Seeking Advice: Integrating Windows 11 with DIY Electronics Projects

Welcome Alina,

I wouldn't have Windows 11 if they paid me (well, they'd have to pay me in seven figures, and even then...).

So yeah, I feel that pain. Win 10 is a little better but Microsoft are moving to SAAS (software as a service) which means that our computers don't really belong to us - at least the software we think we own, is beholden to Microsoft's whim.

Electronics development is, in my experience, much easier, faster and generally more pleasant under Linux. There are any numbers of Linux distros out there but Ubuntu is generally considered the best for people new to Linux. Debian 12 would also be a good choice but it's not as well supported as Ubuntu and it's flavours. KDE (an alternative desktop architecture) is also widely recognised as a great option.

With all these things, YMMV "your mileage may vary" - your experience might be different.

So you have several ways to try this.

• "Live:" a number of distros (MX is one of the best in this regard) have live versions that are fully functional and don't require installation on your local hard drive.
• "Split/dual boot": Perhaps the most used option is to divide your drive into two main partitions (they can be different sizes) and put Linux of your choice alongside Windows. Ubuntu and others based on that can do this automatically for you during installation but if you're not sure there are people who can help in the community. Debian's installer is rather more complicated which is the price of power. Debian gives you a choice of a number of desktop types, including Cinnamon which is very like Windows 95/98.
• Completely replace Windows: that's the advanced option and I don't recommend it for most people. It's what I do but I have a spare Windows machine in case I need to use an unsupported app (Affinity by Serif is my gotcha). Linux has many alternatives to Windows software - LibreOffice for example does all the functions of MS Office. WINE isn't really suitable for many apps although some electronics software (notably LTSpice) does work well.

Software like KiCAD which is absolutely superb now and is going from strength to strength works on Windows as do all the major simulators like LTSpice, TINA TI, MicroCap (which is also free now but for very advanced users).

I'm assuming your issues are with the wretched Arduino clones which use a much cheaper version of the FTDI chip so programming is exceptionally hit and miss. I don't want to tell you the hours and hair loss I had working on older Uno clones. (Shudders). The only reliable alternative I found, at least for the ATMega chips, was to make a little serial programmer out of an Arduino Nano and use that instead. This was (by and large) pretty reliable but again YMMV.

The ESP32 seemed to be OK but it can be a bit fussy too - again this depends on which programmer you're using. I used to use Visual Studio although there is an Open Source version of it now without the telemetry. PlatformIO (developed in the Ukraine) makes it much easier to get the right software, drivers and so on for each board you might be using including generic dev boards.

Visual Studio and PlatformIO are both available on Windows so that might be worth a try before you make a leap into Linux.