I've been having fun with new tech lately. I got an M1 Mac mini to take over from my previous Linux and Windows desktop systems for work and everything else, and it is really nice. The system is fast yet super efficient. It only gets warm when I run a game, otherwise it's barely warm to the touch. I would love to see the PC side of things deliver this kind of performance per watt. Apple has really knocked it out of the park with this new architecture, and Monterey is a nice refinement of the changes that came with Big Sur. It can also run mobile apps straight up, and since the new chips are suped-up versions of Apple's mobile chips, they run basically natively. I've tried the Stash app on it so far, and it's working flawlessly. Kind of funny having that little phone-shaped app on my big desktop, but at least it works as intended. Meanwhile, I've also just put Windows 11 on my Ryzen laptop. I couldn't install it on my HP desktop due to its Core i5 7000-series CPU being a generation too old, and I wouldn't want to put Win 11 on a custom-built system since it would mean buying a separate license, but it made sense to put it on my laptop (replacing Fedora Linux), which I previously upgraded to use an NVME SSD alongside the factory mechanical hard drive, and it is actually a nice experience so far. Microsoft seems to have been learning from Apple and Gnome, because the new interface is reminiscent of both. It looks so much nicer than Windows 10, and dark mode is especially well done, even if some apps and system components haven't been updated to recognize it yet. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is easy to install and runs well. I've got the Ubuntu environment installed with it, and with that I've used apt to install Extreme Tux Racer and Firefox, and both do run, though a little sluggishly. But it's my understanding that running Linux GUI apps such as these on WSL is still a new feature, so I imagine it needs work yet and will be improved. I've got versions of MS Office running on both, which of course is the main thing for my use case. Thunderbird, my emai client, is also running excellently on both and is available natively for Apple Silicon, same as Firefox. So, lots of geeky fun here for me. Just wanted to share and see if anyone wants to talk about these new hardware and software offerings.
I got a Mac Mini as well. Its internal hardware is probably faster than the equivalent PC because, since it's integrated as a system on a chip, Apple can program things directly to the hardware instead of needing to write slower, less efficient code to be able to run on a wide variety of different hardware.
You can install windows 11 on any version of I5 computer. Just download the windows 11 iso file from microsoft and put it on a USB drive. Plug in the USB drive. Boot your computer on widows 10 or whatever you have on your main drive. Then to to the USB drive and run the iso file.. Wait until the iso file loads things onto your computer and stops with a continue message. Do not click continue. Go back to the windows 10 drive, launch file explorer and find a file called appraiserres.dll. Delete that file. Now go back to the USB drive and click continue. The iso file will then install 11 with all your files intact just as they were in windows 10. The appraiserres.dll file is the one that checks for the compatibility of your computer. If you don't have it, it can't do the check. I updated all of my non compatible systems using this method including 0some that were more than 10 years old.
I'd have to opt in to the insider program to get that download, which I don't really want to do. I am quite happy with my little M1 mini anyway. It runs MS Office for Mac and, having used Macs since childhood, is a perfectly familiar and pleasant experience overall. I have Win 11 on my Ryzen 5 4000 series Lenovo laptop, though, and I'm also digging that. I like the UI changes.
No, anybody can download the iso. I'm not pushing you to upgrade. I'm just explaining that doing so is free and pretty easy.
