What can desktop Linux learn from Windows 11?
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As you might have noticed, Microsoft announced Windows 11. It comes with a new interface style, some redesigned apps, and a few features that I think we could make use of on our Linux desktops. There are also a few things that we've been doing for years and that Microsoft is catching up to, and I think it's going to be interesting to compare both implementations.
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00:00 Intro
01:24 Android App Support
03:56 Tiling
06:15 Gaming
07:49 The bad stuff
09:30 Parting Thoughts
Ok, now let's start with the feature that caught my eye the most: Windows 11 will be able to run Android apps, out of the box.
Now wether you have a use for that or not will determine how interested you are in this, but it still opens up a TON of possibilities, especially for mobile hardware.
Of course, Microsoft chose a debatable course of action by using the Amazon App Store as its Android app library, and you will have to create an amazon account, but Android apps will run through a similar subsystem to WSL, which means that performance shouldn't be horrible at all.
This is a feature I wish our Linux desktops did, or at least did better. You can use Anbox on Linux, to try and run Android apps, but it's a clunky solution, based on an old Android version. It doesn't come with an appstore, so you have to sideload apps, and it's not integrated with the system at all.
I think we could do something similar than what microsoft is doing, but better.
First, of course, you use F Droid.
Second, Integrate android apps in the menu, docks, panels, whatever our desktops use
Third, integrate android apps in our various app stores, to let users download and run them in one click.
Fourth, we can use the Android Open Source Projet, and de-google it, to use as a base: all the advantages of Android, without the spyware.
The second feature I found interesting is the tiling.
Yeah, sure Microsoft has conveniently forgotten than we've been doing this and more for ages.
Tiling WMs have been a thing for ages on Linux, PopOS has its auto tiling feature, and most desktops allow users to snap windows to any side or corner of the screen easily.
BUT
Microsoft has, in my opinion, done it in a more clever, user friendly way than any of these solutions.
First, their solution is discoverable. You just need to hover over the maximize button, which is something you're going to do a lot, as soon as you want to maximize a window.
Second, they offer pre-made layouts, so you can get a feel of what you can do with this feature: just by looking at the popup, you can see that windows could be arranged in various configurations, and that can give you ideas if you've never thought about organizing your windows.
Third, they remember application pairings through this tiling. If you move to another app, another virtual desktop, or just disconnect your laptop from your external monitor, your application pairings and tiling will be kept, and you can return to them just by using the task bar.
I think this implementation makes sense for regular users. The average computer user doesn't use the keyboard to interact with their windows, they use the mouse.
Now in terms of Gaming, Windows still has the advantage over Linux. Proton is a game changer, pun totally intended, but it still can't run everything, especially anything that uses anti cheat software.
Microsoft is widening the gap with Windows 11, with 2 main features.
The first one is DirectStorage. It's an API that lets games transfer the assets they need to load in, like textures, or complex 3D models, directly to the GPU, instead of using the CPU.
The second nice feature is the Auto HDR. This basically takes older games that haven't got any HDR support, and applies a few transformations to the color space so that they look a bit better than they used to and make use of a greater dynamic range. it's not going to be as nice as real-baked in HDR, but it still improves visual quality quite a bit on older titles.