I am appending to this article because I want to make some observations about the impact Windows 11 may have on the personal computing market. (This append is not a comment on your excellent work investigating the installation problems encountered as an early adopter of Windows 11.)

It is January 2nd, 2026 and, by now, Windows 10 is out of support (if one does not pay for a one year extension). Many casual Windows-based computer users know that they have to upgrade to Windows 11. But doing so comes at a cost to them: they must buy a new machine to accommodate the TPM chip requirement. But many users don’t have the disposable income to buy a new machine, and some others do not want the new AI features packaged with Windows 11. Furthermore, I saw a YouTube video that observed that some business users who did upgrade to Windows 11 found that their staff lost so much productivity that they reverted back to Windows 10. This same video stated that other Windows 11 users (such as professional gamers and data analysis researchers) went to acquire Macs or Linux machines just to avoid the performance degradation observed in their Windows 11 machines.
If Microsoft is unable to improve the Windows 11 performance or to allow users to avoid the AI features or to allow users to create local user accounts, then many users will stay away from Windows 11. But this may not be the Linux adoption bonanza or a Mac resurgence that those proponents are hoping for.

Instead, I suspect that many Windows computer users are non-technical consumers who simply need a computer to interact with retail websites and government services. For these users, their phone can become a viable alternative to a personal computer. They don’t need Windows, Linux, or Mac. They can do almost everything with their phone.

There may be some tasks that are clumsy to perform with a phone. But, with enough customers complaining about such inadequate support to perform those tasks on their phone. someone will take the opportunity to make an app to make it easier for those users. Eventually, casual users will be able to do everything with their phone. And the age of the casual personal computer will slowly come to an end.

I believe the PC will continue to be a valued tool for professional gamers, software developers and other technical professionals that need a high-powered computing machine for themselves. And these users will choose Linux and Mac for as an alternative to Windows. But this group of users will be a very small market relative to the casual consumer market and those users are likely, by now, used to doing everyday tasks using their phone. These users will see no need to upgrade to Windows 11, thus drawing a close to Microsoft’s O/S dominance in the PC market.