{"slug": "microsoft-windows", "name": "Microsoft Windows", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Microsoft's proprietary desktop operating system for PCs.", "recommenders": 87, "commenters": 689, "warners": 456, "score": -294.619, "rising": -15.53, "first": "2025-11-02", "latest": "2026-10-29", "why": "The commenters who recommend it credit its serious backward compatibility and long-kept APIs, along with everyday productivity features like quick app search, window snapping and WSL.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 88, "neutral": 146, "compare": 40, "warn": 531}, "spark": [5, 8, 19, 7, 18, 5, 7, 8, 1, 3, 4, 3], "listed": true, "loved": ["Backward compatibility", "Productivity features"], "caveat": "Bugs and decline", "short_quote": "I use Windows on my home PC simply because it's such a versatile setup thanks to native GPU support, game support, and WSL2.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "windows.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.microsoft.com/windows", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Windows", "Microsoft Windows"], "verdict": [{"text": "The commenters who recommend it credit its serious backward compatibility and long-kept APIs,", "cites": [{"id": 798821744, "item_id": 49926359, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926359", "by": "newswangerd", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows takes backwards compatibility very seriously, so I\u2019ve never run into issues with new versions of windows.", "excerpt": "Windows takes backwards compatibility very seriously, so I\u2019ve never run into issues with new versions of windows. I haven\u2019t started Linux development yet so I have no idea how that will be. At any rate, MacOS is my daily driver so updating to a buggy version of windows or Linux wouldn\u2019t be as disruptive for me.", "context": "macOS daily driver developer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 is so buggy"}, {"id": 798726288, "item_id": 49920393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920393", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Microsoft is one of the few OS vendors that actually keeps the APIs around", "excerpt": "When APIs get replaced they won't work anyway. People love to bash how Microsoft manages Windows, yet they keep forgetting that Microsoft is one of the few OS vendors that actually keeps the APIs around, instead of having a deprecation process, finalised by actually removing the APIs, or hard forcing the new behaviour. https://developer.android.com/guide/app-compatibility", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}]}, {"text": " along with everyday productivity features like quick app search, window snapping and WSL.", "cites": [{"id": 804008320, "item_id": 50250520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250520", "by": "PorciiVorbesc", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can also customize modern Windows, at least in the ways I need it to be productive.", "excerpt": ">Can you tell me more? What are you doing that good old classic windows would be barely usable? In modern WIndows, from 7 onward, I can hit the meta key and type the first letters of the app I want to open, hit enter and boom, it's opened. I can mouse snap the two app windows side by side on my large monitor. I have 125% scaling so things don't look tiny on my 4k monitor. Win 95 had none of that, the only way to laun", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop use", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 796685011, "item_id": 49792813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49792813", "by": "nateb2022", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL", "excerpt": "Linux on ChromeOS is basically as capable as WSL now: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux Although I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL (since I play a decent bit of games), ChromeOS is a lot more pleasant experience now than in the past.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Rolls Out $899-Plus 'Ai laptops'"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is that it has become buggier and worse over time,", "cites": [{"id": 802629168, "item_id": 50164323, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50164323", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-10-20", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows is such a bugs galore it's crazy how people use it as their daily drivers.", "excerpt": "I recently tried to recover to stock on the Zenbook A16 I returned and the WiFi wouldn't connect. Had to dig up an old USB Ethernet adapter to make it do the job. Windows is such a bugs galore it's crazy how people use it as their daily drivers.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Putting Linux on my RTX Spark laptop because I don't have a Microsoft account"}, {"id": 804169472, "item_id": 50260592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50260592", "by": "renegade-otter", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I had to reinstall Windows because they did not bother to test USB input devices on their new \"recovery\" feature", "excerpt": "Sure, but last year I had to reinstall Windows because they did not bother to test USB input devices on their new \"recovery\" feature: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windows11/the-update-that-made-usb-keyboards-and-mice-useless-in-recovery-mode/4534375 All it had to do was run Check Disk, but it kept going in a loop every 30 minutes checking their \"AI\" for solutions, finding none. There was no way to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 795261168, "item_id": 49703823, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703823", "by": "krater23", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Never expected that this switch happens because Windows gets worse", "excerpt": "I see no difference anymore. I used Windows because it worked and didn't break obvious things. Thats gone. I switched to Linux because the user experience is now better. Never expected that this switch happens because Windows gets worse...hoped everytime Linux gets better.", "context": "switched from Windows to Linux", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}, {"id": 801261280, "item_id": 50078830, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078830", "by": "codethief", "date": "2026-10-13", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "how did we end up with a Windows that's so much worse?", "excerpt": "This is the first time I'm hearing about this email (thanks!) and I'm wondering: If it was already known in 2003 how bad Windows was, how did we end up with a Windows that's so much worse? Bill said it was his job to send such emails but apparently he didn't do his job very well\u2026 For the lazy: https://www.osnews.com/story/19921/Full-Text-an-Epic-Bill-Gates-e-Mail-Rant/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 4 Argon"}]}, {"text": " with constant pop-ups and a bloated, slow feel close behind.", "cites": [{"id": 798118209, "item_id": 49882388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882388", "by": "accrual", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop", "excerpt": "This is insanely good and mimics my personal experience of Windows these days. I literally say \"pop-up! pop-up! pop-up!