Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

  > Just switch to Linux already. 

  > It's really there. Some compromises required, sure, but they are already far and between.

There are a lot of compromises:

- The Linux desktop is far flakier and far less elegant than Windows and especially macOS. KDE's a little less flakey than GNOME, I suppose.

- A lot of the apps you love don't exist on Linux.

- The Linux replacements for the apps you love are way less functional.

- Keyboard shortcuts are chaotic unless you spend a lot of time deep diving on how to configure them coherently across applications.

- Odd behaviors with snap/flatpak apps, but those will get worked out with time.

Pluses:

- The underlying Linux OS is rock stable with compatible hardware.

- You can customize your desktop pretty much infinitely, if that's your thing.

- Everything is free.

- Logging is, compared to macOS and Windows, excellent.

- If you're a developer, everything is more compatible on Linux.

Anyways, after a year, I went crawling back to my Mac. I still have a Linux desktop SSD in the PC, ready to go, but I rarely pop in anymore.

That said, if you live the terminals plus browser lifestyle, you won't miss much switching to Linux desktop.

Edit: for context, I used UNIX and Linux way before I ever used Windows or DOS. I have, in the past, done deep dives on Windows, Windows kernel, Windows and .net programming, etc. I just prefer *NIX.

I tried the New Outlook after having issues with the default mail app. I was greeted with a message "To add your iCloud account to Outlook, we need to sync your emails, contacts, and events to the Microsoft Cloud."

I'm sorry WHAT?!? You're telling me that to use a local email service I need to sync with Microsoft servers?

Someone here please tell me that this is just because it was in beta and all of the features didn't exist yet? Otherwise what the hell is Microsoft thinking?

For the record I just did not do this and any chance of using Windows for productivity tasks went completely out the Window. Windows was always just primarily for gaming but having email there would have been nice.

Battery life, display scaling, sleep & wake up issues, trackpad gestures, sound output, GPU-accelerated video playback... Just to name a couple of problems I hope not to encounter every time I decide to give Linux another chance, but I still do.

To fix them, you need to run some arcane commands, edit some config files, compile your own kernel, ... I don't know. I'll have something that "just works". I'll keep using Linux headless on a server, where it really shines.