--- title: Windows 11 is failing as an operating system | daily.dev description: Windows 11 is criticized as failing at the core pillars of an operating system: hardware support, stability, application reliability, and user customization.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Windows 11 is failing as an operating system | daily.dev og:description: Windows 11 is criticized as failing at the core pillars of an operating system: hardware support, stability, application reliability, and user customization.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/sDnu6FB2P.png og:image:alt: Windows 11 is failing as an operating system og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Windows 11 is failing as an operating system **[The Linux Experiment](https://daily.dev/sources/linuxexp)** · 30 min read · 20 upvotes · 15 comments ## Summary Windows 11 is criticized as failing at the core pillars of an operating system: hardware support, stability, application reliability, and user customization. Monthly updates have repeatedly broken features like remote desktop, USB audio, games, Office integration, and Microsoft accounts. Market share data shows Windows 11 growing slower than Windows 10 did, while Windows overall loses ground to macOS and Linux. The piece also criticizes bloatware, telemetry, forced ads, and Copilot integration, arguing Microsoft now treats Windows as an upsell platform rather than a tool. Debloating scripts like Windows 11 Debloater or Chris Titus Tech's utility can help but don't fix underlying instability. macOS and Linux (KDE, GNOME, Cosmic, Cinnamon) are presented as stronger alternatives, with tools like Wine and Windboat closing the application gap for Linux users. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What market share does Windows 11 have compared to Windows 10 five years after release? Five years after launch, Windows 11 holds about 68% of the Windows market, while Windows 10 had reached 73% in the same timeframe after its own release. Windows 11 also never exceeded 72.5% of Windows users at its peak, compared to Windows 10's peak of 82%, showing notably slower adoption. _Developers tracking OS adoption trends can follow market-share debates and analysis pieces on daily.dev._ ### What are the minimum system requirements for Windows 11 and are they realistic? Windows 11 officially supports 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a dual-core 1GHz CPU, and a TPM2 chip, but these specs are impractical in practice. The OS itself consumes 24-26GB of the 64GB storage minimum, and 4GB of RAM gets used up nearly in half by the OS alone before opening any applications, causing freezing and stalling. _Anyone sizing hardware for Windows 11 can dig into real-world requirement discussions on daily.dev._ ### What Windows 11 updates in 2026 caused major system-breaking issues? Multiple 2026 monthly updates broke core functionality: September broke remote desktop, USB audio, and Hyper-V Linux VMs; August broke game drivers causing access violations and lower FPS; a summer update stopped third-party apps from opening Office documents; March broke Microsoft account sign-in affecting Teams, OneDrive, and Office; January caused black screens and broken POP email in Outlook. _IT teams planning update rollouts can watch for recurring Windows reliability issues on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@devmandan** · 6 upvotes > So glad to be away from Windows - I only wish I'd moved sooner. **@baz14** · 5 upvotes > Linux != an alternative. Win can be replaced by Linux, but not the other way around. Dependence on win has always been artificial, created by win-only support as a result of collusion with devs **@paulvasile** · 1 upvotes > Windows stopped being your operating system since Windows 10. Task manager could not stop many tasks, programs that refused to be deleted. I even had an update that removed libre office from my PC and started promoting microsoft office to me. > > But at least Windows 10 was working. Windows 11 I couldn't even install it. I needed internet to install it but in order to use internet I needed to install the network drivers and in order to install the network drivers I needed to install Windows. **@bob72** · 0 upvotes > I was pretty happy using windows + wsl until 2 years ago, but then wsl started to hand every week or so due to no one know why, plus using a lot of swap . They basically made it rubbish. Moved my entire team to linux, never been happier. **@kizomanizo** · 0 upvotes > Look at us shills pretending that DELL fingerprint lock drivers exist in Linux. Missing drivers, LOL > > I'm on MacOS and Ubuntu BTW. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [State of the Windows: What is going on with Windows 11?](https://daily.dev/posts/state-of-the-windows-what-is-going-on-with-windows-11--i7oygxckl) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Windows won the desktop by being compatible with everything, but that's starting to look like a drawback](https://daily.dev/posts/windows-won-the-desktop-by-being-compatible-with-everything-but-that-s-starting-to-look-like-a-draw-cnkrih3uz) · XDA Developers · 20 upvotes · 8 comments - [Windows 11’s 2025 problems are getting impossible to ignore](https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-s-2025-problems-are-getting-impossible-to-ignore-k8buasaeg) · Hacker News · 5 upvotes · 0 comments - [Windows 11 after two decades of macOS: okay, but also awful](https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-after-two-decades-of-macos-okay-but-also-awful-yhxvzok9p) · Lobsters · 2 upvotes · 1 comments - [Microsoft finally admitted Windows 11 was broken, but I've