\" out loud during a normal workday where one pop-up or prompt is rapidly replaced by another. Same app or different, doesn't matter, there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop unless you configure the hell out of it (and even that is no longer enough). My favorite \"joke\" f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798126257, "item_id": 49882891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882891", "by": "reaperducer", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop", "excerpt": "Same app or different, doesn't matter, there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop One of the things that most impressed me when I switched from Windows to OSX was that OSX prohibited programs from stealing focus. Sadly, that prohibition ended maybe five versions ago, and now macOS is like Windows -- You can be typing a document in a word processor, and then suddenly for no reason you're ty", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798473984, "item_id": 49904624, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904624", "by": "brokenmachine", "date": "2026-09-30", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows being a bloated slow mess even when run locally", "excerpt": "The main problem with cloud streamed is latency, and the other is fuck the cloud. I, and probably a lot of the people here, spend so much time on the PC that every additional msec annoys me. If there's keyboard shortcut, then I'll learn it to avoid using the mouse. Windows being a bloated slow mess even when run locally means that using it remotely all the time would be like torture. I'm sure dealing with the 4k60 vi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "PS5 Relapse Exploit"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Backward compatibility", "summary": "Commenters say Microsoft keeps old APIs around, so new Windows versions rarely break their software.", "quotes": [{"id": 798821744, "item_id": 49926359, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926359", "by": "newswangerd", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows takes backwards compatibility very seriously, so I\u2019ve never run into issues with new versions of windows.", "excerpt": "Windows takes backwards compatibility very seriously, so I\u2019ve never run into issues with new versions of windows. I haven\u2019t started Linux development yet so I have no idea how that will be. At any rate, MacOS is my daily driver so updating to a buggy version of windows or Linux wouldn\u2019t be as disruptive for me.", "context": "macOS daily driver developer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 is so buggy"}, {"id": 798726288, "item_id": 49920393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920393", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Microsoft is one of the few OS vendors that actually keeps the APIs around", "excerpt": "When APIs get replaced they won't work anyway. People love to bash how Microsoft manages Windows, yet they keep forgetting that Microsoft is one of the few OS vendors that actually keeps the APIs around, instead of having a deprecation process, finalised by actually removing the APIs, or hard forcing the new behaviour. https://developer.android.com/guide/app-compatibility", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}]}, {"label": "Productivity features", "summary": "Search-to-launch, window snapping and display scaling make modern Windows productive and customizable enough for one commenter.", "quotes": [{"id": 804008320, "item_id": 50250520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250520", "by": "PorciiVorbesc", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can also customize modern Windows, at least in the ways I need it to be productive.", "excerpt": ">Can you tell me more? What are you doing that good old classic windows would be barely usable? In modern WIndows, from 7 onward, I can hit the meta key and type the first letters of the app I want to open, hit enter and boom, it's opened. I can mouse snap the two app windows side by side on my large monitor. I have 125% scaling so things don't look tiny on my 4k monitor. Win 95 had none of that, the only way to laun", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop use", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}]}, {"label": "WSL", "summary": "Windows with WSL is preferred by some over alternatives, and WSL now includes a first-class Linux container runtime.", "quotes": [{"id": 796685011, "item_id": 49792813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49792813", "by": "nateb2022", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL", "excerpt": "Linux on ChromeOS is basically as capable as WSL now: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux Although I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL (since I play a decent bit of games), ChromeOS is a lot more pleasant experience now than in the past.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Rolls Out $899-Plus 'Ai laptops'"}, {"id": 800527361, "item_id": 50032960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50032960", "by": "jameshart", "date": "2026-10-10", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment", "excerpt": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows[1]. I don\u2019t think it even made front page of HN, which shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment, but it is absolutely something Apple should be offering as a first class capability on OS X. The compatibility of the host OS file system with being mounted into docker images makes it a better environment for r", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry"}]}, {"label": "Robustness", "summary": "A former IT contact says NT-based Windows almost never needs a reinstall, with unbootable PCs traced to hardware failures.", "quotes": [{"id": 795397632, "item_id": 49712352, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712352", "by": "Yizahi", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows is a very robust OS, despite all the real negative issues in other aspects.", "excerpt": "I mean, maybe I'm misrepresenting desktop Linux, that's quite likely (at work I use exclusively CLI destro, so my experience in DEs and drivers is limited). But I'm pretty confident in my ability to generalize Windows state across many installs over past decades, I also had a stint as a all-rounder IT POC in a small journal in the early 00s, so there is that. Windows since NT kernel almost never needs a format/reinst", "context": "former all-round IT contact at a small journal in the early 00s", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}]}, {"label": "Overall capability", "summary": "One developer says that despite Microsoft's missteps, Windows is still better in most respects.", "quotes": [{"id": 797988416, "item_id": 49874276, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874276", "by": "fodkodrasz", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "while MS works hard to f...up windows it is still way better in most respects.", "excerpt": "They just sheepishly copied apple... with the single difference, that theirs is an open platform, where anybody can be a negligent actor, and they also don't put as much focus on the polish. Apple having a single vertically integrated ecosystem, with a narrow set of devices to support can and wills to do this properly. Sleep took 2 decades to become reliable over the fragmented PC ecosystem, so it was pretty much a m", "context": "developer who also uses Linux", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "The Copilot+ PC brand is dead"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Bugs and decline", "summary": "Many say Windows is buggy and has gotten worse, with some switching to Linux as a result.", "quotes": [{"id": 802629168, "item_id": 50164323, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50164323", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-10-20", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows is such a bugs galore it's crazy how people use it as their daily drivers.", "excerpt": "I recently tried to recover to stock on the Zenbook A16 I returned and the WiFi wouldn't connect. Had to dig up an old USB Ethernet adapter to make it do the job. Windows is such a bugs galore it's crazy how people use it as their daily drivers.