{"slug": "windows-7", "name": "Windows 7", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Microsoft's desktop operating system released in 2009, successor to Windows Vista.", "recommenders": 8, "commenters": 9, "warners": 0, "score": 7.479, "rising": 1.36, "first": "2025-11-25", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "HN commenters remember Windows 7 as a high point for Windows usability and stability, and some still miss its Aero glass look.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Peak Windows", "Usability"], "caveat": "Modern browsers", "short_quote": "Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Windows 7"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters remember Windows 7 as a high point for Windows usability and stability", "cites": [{"id": 797318704, "item_id": 49832419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832419", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability", "excerpt": "I have a small collection of period-correct laptops running various Windows versions. Some of them represent history we love to look back on (a Compaq with an AMD K5 running Windows 95), others... not so much (a centrino T41 Thinkpad running Vista SP1). My opinion of XP is a little more mixed than yours. XP was great, but I maintain that 7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability. There's a lot of stuff", "context": "collects period-correct laptops", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 777905440, "item_id": 48619090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "by": "bee_rider", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern).", "excerpt": "XP was quite ugly though. 98 or whatever was the best looking, but 7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern). (FWIW I mostly switched to Linux after XP so this isn\u2019t nostalgia).", "context": "mostly switched to Linux after XP", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 760031553, "item_id": 47501972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501972", "by": "oldandboring", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows 7 was the release they HAD to get right and they did.", "excerpt": "Today's reminder of how old I'm getting: this is totally predictable. Microsoft has been doing this for 30 years. Disclaimer: I'm aware of these things and have used most of them, but really none as a daily driver since Windows 2000. So I'm probably leaving some stuff out. Windows 95 and 98 were great releases. Windows ME was so bad they scrapped the Win9x codebase entirely. Windows 2000 was game-changing. One of the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating"}, {"id": 791167488, "item_id": 49447968, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49447968", "by": "jonathanlydall", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows 7 to be regarded as \"really good\" (by Windows standards)", "excerpt": "As you mention the 90's you're probably referring to their embrace, extend, extinguish strategy. This situation with the sound card hardware mixing was quite different and a lot later. Windows Vista moved away from kernel mode drivers where possible to help address the issue of BSODs which were not uncommon on Windows XP. It turns out that Microsoft was incorrectly getting the blame for BSODs when it was actually the", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI Jalape\u00f1o: Better than Nvidia Blackwell"}]}, {"text": ", and some still miss its Aero glass look.", "cites": [{"id": 804007616, "item_id": 50250476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250476", "by": "theandrewbailey", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista)", "excerpt": "In terms of aesthetic, I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista), but I also love the classic Windows 9x/2000 look. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Aero simply because of the start menu search bar.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 736745713, "item_id": 46046607, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46046607", "by": "patapong", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also really miss the aero look of windows 7", "excerpt": "One underappreciated thing about Windows 8 is that even if the start menu was ugly and blocked the entire screen, you could press the windows key, immediately start typing, and then press enter to somewhat deterministically pick the top app. This made it feel quite fast. Now on more recent windows editions, I find that I often need to wait for the menu to visually appear before it will accept any keyboard input, and ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GUI \u2013 Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)"}]}, {"text": " Complaints are scarce; it suits people reviving old or period-correct laptops", "cites": [{"id": 747525392, "item_id": 46720337, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720337", "by": "merpkz", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Going to get this and install it on my old Asus core2duo laptop from circa 2008", "excerpt": "Going to get this and install it on my old Asus core2duo laptop from circa 2008 - damn thing still is going strong, despite plastic becoming so brittle it has not one single panel left without cracks in it. Currently it has XP on it, but that is missing whole bunch of drivers, like touchpad not working and BIOS AHCI has to be in compatible mode otherwise it will bluescreen. It's going to be nostalgia machine where al", "context": "", "use_case": "nostalgia retro gaming machine", "switched_from": "Windows XP", "story": "You can now download Windows 7 and Vista ISO images with all the updates"}, {"id": 797318704, "item_id": 