Last month it was raining Windows 11 content all over the internet. Judging by the pre-release and post-release reactions on social media, the release was a rollercoaster for fans. While Windows 11 brings many things to the table and improves on many aspects, many people were disappointed with their PC not supporting it because their hardware is old. But, open-source always has an answer. The main goal of open-source software is to solve problems and not to create more of them.
Pop!_OS is one of the prime examples of how good the open-source software community is. The new Pop!_OS 21.04, which was released recently, brings tons of new productivity-focused features and is one of the most popular Ubuntu-based distros in the community. Here are some things that it does better than Windows 11 and why it can be a perfect replacement for Windows 11 on your PC.
Pop!_OS Vs Windows 11: Things Pop!_OS Does Better
1. Old Hardware? No Problem!
One of the things that people hated the most about the launch is, Microsoft wasn’t transparent about the system requirements. People believed that Windows 11 would run fine on their machines only to find out later that it will only support 7th Gen and higher Intel CPUs and Ryzen 1000 or higher CPUs.
If you think that was it, Microsoft made TPM support mandatory, which made things even more confusing. Luckily, you won’t need to deal with that mess on Pop!_OS, as it runs fine even on potato PCs with no bar on how old the hardware is. Pretty cool, right?
2. Revamped Taskbar? Think Better
One of the main changes in Windows 11 was the taskbar. The icons in the taskbar are shifted to the middle. Microsoft says that it makes the OS look clean, but in reality, we all know who Microsoft is trying to imitate here. Of course, users can dial back to the old style from the settings, but the feature itself isn’t that great, except it just looks cleaner than the taskbar in Windows 10.
System 76 recently added a built-in dock in the OS, and it goes without saying that Pop!_OS also takes inspiration from macOS’s dock but implements it way better than Windows 11’s dock. You can do things like changing the dock’s position to the bottom, left, or right side of your screen, extending it to the edges of your screen, changing its size, and setting it to auto-hide or intelligent hide to work with more display real estate.
3. Forget Snap Layouts, Use Auto-Tiling
Windows 11 introduced Snap layouts, allowing you to arrange an app window in specific patterns for better multitasking. While the feature is nice to have, it’s nowhere near the amazing and comprehensive auto-tiling feature that’s present on Pop!_OS. This feature also happens to be the main selling point of OS (When I say “selling point,” I don’t mean it literally. Pop!_OS is and will always be free, hopefully).
With auto-tiling, the app’s windows will automatically arrange themselves as you open them. You can learn a bunch of keyboard shortcuts, and by mastering them, you can save a lot of time and be more productive than getting things done without moving, wasting time hovering over your mouse. This feature makes Pop!_OS a better OS in the whole Pop!_OS Vs Windows 11 debate.
4. Android Apps Emulation In Linux Is Better
Another feature that Microsoft delivered when people were least expecting it is installing Android apps on Windows. This will be made possible by integrating Amazon’s app store inside the new and revamped Windows Store. Additionally, it has also been reported that you can also sideload apps on Windows. All of this is great, but you cannot deny that the Android apps emulation on Linux is way better.
Unlike Windows, where you can run only the apps, Android containers like Anbox allow you to install GApps (Google apps). This will allow you to download and run apps directly from the Play Store. Sure, you’ll need to go through the hassle of installing and setting it up, but it’s effortless to get started. Not to mention, this also opens a gateway to learning new things and making a career out of it.
5. Linux Is More Secure
Now, I’m pretty sure you anticipated me bringing up this point. The open-source community contributing to Linux 24×7 ensures that malicious attacks are kept at bay. I wouldn’t say that Linux is completely secure. In fact, no software is completely secure, but it’s definitely more secure than Windows.
Unless you’re running everything with superuser access, you’ll be fine. Microsoft made TPM 2.0 support a requirement to reduce attacks on the OS, which should also make Windows secure, but the main question to be asked here is, does it really make Windows secure?
What are your views on Windows 11? Do you think it’s enough to make an average Linux user switch or at least tempt to switch? If we missed any area in which you think Linux is way better than Windows, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