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Putting Linux on my RTX Spark laptop because I don't have a Microsoft account"}, {"id": 804169472, "item_id": 50260592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50260592", "by": "renegade-otter", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I had to reinstall Windows because they did not bother to test USB input devices on their new \"recovery\" feature", "excerpt": "Sure, but last year I had to reinstall Windows because they did not bother to test USB input devices on their new \"recovery\" feature: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windows11/the-update-that-made-usb-keyboards-and-mice-useless-in-recovery-mode/4534375 All it had to do was run Check Disk, but it kept going in a loop every 30 minutes checking their \"AI\" for solutions, finding none. There was no way to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 795261168, "item_id": 49703823, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703823", "by": "krater23", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Never expected that this switch happens because Windows gets worse", "excerpt": "I see no difference anymore. I used Windows because it worked and didn't break obvious things. Thats gone. I switched to Linux because the user experience is now better. Never expected that this switch happens because Windows gets worse...hoped everytime Linux gets better.", "context": "switched from Windows to Linux", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}]}, {"label": "Pop-ups", "summary": "Commenters describe a stream of pop-ups and prompts competing for attention, even after heavy configuration.", "quotes": [{"id": 798118209, "item_id": 49882388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882388", "by": "accrual", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop", "excerpt": "This is insanely good and mimics my personal experience of Windows these days. I literally say \"pop-up! pop-up! pop-up!\" out loud during a normal workday where one pop-up or prompt is rapidly replaced by another. Same app or different, doesn't matter, there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop unless you configure the hell out of it (and even that is no longer enough). My favorite \"joke\" f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798126257, "item_id": 49882891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882891", "by": "reaperducer", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop", "excerpt": "Same app or different, doesn't matter, there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop One of the things that most impressed me when I switched from Windows to OSX was that OSX prohibited programs from stealing focus. Sadly, that prohibition ended maybe five versions ago, and now macOS is like Windows -- You can be typing a document in a word processor, and then suddenly for no reason you're ty", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798124464, "item_id": 49882779, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882779", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "no activation, no Microsoft account, no cloud backup, and no pop-up requesting that you install crapware", "excerpt": "It must be hard for Windows users to imagine that on Linux there are is no activation, no Microsoft account, no cloud backup, and no pop-up requesting that you install crapware when you plug in a peripheral.[0] You also own your disk encryption keys and are not assigned an identifier that can be used against you.[1] [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA [1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-hackers-arrest-reveals-", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}]}, {"label": "Bloat and slowness", "summary": "It is called a bloated, slow mess, with reboots and virus scanning as long-running annoyances.", "quotes": [{"id": 798473984, "item_id": 49904624, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904624", "by": "brokenmachine", "date": "2026-09-30", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows being a bloated slow mess even when run locally", "excerpt": "The main problem with cloud streamed is latency, and the other is fuck the cloud. I, and probably a lot of the people here, spend so much time on the PC that every additional msec annoys me. If there's keyboard shortcut, then I'll learn it to avoid using the mouse. Windows being a bloated slow mess even when run locally means that using it remotely all the time would be like torture. I'm sure dealing with the 4k60 vi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "PS5 Relapse Exploit"}, {"id": 799483008, "item_id": 49967688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967688", "by": "w10-1", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "decades of windows reboots and virus scanning", "excerpt": "To read Ben is to glimpse the AI divide: he's honestly and emphatically choosing based on whether it makes it easier for him to use his AI agents, even if that means ditching Apple for the Zuckerberg's melee. It's that important to his personal productivity. AI-native product streams will separate from what came before, as will the people who master them. That said, I disagree on Apple: while the UI can be perfect, i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple and a hacker's future"}]}, {"label": "Lost customization", "summary": "UI customization is said to have shrunk to little more than a color picker.", "quotes": [{"id": 797224816, "item_id": 49826551, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49826551", "by": "userbinator", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Now it has devolved into little more than this", "excerpt": "True revolution in UX will come from making customisation accessible ...like it was back in the days when Windows actually had a very customisable UI[1], and then the \"skinnable\" UIs of the early 2000s (most of which were extremely gaudy, but then again, maybe that was what the majority of the population wanted.) Now it has devolved into little more than this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/pe", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797222304, "item_id": 49826394, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49826394", "by": "SA9G", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I remember Windows trying to look like my smartphone screen a few years back", "excerpt": "I remember Windows trying to look like my smartphone screen a few years back... that was when I switched to Ubuntu!