49832419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832419", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability", "excerpt": "I have a small collection of period-correct laptops running various Windows versions. Some of them represent history we love to look back on (a Compaq with an AMD K5 running Windows 95), others... not so much (a centrino T41 Thinkpad running Vista SP1). My opinion of XP is a little more mixed than yours. XP was great, but I maintain that 7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability. There's a lot of stuff", "context": "collects period-correct laptops", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}]}, {"text": " and 10-foot TV setups, though one user relies on a Firefox fork to get a modern browser.", "cites": [{"id": 756531856, "item_id": 47283241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283241", "by": "functionmouse", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction", "excerpt": "I've got Windows 7 at 125% running on a 70some inch TV off a tiny Optiplex Micro with an i3 or something, and a fork of modern Firefox for w7, hardware accel and all. I use my phone as a bluetooth touchpad/keyboard with an app that was maybe 5 bucks. Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction, no workflow-breaking updates. And I never lose the remote!", "context": "", "use_case": "TV interface", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Peak Windows", "summary": "Several commenters call it the best or most usable Windows release.", "quotes": [{"id": 797318704, "item_id": 49832419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832419", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability", "excerpt": "I have a small collection of period-correct laptops running various Windows versions. Some of them represent history we love to look back on (a Compaq with an AMD K5 running Windows 95), others... not so much (a centrino T41 Thinkpad running Vista SP1). My opinion of XP is a little more mixed than yours. XP was great, but I maintain that 7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability. There's a lot of stuff", "context": "collects period-correct laptops", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 760031553, "item_id": 47501972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501972", "by": "oldandboring", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows 7 was the release they HAD to get right and they did.", "excerpt": "Today's reminder of how old I'm getting: this is totally predictable. Microsoft has been doing this for 30 years. Disclaimer: I'm aware of these things and have used most of them, but really none as a daily driver since Windows 2000. So I'm probably leaving some stuff out. Windows 95 and 98 were great releases. Windows ME was so bad they scrapped the Win9x codebase entirely. Windows 2000 was game-changing. One of the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating"}, {"id": 777905440, "item_id": 48619090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "by": "bee_rider", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern).", "excerpt": "XP was quite ugly though. 98 or whatever was the best looking, but 7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern). (FWIW I mostly switched to Linux after XP so this isn\u2019t nostalgia).", "context": "mostly switched to Linux after XP", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}]}, {"label": "Usability", "summary": "Window snapping, start menu search and a frictionless experience come up as strengths.", "quotes": [{"id": 797318704, "item_id": 49832419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832419", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability", "excerpt": "I have a small collection of period-correct laptops running various Windows versions. Some of them represent history we love to look back on (a Compaq with an AMD K5 running Windows 95), others... not so much (a centrino T41 Thinkpad running Vista SP1). My opinion of XP is a little more mixed than yours. XP was great, but I maintain that 7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability. There's a lot of stuff", "context": "collects period-correct laptops", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 804007616, "item_id": 50250476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250476", "by": "theandrewbailey", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista)", "excerpt": "In terms of aesthetic, I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista), but I also love the classic Windows 9x/2000 look. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Aero simply because of the start menu search bar.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 756531856, "item_id": 47283241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283241", "by": "functionmouse", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction", "excerpt": "I've got Windows 7 at 125% running on a 70some inch TV off a tiny Optiplex Micro with an i3 or something, and a fork of modern Firefox for w7, hardware accel and all. I use my phone as a bluetooth touchpad/keyboard with an app that was maybe 5 bucks. Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction, no workflow-breaking updates. And I never lose the remote!", "context": "", "use_case": "TV interface", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}]}, {"label": "Stability", "summary": "Described as stable and a workhorse, with no workflow-breaking updates.", "quotes": [{"id": 777905440, "item_id": 48619090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "by": "bee_rider", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern).", "excerpt": "XP was quite ugly though. 