Comment by zrobotics
5 months ago
What's the advantage for a consumer here though? I honestly don't get the selling point of why I would want Win11 specifically on a handheld. The desktop UI sucks with a touchscreen, so having a windows vs a Linux desktop on the hardware doesn't seem like a difference. I get why MS wants to try to compete here, but I just don't get what they could possibly offer. I don't believe Win11 can be stripped down enough to compete on performance, currently I can't get a machine with 4GB of RAM and a SATA SSD to perform adequately with a web browser in Win11. The OS just consumes huge amounts of resources on stupid background tasks that can't be disabled without registry tweaks and the undefined behavior that comes with that.
The person you're responding to wasn't entirely accurate, as it's not just a regular desktop session with the Xbox app set to auto launch. Early reports (admittedly from Microsoft PR) say the gamepad-centric window manager they're shipping on the Xbox ROG, a replacement for explorer.exe, shaves off 2GB of memory usage specifically because they're disabling desktop-centric services during the session. They do seem to be addressing a lot of your points.
The selling point is compatibility with anti-cheat and Game Pass. These aren't targeted for me, I'm not big into competitive shooters, I prefer a la carte and I main Linux, but I can imagine it would be for a lot of people.
Idk I’m not a Microsoft enjoyer. I gave it a good shot with Surface Pro for a bit but it’s just not for me.