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}]}, {"label": "Accounts and tracking", "summary": "Activation, Microsoft account requirements and a trackable device identifier are raised as drawbacks compared with Linux.", "quotes": [{"id": 798124464, "item_id": 49882779, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882779", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "no activation, no Microsoft account, no cloud backup, and no pop-up requesting that you install crapware", "excerpt": "It must be hard for Windows users to imagine that on Linux there are is no activation, no Microsoft account, no cloud backup, and no pop-up requesting that you install crapware when you plug in a peripheral.[0] You also own your disk encryption keys and are not assigned an identifier that can be used against you.[1] [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA [1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-hackers-arrest-reveals-", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}]}, {"label": "File system confusion", "summary": "One user reports the Desktop folder appearing in four places and OneDrive confusing home-folder paths.", "quotes": [{"id": 799133488, "item_id": 49945843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49945843", "by": "MithrilTuxedo", "date": "2026-10-03", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows shows my Desktop folder in four distinct locations in the native file manager.", "excerpt": "Windows shows my Desktop folder in four distinct locations in the native file manager. Some representations of my home folder have more files and folders in them than others. I use Bash via Git4Windows as much as possible, but even there... `cd ~/git; cd ../Downloads; cd ../git` doesn't work because `..` from `~/Downloads/` is `~/One Drive/`. It's... non-Euclidiean.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Make Tmux the OS"}]}], "who": [{"by": "newswangerd", "context": "macOS daily driver developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926359", "date": "2026-10-01"}, {"by": "fodkodrasz", "context": "developer who also uses Linux", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874276", "date": "2026-09-28"}, {"by": "tao5021", "context": "used Windows over two decades", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49839331", "date": "2026-09-25"}, {"by": "vladvasiliu", "context": "Sunday photographer who daily drives Linux for work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49714645", "date": "2026-09-15"}, {"by": "Yizahi", "context": "former all-round IT contact at a small journal in the early 00s", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712352", "date": "2026-09-15"}, {"by": "flatline", "context": "has to use Windows for work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428179", "date": "2026-08-25"}, {"by": "devinprater", "context": "Totally blind person", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49187706", "date": "2026-08-05"}, {"by": "Arainach", "context": "30+ years programming and hardware tinkering", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48800675", "date": "2026-07-05"}, {"by": "BrokenCogs", "context": "technical person/engineer using both Linux and Windows daily", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48714077", "date": "2026-06-28"}, {"by": "nilkn", "context": "gamer who also develops", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563675", "date": "2026-06-16"}, {"by": "munk-a", "context": "uses a projector and wireless keyboard from the couch", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547653", "date": "2026-06-15"}, {"by": "alkonaut", "context": "develops Windows software", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48428617", "date": "2026-06-06"}], "tags": ["for gamers", "for legacy software", "for developers using WSL"], "use_cases": ["desktop os", "gaming", "desktop operating system", "daily os", "work os", "daily desktop os"], "compared": [{"slug": "macos", "name": "macOS", "co": 218, "switched_from": 4, "switched_to": 21}, {"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 171, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 20}, {"slug": "ubuntu", "name": "Ubuntu", "co": 30, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 17}, {"slug": "linux-mint", "name": "Linux Mint", "co": 20, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 13}, {"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 21, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 12}, {"slug": "arch-linux", "name": "Arch Linux", "co": 23, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 10}, {"slug": "bazzite", "name": "Bazzite", "co": 11, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 10}, {"slug": "windows-subsystem-for-linux", "name": "Windows Subsystem for Linux", "co": 31, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 773993696, "item_id": 48374606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48374606", "by": "0x1d7", "date": "2026-06-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We don't want the NT kernel to end up like Linux, after all", "excerpt": "NT shipped with USC-2 as UTF-8 (and -16) did not yet exist. USC-2 naturally translated to UTF-16, hence the choice. NT/Win32 is also designed for fixed-with code units, something UTF-8 doesn't support. You can use UTF-8 on a per-application basis, within limits. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/globalizing/use-utf8-code-page Conversely, UEFI is UTF-16 only, thanks to Windows. UTF-8 only would be ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Coreutils for Windows"}, {"id": 761807249, "item_id": 47612953, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612953", "by": "LatencyKills", "date": "2026-04-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I was a developer at Microsoft in the 90s (Visual Studio (Boston) and Windows teams).", "excerpt": "I was a developer at Microsoft in the 90s (Visual Studio (Boston) and Windows teams). I won't claim that software back then was \"better,\" but what is definitely true is that we had to think about everything at a much lower level. For example, you had to know which Win32 functions caused ring-3 -> ring-0 transitions because those transitions could be incredibly costly. You couldn't just \"find the right function\" and m", "context": "Former Microsoft developer in the 1990s", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Significant Raise of Reports"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47459296", "title": "Our Commitment to Windows Quality", "mentions": 34}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46795864", "title": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux", "mentions": 20}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47542695", "title": "People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account", "mentions": 17}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500335", "title": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating", "mentions": 15}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457770", "title": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it", "mentions": 14}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46566465", "title": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great", "mentions": 12}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 