I think Microsoft & Intel have a complicated relationship. They were best friends until Intel screwed up with the CPUs used in an earlier generation of Microsoft's surface -- they never delivered on some promised features, or something like that, causing Microsoft all sorts of headaches. That's if I remember correctly -- I couldn't find a reference when I looked a minute ago. Microsoft struck back, trying AMD & ARM in a couple of their surface products, but neither of those were popular, so now the talk is about Microsoft designing their own chips like Apple, though that may just be for their data centers, at least at 1st.
But AMD & Intel CPUs have different strengths and weaknesses, and you're very correct in saying that a true comparison of Linux performance vs. Win10 & 11 should include Intel, not just AMD.
Linux Mint is Always mentioned in any list of the top 5 or 10 Linux distros, but Canonical [who publishes Ubuntu] has a bigger bank account, so they can do more publicity, push for stronger ties to Microsoft etc., meaning more non-Linux people have heard of Ubuntu. I assume Phoronix performed the comparison as a publicity stunt, at least part, and IMHO used Ubuntu so the headline might attract more clicks [and ad revenue], rather than trying to perform the best comparison.
Two of my three W10 production machines (2017 and 2020) are now running the W11 preview version fine. The other one is too old to run W11: seven years.
Yeah, I'm going to lose a few devices when/if Win10 goes away. I'm REALLY hoping that Microsoft continues updating Win11 on unqualified hardware, since my Wife's convertible laptop just misses the Intel CPU cutoff. It's got a touchscreen, so it should benefit from Win11 more than many other devices. I've got a 10 inch tablet with pen support that I'm hoping will also work with it. And I've started collecting parts when they're on sale to upgrade my wife's PC. It still runs surprisingly well, but with an i7 2600 it's so old now that even if there was no Win11 the parts should still be replaced. I'd much rather do it on my timetable than be forced to do it when/if it dies [and have to pay full prices].
