the desktop computer, I'm happily playing away with a tiling-capable window manager on my laptop (System76's 'Cosmic' desktop environment) and missing the joys of auto-sizing every second I'm away from it. While it just hit 'alpha5', I'm still having enough trouble with it on the desktop that I'll likely wait until a little further along in the release cycle to make it something I use on a daily basis.

So, Am I Done with Windows for Good?

Right now, Linux feels like home again. It's fast, customizable, and endlessly fun to tweak. But will it stick? Stay tuned — I'll check back in a month or two to let you know if I'm still riding the Linux wave or longing for the quirks of Windows.

*Do you have thoughts on making the switch from Windows to Linux? Let's continue the conversation on Bluesky or any of my other social media platforms! I'd love to hear about your experiences.