69, "neutral": 17, "recommend": 5, "compare": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 53, "neutral": 15, "compare": 2, "recommend": 8}, "2026-01": {"compare": 8, "warn": 101, "recommend": 19, "neutral": 26}, "2026-02": {"warn": 24, "recommend": 7, "neutral": 3, "compare": 2}, "2026-03": {"warn": 91, "compare": 14, "neutral": 20, "recommend": 18}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 9, "warn": 47, "recommend": 5, "compare": 4}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 14, "warn": 37, "recommend": 7, "compare": 3}, "2026-06": {"warn": 35, "recommend": 8, "neutral": 12}, "2026-07": {"warn": 19, "neutral": 8, "recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 11, "warn": 22, "compare": 3, "recommend": 3}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 22, "recommend": 4}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 7, "warn": 11, "compare": 3}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 804675826, "item_id": 50292239, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292239", "by": "TacticalCoder", "date": "2026-10-29", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "that piece of shit that Windows is", "excerpt": "Not a moat and not big but... for SMEs \"Google Workspace\" is a godsend from outter space. This is what allow little SMEs to not have to suffer that piece of shit that Windows is. I know people running their SMEs (and I helped them set up Google Workspace) from Mac and Chromebooks since years and years and who do not ever want to here again from anything Microsoft. They're basically doing everything inside \"Google Wor", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 804341089, "item_id": 50271318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271318", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-10-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "That is the beginning of enshittification", "excerpt": "I think this is totally wrong, and the reason is simple: the author's age. He says that he learned to read around 1990, and just about remembers navigating computers in the mid-1990s and using them in the early noughties -- the 2000s. So, earliest OS Win95, learning to use them WinXP. That is the beginning of enshittification. Windows 3 is when the GUI came to the PC, but it's also the beginning of the era of PCs cra", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 804169472, "item_id": 50260592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50260592", "by": "renegade-otter", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I had to reinstall Windows because they did not bother to test USB input devices on their new \"recovery\" feature", "excerpt": "Sure, but last year I had to reinstall Windows because they did not bother to test USB input devices on their new \"recovery\" feature: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windows11/the-update-that-made-usb-keyboards-and-mice-useless-in-recovery-mode/4534375 All it had to do was run Check Disk, but it kept going in a loop every 30 minutes checking their \"AI\" for solutions, finding none. There was no way to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 804096992, "item_id": 50256062, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50256062", "by": "my123", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "perhaps MS should have shipped WoW16 with limitations instead of nothing", "excerpt": "being able to transfer HANDLEs across the 16/32-bit boundary notably for COM/OLE integration becomes a lot more painful Microsoft says at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winprog64/running-32-bit-applications: > Note that 64-bit Windows does not support running 16-bit Windows-based applications. The primary reason is that handles have 32 significant bits on 64-bit Windows. Therefore, handles cannot be ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "16-bit Windows (Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.0, 3.1, etc.) on 64-bit Windows"}, {"id": 804008320, "item_id": 50250520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250520", "by": "PorciiVorbesc", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can also customize modern Windows, at least in the ways I need it to be productive.", "excerpt": ">Can you tell me more? What are you doing that good old classic windows would be barely usable? In modern WIndows, from 7 onward, I can hit the meta key and type the first letters of the app I want to open, hit enter and boom, it's opened. I can mouse snap the two app windows side by side on my large monitor. I have 125% scaling so things don't look tiny on my 4k monitor. Win 95 had none of that, the only way to laun", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop use", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 803979056, "item_id": 50248691, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248691", "by": "lenerdenator", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "Windows at ~76% market share for desktop OSes", "excerpt": "I'm not sure if these are the absolute best numbers, but this shows Windows at ~76% market share for desktop OSes. I've seen other numbers that have them at 66%. MacOS is the second place. Linux is third.[0] The consumer market both does and doesn't matter to Microsoft. There are certainly more options besides Windows for the average person looking to buy their next device (assuming they'll even get a full desktop/la", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce"}, {"id": 803051408, "item_id": 50190713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50190713", "by": "peterburkimsher", "date": "2026-10-22", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "please don't remove them entirely", "excerpt": "Suppose you've remotely accessed a Windows computer with no icons in the menu. You've figured out how to access the Start menu, and figured out where the Power menu is through the icon, but now have a choice between \u95dc\u6a5f and \u91cd\u65b0\u958b\u6a5f. Which one is shut down, which is reboot? You have one chance, otherwise it requires an embarrassing trip to the server farm. That specific case led me to make the following table of Windows s", "context": "", "use_case": "Desktop operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "No more icons in every menu by default"}, {"id": 802673265, "item_id": 50167079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50167079", "by": "exitb", "date": "2026-10-20", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "You go for Windows and macOS for cohesive defaults", "excerpt": "It's the same as it ever was. You go for Windows and macOS for cohesive defaults. You go for Linux for agility. Agility comes at a cost, but it's now lower than ever before, as NixOS + the agents are the closest you can come to `import antigravity`[0]. [0] https://xkcd.com/353/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NixOS is making me less afraid"}, {"id": 802629168, "item_id": 50164323, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50164323", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-10-20", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows is such a bugs galore it's crazy how people use it as their daily drivers.", "excerpt": "I recently tried to recover to stock on the Zenbook A16 I returned and the WiFi wouldn't connect. Had to dig up an old USB Ethernet adapter to make it do the job. Windows is such a bugs galore it's crazy how people use it as their daily drivers.