Giving up on Windows 11, in Favor of Linux Mint

I had set up one of my desktop computers with Linux Mint, some time earlier, as a refuge from the continuing malefaction of Windows 11 and Microsoft. However, I had continued on with Windows, more or less from inertia. But, it was proving to be crash-prone as well as requiring endless upgrades, many of which took an exceedingly long time, and it also tended to drop blue-tooth drivers and the like with wild abandon.

But recently, Windows 11 had managed to scoop up all of my hard drive disk space, so that I couldn’t even save a relatively small spreadsheet. Then it crashed. So, that was it for Windows 11, as far as I was concerned. Enough was enough.

It took a few hours, but I switched computers, moving the Linux machine into my home office and relegated the Windows machine to a back room, to keep a small fridge and freezer company. Very appropriate, I thought since Windows caused that computer to freeze on more than one occasion.

Since then, I have been very happy with Linux. I still use most of the same programs, just the Linux version of them. I even managed to set up R for Linux, which I had been informed was a bit tricky. But it was pretty easy. I no longer have to go through constant “upgrades” to Windows. I no longer have to deal with drivers that mysteriously disappear when these upgrades are run. And I no longer have to put up with nagging from Windows. So far, life is good.

But this made me think about the sad state of computing. There are some notes on this below.

Windows 11 and the Failure of Computing in General

• Example: Immediately after rebooting, by C drive is back to 29.4 GB.

• Before rebooting, it had fallen to 300 MB, so about 99% of that disc space was being used by Windows and/or other processes.

Poor memory management (RAM or disc) is a signal of poor programming, always has been, always will be.

So, why has this become so bad recently?

• The most significant aspect has come about in the past few months, at least for myself.

• However, there are many people complaining of this Windows memory hog problem. Complaints go back further in time than my situation, but it seems to begin in mid-winter to late winter, 2025-26.

• Is it general or only a smaller subset of users? (mind you, a fairly big subset, from what one can tell via searching comments on the web).

• Is it related to DEI? (i.e. programming staff is just not being hired on merit, to the extent that was the case previously.

• Is it related to AI? (Microsoft and other companies are devoting preponderant resources to this, therefore shorting other businesses (especially core businesses like their OS).

• Is it related to AI vibe-coding and related slippage in coding skills? (the recency of the problem would suggest this is no small part of the phenomenon).

• Is it related to prioritizing the data-center part of the business? Incentivizing users to move to the cloud, to deal with a disc-memory hog OS means more cloud business and more monetary subscriptions to Microsoft, for space on One-Drive and the like.

• Is it a matter of the internet and related globalization issues, that have made maintaining complex systems like OS nearly impossible at this global scale. It is asymptotically approaching failure, as the complications have an exponential growth, faster than the solutions can be devised and implemented. Might this be a general phenomenon that is/will show up in many domains in the near future.

• AI was supposed to be the rescue-mode, but it appears that it may be more problem than solution.

These are just a few possibilities that come to mind. Presumably, time will tell how it all shakes out.