98 or whatever was the best looking, but 7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern). (FWIW I mostly switched to Linux after XP so this isn\u2019t nostalgia).", "context": "mostly switched to Linux after XP", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 748778160, "item_id": 46798635, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46798635", "by": "wowczarek", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Win7 was a workhorse", "excerpt": "Linux user since about 1998, leaning towards BSDs today. Network engineer + R&D + software dev. Daily driver (desktop) about 2002-2010 - work made it too difficult later. Very occasional gamer. Corporate world will give you a Windows VDI or web cloudy things if need be. Win10 on my laptop out of habit, mostly using terminals + WSL and a browser. Lightroom user, but flexible. None of the other gear I own runs Windows,", "context": "Linux user since 1998, network engineer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"}, {"id": 756531856, "item_id": 47283241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283241", "by": "functionmouse", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction", "excerpt": "I've got Windows 7 at 125% running on a 70some inch TV off a tiny Optiplex Micro with an i3 or something, and a fork of modern Firefox for w7, hardware accel and all. I use my phone as a bluetooth touchpad/keyboard with an app that was maybe 5 bucks. Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction, no workflow-breaking updates. And I never lose the remote!", "context": "", "use_case": "TV interface", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}]}, {"label": "Aero design", "summary": "Commenters love and miss the Aero glass look.", "quotes": [{"id": 804007616, "item_id": 50250476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250476", "by": "theandrewbailey", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista)", "excerpt": "In terms of aesthetic, I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista), but I also love the classic Windows 9x/2000 look. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Aero simply because of the start menu search bar.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 736745713, "item_id": 46046607, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46046607", "by": "patapong", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also really miss the aero look of windows 7", "excerpt": "One underappreciated thing about Windows 8 is that even if the start menu was ugly and blocked the entire screen, you could press the windows key, immediately start typing, and then press enter to somewhat deterministically pick the top app. This made it feel quite fast. Now on more recent windows editions, I find that I often need to wait for the menu to visually appear before it will accept any keyboard input, and ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GUI \u2013 Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Modern browsers", "summary": "One user runs a fork of modern Firefox to get a current browser on Windows 7.", "quotes": [{"id": 756531856, "item_id": 47283241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283241", "by": "functionmouse", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction", "excerpt": "I've got Windows 7 at 125% running on a 70some inch TV off a tiny Optiplex Micro with an i3 or something, and a fork of modern Firefox for w7, hardware accel and all. I use my phone as a bluetooth touchpad/keyboard with an app that was maybe 5 bucks. Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction, no workflow-breaking updates. And I never lose the remote!", "context": "", "use_case": "TV interface", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}]}], "who": [{"by": "ryukoposting", "context": "collects period-correct laptops", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832419", "date": "2026-09-24"}, {"by": "bee_rider", "context": "mostly switched to Linux after XP", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "date": "2026-06-21"}, {"by": "wowczarek", "context": "Linux user since 1998, network engineer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46798635", "date": "2026-01-28"}], "tags": ["for retro hardware", "for TV/10-foot setups"], "use_cases": ["desktop os", "tv interface", "nostalgia retro gaming machine"], "compared": [{"slug": "windows-xp", "name": "Windows XP", "co": 5, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows-8", "name": "Windows 8", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows-10", "name": "Windows 10", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows-vista", "name": "Windows Vista", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "arch-linux", "name": "Arch Linux", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows-2000", "name": "Windows 2000", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows-11", "name": "Windows 11", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248055", "title": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49825642", "title": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434378", "title": "OpenAI Jalape\u00f1o: Better than Nvidia Blackwell", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48616173", "title": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500335", "title": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47282736", "title": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804007616, "item_id": 50250476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250476", "by": "theandrewbailey", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista)", "excerpt": "In terms of aesthetic, I love Windows 7-era Aero glass design (and to a lesser extent, Vista), but I also love the classic Windows 9x/2000 look. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Aero simply because of the start menu search bar.