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Putting Linux on my RTX Spark laptop because I don't have a Microsoft account"}, {"id": 802379888, "item_id": 50148743, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50148743", "by": "Leftium", "date": "2026-10-19", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "On Windows, restart and shut down (power off) are not the same.", "excerpt": "On Windows, restart and shut down (power off) are not the same. When shutting down, Windows optimizes the next start by caching some stuff. So it is not a true, clean restart. On a restart, this caching does not happen. Sources: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUIhzACQDAc - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/power/system-power-states", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why do computers/phones have a restart option along with the power off option?"}, {"id": 801929361, "item_id": 50120585, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50120585", "by": "hbn", "date": "2026-10-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Apparently it's not your final straw because they did it almost 2 years ago https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/microsoft-paint-gets-copilot-button-to-streamline-ai-image-editing-details-125020300409_1.html", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint Adds Freeform Rotation (2026)"}, {"id": 801797120, "item_id": 50112320, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50112320", "by": "theragra", "date": "2026-10-16", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "In Windows, things mostly worked, with some minor annoyances.", "excerpt": "You are in a bubble/biased. I've switched to Linux on desktop half a year ago. For the average user, Linux has as many issues as Windows (or as few, more precisely). In Windows, things mostly worked, with some minor annoyances. For example, night light stopped working at some point. Forced reboots for updates are another things I really don't like. SMB file sharing still does not work well out of the box, esp. w. And", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Muse Spark Open"}, {"id": 801446992, "item_id": 50090437, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090437", "by": "OneDeuxTriSeiGo", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "There exist a number of Windows images which can be run without any paid license requirements", "excerpt": "It depends what you need to run. There exist a number of Windows images which can be run without any paid license requirements for test and validation IIRC. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/validation-os-overview?view=windows-11 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/factoryos/?view=windows-11", "context": "", "use_case": "test VM images", "switched_from": "", "story": "Running Windows desktop tests from Linux with disposable VMs"}, {"id": 801261280, "item_id": 50078830, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078830", "by": "codethief", "date": "2026-10-13", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "how did we end up with a Windows that's so much worse?", "excerpt": "This is the first time I'm hearing about this email (thanks!) and I'm wondering: If it was already known in 2003 how bad Windows was, how did we end up with a Windows that's so much worse? Bill said it was his job to send such emails but apparently he didn't do his job very well\u2026 For the lazy: https://www.osnews.com/story/19921/Full-Text-an-Epic-Bill-Gates-e-Mail-Rant/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 4 Argon"}, {"id": 800566017, "item_id": 50035376, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50035376", "by": "tomnipotent", "date": "2026-10-10", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I regularly use Windows for a few things, and do not have this problem.", "excerpt": "> maximize clicks and screen-time This doesn't make any sense. I regularly use Windows for a few things, and do not have this problem. Sane corp group policies disable all the annoying things folks complain about on the default consumer install, and there are few things you can't do just using a keyboard and keybindings. I still prefer Linux and KDE is my daily driver but most of the comments I read here about Window", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional use", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800527361, "item_id": 50032960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50032960", "by": "jameshart", "date": "2026-10-10", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment", "excerpt": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows[1]. I don\u2019t think it even made front page of HN, which shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment, but it is absolutely something Apple should be offering as a first class capability on OS X. The compatibility of the host OS file system with being mounted into docker images makes it a better environment for r", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry"}, {"id": 800311632, "item_id": 50019477, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50019477", "by": "wild_pointer", "date": "2026-10-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "they added the Experimental_CreateProcessInSandbox API to Windows", "excerpt": "What's also interesting is that they added the Experimental_CreateProcessInSandbox API to Windows, like, last month. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/secauthz/createprocessinsandbox Funny, now that it's documented, the API name will be stuck with this name forever.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MXC - a sandboxed code execution system"}, {"id": 800122305, "item_id": 50007644, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50007644", "by": "diegolas", "date": "2026-10-08", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "i use windows by choice", "excerpt": "i use windows by choice and would personally pay for copilot if the quotas didn't dry up so fast for the cheapest plan. i think the harness is the best for writing and reviewing code.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta and Microsoft take steps to reduce employee usage of Claude AI"}, {"id": 799483008, "item_id": 49967688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967688", "by": "w10-1", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "decades of windows reboots and virus scanning", "excerpt": "To read Ben is to glimpse the AI divide: he's honestly and emphatically choosing based on whether it makes it easier for him to use his AI agents, even if that means ditching Apple for the Zuckerberg's melee. It's that important to his personal productivity. AI-native product streams will separate from what came before, as will the people who master them. That said, I disagree on Apple: while the UI can be perfect, i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple and a hacker's future"}, {"id": 799133488, "item_id": 49945843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49945843", "by": "MithrilTuxedo", "date": "2026-10-03", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows shows my Desktop folder in four distinct locations in the native file manager.", "excerpt": "Windows shows my Desktop folder in four distinct locations in the native file manager. Some representations of my home folder have more files and folders in them than others. I use Bash via Git4Windows as much as possible, but even there... `cd ~/git; cd ../Downloads; cd ../git` doesn't work because `..