already moved on](https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-finally-admitted-windows-11-was-broken-but-i-ve-already-moved-on-muoklyrse) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#windows](https://daily.dev/tags/windows), [#mac](https://daily.dev/tags/mac) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Windows 11 is failing as an operating system","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p"},"datePublished":"2026-10-01T11:01:26.091Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T11:01:46.408Z","description":"Windows 11 is criticized as failing at the core pillars of an operating system: hardware support, stability, application reliability, and user customization....","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KMt9y53yXqo/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KMt9y53yXqo/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Linux Experiment","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Linux Experiment","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tvuv-fY0--/f_auto/v1728807168/logos/linuxexp","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/linuxexp"},"commentCount":15,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":20},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":15}],"keywords":"linux,windows,mac","timeRequired":"PT30M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Windows 11 is failing as an operating system","description":"Windows 11 is criticized as failing at the core pillars of an operating system: hardware support, stability, application reliability, and user customization....","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KMt9y53yXqo/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-10-01T11:01:26.091Z","duration":"PT30M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/sDnu6FB2P","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/KMt9y53yXqo"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Linux Experiment","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/linuxexp"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Windows 11 is failing as an operating system"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"So glad to be away from Windows - I only wish I’d moved sooner.","datePublished":"2026-10-01T11:36:41.638Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sDnu6FB2P#c-qdjYx0XDz","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/devmandan","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ypn2TBF9--/f_auto/v1786619820/avatars/avatar_qDApMJOupymFKtjAmmtB4?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Linux != an alternative. Win can be replaced by Linux, but not the other way around. Dependence on win has always been artificial, created by win-only support as a result of collusion with devs","datePublished":"2026-10-01T12:28:21.176Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sDnu6FB2P#c-HNFwI4TTY","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Baz","url":"https://daily.dev/baz14","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKd2iFU8YS4sV-rBJptuYSF8EHeQnm23N_dcXE1uON7_GMIlZg=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Windows stopped being your operating system since Windows 10. Task manager could not stop many tasks, programs that refused to be deleted. I even had an update that removed libre office from my PC and started promoting microsoft office to me.\nBut at least Windows 10 was working. Windows 11 I couldn’t even install it. I needed internet to install it but in order to use internet I needed to install the network drivers and in order to install the network drivers I needed to install Windows.","datePublished":"2026-10-02T10:05:36.592Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sDnu6FB2P#c-noclgHPgt","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Paul Vasile","url":"https://daily.dev/paulvasile","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLb1NRaUyJcnimfMzKBMkQvvObhEegoAuRKlUIqttoRHlw=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I was pretty happy using windows + wsl until 2 years ago, but then wsl started to hand every week or so due to no one know why, plus using a lot of swap . They basically made it rubbish. Moved my entire team to linux, never been happier.","datePublished":"2026-10-01T19:55:01.791Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sDnu6FB2P#c-3bxtoo21a","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Bob","url":"https://daily.dev/bob72","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/193962566?v=4"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Look at us shills pretending that DELL fingerprint lock drivers exist in Linux. Missing drivers, LOL\nI’m on MacOS and Ubuntu BTW.","datePublished":"2026-10-03T07:24:15.206Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sDnu6FB2P#c-XeDdcsgTj","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kizito","url":"https://daily.dev/kizomanizo","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AAcHTtf_9jV6bHsBs8P3XMkgVR571XI3Mth0K9aXVStyQc3Rb-8=s96-c"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/windows-11-is-failing-as-an-operating-system-sdnu6fb2p#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What market share does Windows 11 have compared to Windows 10 five years after release?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Five years after launch, Windows 11 holds about 68% of the Windows market, while Windows 10 had reached 73% in the same timeframe after its own release. Windows 11 also never exceeded 72.5% of Windows users at its peak, compared to Windows 10's peak of 82%, showing notably slower adoption. 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