Just really unclear what benefits I'm actually getting from 11.

Better access to ads and improved data gathering!

Oh wait, you're looking for benefits for the user? Umm... Security updates that will protect you from the vulnerability in Windows 10 that will get leaked as soon as it is no longer supported.

I think this is the best assessment I've read yet of Windows 11. I just switched the OS on my work computer with a fresh install of Windows 11 and have run into a handful of issues and frustrations. This thing has been out for like 3 years now. It shouldn't still be this problematic. I may end up switching to a long-term support version of Windows 10 that goes to 2027 or 2029. Unfortunately that's only available for Enterprise editions, so I can't do the same at home. I'm soon going to be dual- and triple-booting Linux at home.

There's one feature that win11 has over win10 that I wish was there, and that's the default layout manager is superior to windows 10's, and less fidgety and better hotkeys than what's offered with Power Toys. Especially vertical monitor support, which win10s layout manager never got an update for. And as a Tie-Fighter monitor setup user (4k portrait, WQHD landscape, 4k portrait) having an effective layout manager is crucial.

However, there's 3rdParty layout managers that are even better than the win11 implementation. Butt to be able to get the default support of an effective layout manager is quite nice.

That said, that's the only feature I really like aside from some nominal improvements/optimizations to background systems (network stack, Bluetooth management, "game mode") and services. That's not enough for me to transition when there's so many other things that were done to make it a worse experince.

I'm excited to transition my personal desktop to PopOS once win10 reaches EoL. Maybe Valve will drop their latest SteamOS in time for the Win10 EoL hoping to attract all those gamers on non-TPM 2.0 supported systems that are still great gaming rigs. I know I'd at least give it a go.

I’ve got Windows 11 on my work laptop and the only 2 benefits I’ve seen are notepad now has tabs and auto save, and snipping tool can now record videos. On the downsides the new start menu is so shit I only ever use it for search now, which is also shit (it frequently misses the first few letters when I press the windows key and start typing), and the new right click menu is annoying.

If you have an HDR monitor, then 11 is worth upgrading to. AutoHDR makes things so easy; it just works. No need to even bother with calibrating anything; no need to worry about switching it off when going back to SDR content, either. All you gotta do is flip the "Use HDR" switch, set HDR tone mapping to "Auto" on your monitor, and then forget about it. That's it, couldn't be easier.

Meanwhile in 10, I have to turn off HDR every time I go back to SDR content, and in KDE, HDR doesn't even work properly yet on my LG C1. Neither issue exists in 11. HDR just works.