` from `~/Downloads/` is `~/One Drive/`. It's... non-Euclidiean.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Make Tmux the OS"}, {"id": 798898320, "item_id": 49931145, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49931145", "by": "seanhunter", "date": "2026-10-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Why build the fuel controller for a helicopter engine on windows?", "excerpt": "Computer Weekly in the UK did some pioneering journalism into a helicopter crash[1] that had initially been blamed on the two pilots but seems very likely to have been caused by a failure of a computer system that was controlling the fuelling of the engines. Iirc this system seems to have crashed causing engine failure of both engines in heavy fog, bringing the helicopter down with a loss of everyone on board, howeve", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel"}, {"id": 798821744, "item_id": 49926359, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926359", "by": "newswangerd", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows takes backwards compatibility very seriously, so I\u2019ve never run into issues with new versions of windows.", "excerpt": "Windows takes backwards compatibility very seriously, so I\u2019ve never run into issues with new versions of windows. I haven\u2019t started Linux development yet so I have no idea how that will be. At any rate, MacOS is my daily driver so updating to a buggy version of windows or Linux wouldn\u2019t be as disruptive for me.", "context": "macOS daily driver developer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 is so buggy"}, {"id": 798802848, "item_id": 49925178, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49925178", "by": "reanimus", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've worked with Windows, Linux, and macOS/iOS across these domains.", "excerpt": "Location: San Francisco Bay Area Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: C/C++, Obj-C/C++, iOS/macOS, Linux, Windows/NT (kernel/user), virtualization, TLS, TPM (TCG), Operating Systems, Security, Rust Resume/CV: https://guzman.io/resume.pdf Email: hnj@alex.guzman.io Software developer with a decade of experience focused on systems programming across multiple domains including userspace daemons, kernel exte", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2026)"}, {"id": 798726288, "item_id": 49920393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920393", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Microsoft is one of the few OS vendors that actually keeps the APIs around", "excerpt": "When APIs get replaced they won't work anyway. People love to bash how Microsoft manages Windows, yet they keep forgetting that Microsoft is one of the few OS vendors that actually keeps the APIs around, instead of having a deprecation process, finalised by actually removing the APIs, or hard forcing the new behaviour. https://developer.android.com/guide/app-compatibility", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}, {"id": 798473984, "item_id": 49904624, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904624", "by": "brokenmachine", "date": "2026-09-30", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows being a bloated slow mess even when run locally", "excerpt": "The main problem with cloud streamed is latency, and the other is fuck the cloud. I, and probably a lot of the people here, spend so much time on the PC that every additional msec annoys me. If there's keyboard shortcut, then I'll learn it to avoid using the mouse. Windows being a bloated slow mess even when run locally means that using it remotely all the time would be like torture. I'm sure dealing with the 4k60 vi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "PS5 Relapse Exploit"}, {"id": 798283009, "item_id": 49892688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49892688", "by": "tim333", "date": "2026-09-29", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've not really used Windows for years", "excerpt": "I see on the market share thing here https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/ both Linux and macos are roaring ahead and Window declining. I've not really used Windows for years but if it's like this maybe that explains it. Currently on last years macos which is quite good for just plug it in and it works.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798126832, "item_id": 49882927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882927", "by": "MattPalmer1086", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Real windows is still actually worse...", "excerpt": "Pretty good! Could maybe use a \"Catastrophic failure!\" error message (experienced for real last week) Real windows is still actually worse... So glad I moved off Windows at home back in 2003.", "context": "moved off Windows at home in 2003", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798126257, "item_id": 49882891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882891", "by": "reaperducer", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop", "excerpt": "Same app or different, doesn't matter, there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop One of the things that most impressed me when I switched from Windows to OSX was that OSX prohibited programs from stealing focus. Sadly, that prohibition ended maybe five versions ago, and now macOS is like Windows -- You can be typing a document in a word processor, and then suddenly for no reason you're ty", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798124464, "item_id": 49882779, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882779", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "no activation, no Microsoft account, no cloud backup, and no pop-up requesting that you install crapware", "excerpt": "It must be hard for Windows users to imagine that on Linux there are is no activation, no Microsoft account, no cloud backup, and no pop-up requesting that you install crapware when you plug in a peripheral.[0] You also own your disk encryption keys and are not assigned an identifier that can be used against you.[1] [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA [1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-hackers-arrest-reveals-", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 798118209, "item_id": 49882388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49882388", "by": "accrual", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop", "excerpt": "This is insanely good and mimics my personal experience of Windows these days. I literally say \"pop-up! pop-up! pop-up!