{"slug": "windows-server", "name": "Windows Server", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 2, "score": 1.42, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-12-06", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026:", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026:", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Windows Server"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803959040, "item_id": 50247440, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50247440", "by": "sirjaz", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "when devs write for Windows Server", "excerpt": "This is an awesome add to my list of server software that runs on Windows Server. I love when devs write for Windows Server.", "context": "", "use_case": "running server software", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet"}, {"id": 784449856, "item_id": 49028116, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49028116", "by": "bob1029", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026:", "excerpt": "Microsoft is a big place. I recommend focusing on the parts they do well rather than getting tribal. All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026: Windows Server SQL Server .NET/C#/F#/Nuget Visual Studio [code] SSMS AAD/EntraID Defender DirectX Excel I agree that Teams still kind of sucks and that Azure is a complete dumpster fire of a cloud, on average. 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Yet p", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "European Commission issues call for evidence on open source"}, {"id": 738844208, "item_id": 46177763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177763", "by": "cm2187", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can't get a normal file copy to go faster than around 1.5GB/s", "excerpt": "One thing I don't understand with Windows Server is that it seems no matter how fast the nvme drives I use, or I pair/pool, I can't get a normal file copy to go faster than around 1.5GB/s (that's local, no network). The underlying disks show multi GB/s performance under crystal disk mark. But I suspect something in the OS must get in the way.", "context": "", "use_case": "file copy on NVMe", "switched_from": "", "story": "Copy-Item is slower than File Explorer"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["running server software", "desktop at work", "ad-free windows desktop", "file copy on nvme"], "compared": [{"slug": "microsoft-sql-server", "name": "Microsoft SQL Server", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245945", "title": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49162086", "title": "Windows XP 2002 for the Itanium: Unbridled rage", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027955", "title": "Ask: Why does everything Microsoft create lately feel fragile and half-baked?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46882184", "title": "Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. 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I love when devs write for Windows Server.", "context": "", "use_case": "running server software", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet"}, {"id": 786649984, "item_id": 49165624, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49165624", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-08-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I fully switched to Windows Server to be able to check the same issues as the customers had", "excerpt": "Between 2000 and 2003, I used Windows Server as desktop at work, after a short period of dual booting between Windows 2000 and Red-Hat Linux, which I stop doing when routinely rebooting into Windows for support started being a frequent habit. Thus I fully switched to Windows Server to be able to check the same issues as the customers had, and since we only supported big iron UNIX during those years, I would anyway us", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop at work", "switched_from": "Red Hat Linux", "story": "Windows XP 2002 for the Itanium: Unbridled rage"}, {"id": 784449856, "item_id": 49028116, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49028116", "by": "bob1029", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026:", "excerpt": "Microsoft is a big place. I recommend focusing on the parts they do well rather than getting tribal. All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026: Windows Server SQL Server .NET/C#/F#/Nuget Visual Studio [code] SSMS AAD/EntraID Defender DirectX Excel I agree that Teams still kind of sucks and that Azure is a complete dumpster fire of a cloud, on average. But that doesn't mean we should throw the p", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask: Why does everything Microsoft create lately feel fragile and half-baked?"}, {"id": 750123952, "item_id": 46882747, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46882747", "by": "KnuthIsGod", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Windows Server in Desktop mode, \njust to escape the ads and widgets and rubbish that the consumer version insists on displaying.", "excerpt": "Widgets seem designed by the great unwashed, for the great unwashed. When I need to use Windows, I use Windows Server in Desktop mode, just to escape the ads and widgets and rubbish that the consumer version insists on displaying.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free Windows desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. 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Yet p", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "European Commission issues call for evidence on open source"}, {"id": 738844208, "item_id": 46177763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177763", "by": "cm2187", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can't get a normal file copy to go faster than around 1.5GB/s", "excerpt": "One thing I don't understand with Windows Server is that it seems no matter how fast the nvme drives I use, or I pair/pool, I can't get a normal file copy to go faster than around 1.5GB/s (that's local, no network). The underlying disks show multi GB/s performance under crystal disk mark. But I suspect something in the OS must get in the way.", "context": "", "use_case": "file copy on NVMe", "switched_from": "", "story": "Copy-Item is slower than File Explorer"}]}