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 797318704, "item_id": 49832419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832419", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability", "excerpt": "I have a small collection of period-correct laptops running various Windows versions. Some of them represent history we love to look back on (a Compaq with an AMD K5 running Windows 95), others... not so much (a centrino T41 Thinkpad running Vista SP1). My opinion of XP is a little more mixed than yours. XP was great, but I maintain that 7 is actually the high water mark for Windows' usability. There's a lot of stuff", "context": "collects period-correct laptops", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 791167488, "item_id": 49447968, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49447968", "by": "jonathanlydall", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows 7 to be regarded as \"really good\" (by Windows standards)", "excerpt": "As you mention the 90's you're probably referring to their embrace, extend, extinguish strategy. This situation with the sound card hardware mixing was quite different and a lot later. Windows Vista moved away from kernel mode drivers where possible to help address the issue of BSODs which were not uncommon on Windows XP. It turns out that Microsoft was incorrectly getting the blame for BSODs when it was actually the", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI Jalape\u00f1o: Better than Nvidia Blackwell"}, {"id": 777905440, "item_id": 48619090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "by": "bee_rider", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern).", "excerpt": "XP was quite ugly though. 98 or whatever was the best looking, but 7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern). (FWIW I mostly switched to Linux after XP so this isn\u2019t nostalgia).", "context": "mostly switched to Linux after XP", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 760031553, "item_id": 47501972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501972", "by": "oldandboring", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows 7 was the release they HAD to get right and they did.", "excerpt": "Today's reminder of how old I'm getting: this is totally predictable. Microsoft has been doing this for 30 years. Disclaimer: I'm aware of these things and have used most of them, but really none as a daily driver since Windows 2000. So I'm probably leaving some stuff out. Windows 95 and 98 were great releases. Windows ME was so bad they scrapped the Win9x codebase entirely. Windows 2000 was game-changing. One of the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating"}, {"id": 756531856, "item_id": 47283241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283241", "by": "functionmouse", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction", "excerpt": "I've got Windows 7 at 125% running on a 70some inch TV off a tiny Optiplex Micro with an i3 or something, and a fork of modern Firefox for w7, hardware accel and all. I use my phone as a bluetooth touchpad/keyboard with an app that was maybe 5 bucks. Best 10-foot interface I've ever used. Everything works exactly as expected, no fuss, no gotchas, no friction, no workflow-breaking updates. And I never lose the remote!", "context": "", "use_case": "TV interface", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}, {"id": 748778160, "item_id": 46798635, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46798635", "by": "wowczarek", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Win7 was a workhorse", "excerpt": "Linux user since about 1998, leaning towards BSDs today. Network engineer + R&D + software dev. Daily driver (desktop) about 2002-2010 - work made it too difficult later. Very occasional gamer. Corporate world will give you a Windows VDI or web cloudy things if need be. Win10 on my laptop out of habit, mostly using terminals + WSL and a browser. Lightroom user, but flexible. None of the other gear I own runs Windows,", "context": "Linux user since 1998, network engineer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"}, {"id": 747525392, "item_id": 46720337, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720337", "by": "merpkz", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Going to get this and install it on my old Asus core2duo laptop from circa 2008", "excerpt": "Going to get this and install it on my old Asus core2duo laptop from circa 2008 - damn thing still is going strong, despite plastic becoming so brittle it has not one single panel left without cracks in it. Currently it has XP on it, but that is missing whole bunch of drivers, like touchpad not working and BIOS AHCI has to be in compatible mode otherwise it will bluescreen. It's going to be nostalgia machine where al", "context": "", "use_case": "nostalgia retro gaming machine", "switched_from": "Windows XP", "story": "You can now download Windows 7 and Vista ISO images with all the updates"}, {"id": 736745713, "item_id": 46046607, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46046607", "by": "patapong", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also really miss the aero look of windows 7", "excerpt": "One underappreciated thing about Windows 8 is that even if the start menu was ugly and blocked the entire screen, you could press the windows key, immediately start typing, and then press enter to somewhat deterministically pick the top app. This made it feel quite fast. Now on more recent windows editions, I find that I often need to wait for the menu to visually appear before it will accept any keyboard input, and ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GUI \u2013 Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)"}]}