\" out loud during a normal workday where one pop-up or prompt is rapidly replaced by another. Same app or different, doesn't matter, there's always something trying to grab attention on a Windows desktop unless you configure the hell out of it (and even that is no longer enough). My favorite \"joke\" f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11\u00bd"}, {"id": 797988416, "item_id": 49874276, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874276", "by": "fodkodrasz", "date": "2026-09-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "while MS works hard to f...up windows it is still way better in most respects.", "excerpt": "They just sheepishly copied apple... with the single difference, that theirs is an open platform, where anybody can be a negligent actor, and they also don't put as much focus on the polish. Apple having a single vertically integrated ecosystem, with a narrow set of devices to support can and wills to do this properly. Sleep took 2 decades to become reliable over the fragmented PC ecosystem, so it was pretty much a m", "context": "developer who also uses Linux", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "The Copilot+ PC brand is dead"}, {"id": 797602384, "item_id": 49850149, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850149", "by": "sejje", "date": "2026-09-25", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was mad that I had to pay for windows just to wipe that shit and put linux on.", "excerpt": "I was one of those hackers, you're misrepresenting it. I was mad that I had to pay for windows just to wipe that shit and put linux on. If I used it, I wouldn't have been mad about it at all. I've never been mad about paying for my software.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yes, Claude can do nine loops"}, {"id": 797429296, "item_id": 49839331, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49839331", "by": "tao5021", "date": "2026-09-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It had very strong functions for office work and stock trading, but the only drawback was that there were many advertisements and vulnerabilities.", "excerpt": "I used to use the Windows operating system for over two decades. It had very strong functions for office work and stock trading, but the only drawback was that there were many advertisements and vulnerabilities. I have also used the Linux system for many years. It is mainly used on servers. This year, I started using the Mac system. This Mac system is also very good. At first, I didn't get used to it, but after getti", "context": "used Windows over two decades", "use_case": "office work and stock trading", "switched_from": "", "story": "What OS should I pick?"}, {"id": 797254178, "item_id": 49828386, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49828386", "by": "Oxodao", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I'm already upset that I have to use Windows at work", "excerpt": "Yeah and when change do occur, its for the worse (e.g. Gnome) > Why bother to learn a new UI, when all that does is get you back to square 1, and it might not even stick around Exactly. That's why I gave up and stay on i3 and the common tools I use. I've been for a few month under hyprland and yeah no I'll go back to X11+i3 the pain it provides is just not worth it even if the common user would think they're pretty s", "context": "", "use_case": "work OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797224816, "item_id": 49826551, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49826551", "by": "userbinator", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Now it has devolved into little more than this", "excerpt": "True revolution in UX will come from making customisation accessible ...like it was back in the days when Windows actually had a very customisable UI[1], and then the \"skinnable\" UIs of the early 2000s (most of which were extremely gaudy, but then again, maybe that was what the majority of the population wanted.) Now it has devolved into little more than this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/pe", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797222304, "item_id": 49826394, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49826394", "by": "SA9G", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I remember Windows trying to look like my smartphone screen a few years back", "excerpt": "I remember Windows trying to look like my smartphone screen a few years back... that was when I switched to Ubuntu!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797008880, "item_id": 49813055, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813055", "by": "mike_hearn", "date": "2026-09-23", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows has supported capabilities from the start of NT", "excerpt": "Your knowledge is out of date: Windows has supported capabilities from the start of NT and does run a lot drivers in isolated processes, along with most OS services. It has done for years. It has the most sophisticated IPC framework of any OS (DCOM) which is integrated with the operating system kernel's security frameworks, and used pervasively both internally and by apps. And Microsoft has created a new way to write", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "'We hacked the FBI:' Hackers say they have data on all FBI employees"}, {"id": 796877184, "item_id": 49804824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49804824", "by": "xdavidliu", "date": "2026-09-22", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "internal email from Bill Gates complaining about the usability of some Windows features", "excerpt": "reminds of me of an instance where the opposite happened: > internal email from Bill Gates complaining about the usability of some Windows features. It\u2019s old \u2014 from 2003 https://www.techdirt.com/2008/06/25/you-thought-you-hated-windows-check-out-what-bill-gates-had-to-say/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 796808850, "item_id": 49800553, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49800553", "by": "realusername", "date": "2026-09-22", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "both MacOS and Windows look more amateur with some leftovers not translated", "excerpt": "They are translated on your average Linux distribution though, you won't see nautilus but \"Files\", gnome-software but \"Software\", Gnome snapshot but \"Camera\" (I've put the English term here but each term will be translated to your language). See https://apps.gnome.org and switch the language to see. In comparison, both MacOS and Windows look more amateur with some leftovers not translated. (Like \"Windows Update\" on W", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I said no and Apple said yes"}, {"id": 796685011, "item_id": 49792813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49792813", "by": "nateb2022", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL", "excerpt": "Linux on ChromeOS is basically as capable as WSL now: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux Although I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL (since I play a decent bit of games), ChromeOS is a lot more pleasant experience now than in the past.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Rolls Out $899-Plus 'Ai laptops'"}, {"id": 795261168, "item_id": 49703823, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703823", "by": "krater23", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Never expected that this switch happens because Windows gets worse", "excerpt": "I see no difference anymore. I used Windows because it worked and didn't break obvious things. Thats gone. I switched to Linux because the user experience is now better. Never expected that this switch happens because Windows gets worse...hoped everytime Linux gets better.", "context": "switched from Windows to Linux", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}]}