It’s no surprise that I’m a primary Linux user when it comes to desktop (laptop!) OS.

However, unlike many previous versions of Windows, I’ve always found the Windows 10 experience very pleasant. Crashes are few and far between, things are pretty much where I expect them to be, and WSL makes the transition between “Windows tasks” (something esoteric in Word / Adobe) and dev tasks a much easier experience that doesn’t require a reboot.

So Windows 11 is coming, and this weekend I took the time to (re-)join the Insiders Programme, lock into the Dev Channel, and install Windows 11.

The install took ~1 hour. Multiple reboots. No major dramas if you’re used to Windows installs of recent years. The usual initial slowness due to re-indexing / Sophos wanting to rescan everything that has changed – but that soon calmed down.

Most noticable differences:

• Yes, they’ve changed the Start Menu. Again. Not in a Windows 8 bloaty kinda way, more in a central-location Mac kinda way.
• New icon set. Customer has to feel like they’re getting something ‘new’, right?
• Rounded. Everything just feel smore rounded. Not in a holistic kinda way, as in things have round corners.

The BIG difference – WSLg.

Not technically a Windows 11 feature, but I had the opportunity to install it as an update at the same time. https://github.com/microsoft/wslg

Once I’d updated my Nvidia drivers to get better hardware performance (https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda/wsl) the rest was a dream. Being able to just type ‘nedit’ (or whatever) in a WSL session within Windows Terminal and it to pop-up is the UX I’ve been craving for years. No need to ‘export DISPLAY’, no need to install some weird 1990’s XServer. It just works.