A Linux User's Review Of Microsoft Windows 10
General Thoughts
Microsoft definitely seems to have done some good work related to the graphics and animation systems. The entire desktop feels quicker, snappier, there's visibly less lag on the same system compared to Windows 8.1. The entire system feels much more responsive than even my Gnome and KDE installations under Fedora.
Resource usage is about the same as under Windows 8.1-- less than Windows 7, but more than a modern Linux distribution will typically use.
Other improvements are niceties, things that add an extra bit to the desktop experience but are not game changers. Such as the fact that dragging a Window to the left or right edge and letting it snap to half of the screen will cause all other windows to be displays in the remaining half. Picking one these windows will make them snap in place to cover the other half. It's a nice feature that shows the desktop working with you instead of not doing anything, or worse working against you.
The other major desktop addition is, finally, virtual workspaces. If you've used virtual workspaces under Linux then you know how they work under Windows. Take some applications, throw them on one workspace, take some others and throw them to the other. Delegate out workspaces for specific jobs-- its an idea that works well, and that's fine.
Microsoft's implementation under Windows 10 is... par for the course. It works well, it stays out of your way. It's a perfectly fine execution that they didn't try to make "their own" or to "fancy it up." Kudos to them for knowing that not everything has to special and "their own."
The Start Menu
Compared to Windows 8 and 8.1 the new Start Menu is a welcome sight. It looks roughly familiar and is far more desktop-appropriate than the Start Screen ever was. The downside though is the new menu is far less useful. On the left side is the recently used icons and the usual "All Programs" button we are used to. But they noticeably shrunk the width of that portion of the menu compared to Windows 7 which makes it feel cramped. On the right side is the Windows 8 portion of the menu-- live tiles and such. While some of these are useful, such as the Weather or Email live tile, most of them could be just as easily served as being normal icon launchers.
Further more, the menu is a fair bit less customizable than I would expect. Remove all of the live tiles and instead of shrinking the menu you are instead left with...
A very empty menu. That is a lot of wasted space.
Fortunately, Windows 8 era Start Menu replacement apps like ClassicShell and Start8 seem to retained perfect compatibility with Windows 10 and can be used to get back to a more familiar looking menu in no time at all.