Thoughts About Switching ⭐️

In De-Enshittify Windows 11, I make the case that anyone can fix or work around its many problems and make it work for them instead of against them. But lingering in the back of my mind, of course, is the worry that Microsoft will, at some point, create problematic behaviors in Windows 11 or some successor that can’t be fixed or worked around.

This is a rational fear, not a conspiracy theory: Microsoft wants for Windows what Apple and Google have in their locked-down mobile platforms. And while it has so far backed down to pressure and pushback, almost always from its biggest enterprise customers, it continues to quietly tighten the vice on our freedoms. Its ongoing work to require users to sign in to Windows 11 with a Microsoft account being an obvious example. Today, those who prefer to not do that still have an out. But what about tomorrow? We don’t know.

I think about this kind of thing a lot. And as many readers here know, I spend a lot of time testing alternatives, be they apps and services or major changes like other OS platforms. And while a lazy analysis of my continued Windows usage is that it’s mostly tied to inertia and familiarity, I feel like my extensive experiences with other platforms speak volumes. I still use Windows because it’s better, even with all the enshittification, and in large part because those fixes and workarounds still exist. I still use Windows, but not for a lack of trying. I still use Windows because none of the alternatives are better.

But that’s just me. And things change. Today, the contenders for the desktop throne are better than ever, as should always be the case, but there are also more of them now. And some of the more intriguing alternatives these days are mobile platforms like Android and iPadOS that are evolving desktop features at stunning speed after years of silence. That’s an interesting space to watch.

It’s also not for everyone. While I think that Windows 11 still provides the best overall experience for what I’ll call desktop productivity, others have had enough, and they’re ready to move on right now. Those people have a more limited set of choices that include basically the Mac and Linux. Neither is without its obstacles, but change is always difficult.

There are also use cases to consider. I spend entire days typing away on a computer keyboard, where its productivity focus and bigger screen really make a difference. But others–including a new generation of users who approach personal computing far differently than you or I–may view computers and larger screen devices as secondary to the phones they’re glued to all day long. For this audience, an iPad, Chromebook, or MacBook Neo may fit the bill better. As will, perhaps, an Android/Aluminum OS-based laptop in the near future. Or, further out, some phone or folding phone with a Bluetooth keyboard or dock.

Workflow matters as well. Yes, I can type on any device with a screen and keyboard, but there’s also a process that includes apps and online services. That process, which I think of as workflow, is how one works. For example, when I write a news post for Thurrott.com, I will use an app to write, a web browser to read and download one or more images, a graphics app to edit an image I will use for the post, a web browser to input my post to a service, WordPress, and a cloud service like OneDrive, Google Drive, or Synology Drive to which I save and archive all the files I’ve created. Each of those components is important, and if I’m familiar with each and how they interact in this process, I can be more efficient and get the work done more quickly.

Change aversion is another consideration, and this is something that likely affects all people to some degree, regardless of age or experience. If you grew up with computers, as I did, you may find that environment more familiar and thus more efficient than a mobile device. But a younger generation may approach this from another angle. And in both cases, the thought of taking the time to experiment, let alone thoroughly learn some new way of working, is daunting enough to be a non-starter. Few people aggressively embrace change, and I certainly do not. But many people fear change enough to not even try. Getting over this hump can be difficult.

You may know that I am trying to have a focus each month this year. If not, the focus for January was security. The focus for February was De-Enshittify Windows 11. And the focus for March is using AI to complete my WinUIpad coding project. I have several ideas for April and beyond, but one of them, which will likely span two or more months, is Windows alternatives. This is not change, it’s Big Change. And that ratchets up the difficulty level.

In other words, there is change, but there is also Big Change.

As a writer, I took several years to fully transition away from Microsoft Word, the industry standard for writing, but also a big bloated mess of features few need. I observed decades ago that, even as a professional writer, I likely only used 5 or 8 percent of the features in Word. But what was once just a curiosity became more problematic as Microsoft shifted the focus of this and other Office apps away from individuals to me and to businesses and the enterprise. This likely reduced the percentage of features that were useful to me, personally, but then Microsoft did what Big Tech does to all of its platforms and started enshittifying Word too. This thing that was ideal for writing was just getting in my way.

And so I began researching alternatives with renewed vigor. For this type of thing, there are small steps one can make, like choosing a very similar app like LibreOffice Writer, that can use the same file formats and reliably duplicate the Word user experience and most of the features someone like me might need. But there are also bigger steps. Like not worrying about Word compatibility and focusing more on simpler solutions that do nothing but deliver that 5 to 8 percent of features I really need. And in time, for me, that became the Markdown plain text format, which I adopted in stages, and then a list of apps I used over time until I finally settled on Typora. In the interim, I retreated back to the perceived safety of Word at least once or twice. But today, I am all-in on Markdown. This is–to me–The Way.

I wrote more about my decades-long transition from Microsoft Word to Markdown in The Shortest Path from Thoughts to Words (Premium) last year. But framing this is in the context of change vs. Big Change, you can see that a successful transition will depend on your needs and experiences. If you use Word only sparingly and don’t really care about optimizing the writing experience, then this is just a change, and one you will never even consider. But if you are a professional writer, this transition is a Big Change, one that is perhaps too scary to even contemplate. Indeed, switching from Windows to the Mac might even be easier than switching away from Word. After all, the Mac has a full-featured version of Word, just like Windows.

And that’s just one app, one experience, that may or may not bind you today to Windows. You will have your own requirements and wants, and they will exist across apps, services, and workflows, intermingling and working together to make any change, big or small, all the more daunting. This is very personal. Something that worked for me may not make sense to you at all, and vice versa.

These are the challenges I’m considering when I think not just about switching platforms, but also about writing about switching platforms. You don’t have to worry about that latter bit too much, just understand that this is a difficult problem that I’m taking seriously. When that great buffoon of my industry, Walter Mossberg, used to abuse his position as a Wall Street Journal columnist and recommend that Windows users simply switch to the Mac and Mac OS X over 20 years ago, that was an overly simplistic, lazy, and expensive non-solution to a problem that almost didn’t really exist at the time. Today … it’s more nuanced. And the conversation requires more thought than Mossberg ever gave it. I’m working through it.

I will have more on this soon, of course, but I need your help here. I’m curious about what aspects of Windows 11 are the most troubling to you, what it is you’re looking for in an alternative, and what the blockers are. Where do any of these alternatives meet your needs, and where do they fall short? What has to happen–badly to Windows or in a more positive fashion in some alternative–for you to finally make the switch? Please let me know your thoughts: I don’t engage in what I see as faux interaction elsewhere; I really do want to know.

Thanks.