Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro • Hacker News Board

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#101

Post by dev1ycan » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:10 AM UTC

This is never going to happen for obvious reasons, it would mean Adobe and others would release on linux would instantly kill Windows.

Anyways, I cannot stress enough how good Linux is today, hell, using Hyprland is so light years ahead of Windows, it's really like going back to Windows 98 when I try to split my screen across my programs or swap desktops compared to Hyprland (personally use Omarchy although I know people dislike all the stuff it comes bundled with).

KDE Plasma is also beautiful and incredibly customizable, etc. Linux is just a marvel of an operating system nowadays, the missing software (that can be run with stuff like winboat and other program) is really not a deal breaker compared to having to deal with a beyond terrible OS on a daily basis.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#102

Post by AlienRobot » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:11 AM UTC

My prediction is that in 5 years I'll try to drag an image from Chrome into Nemo, my file manager, and it still won't work.

I also predict that Mint still won't ship with a font manager.

That the workspaces tasklet still won't support dragging and dropping tasks into it to move them between workspaces.

That there still won't be a multi-step wizard for creating launchers on the desktop.

That there still won't be a proper shortcut format on Linux and people will be forced to still use symlinks, which are a terrible experience for folder shortcuts. And that file managers still won't support creating hard links.

That some applications still will have 1 pixel of padding at the top that prevents me from clicking the close button by moving my mouse to the top-right corner.

That Nemo still won't tell you that you need to make an appimage executable to run it.

That DE's still won't tell you that you need to install and configure flatseal to make some flatpaks actually work.

That you'll still be able to change your account password without changing the keyring password and then forgetting your old password and losing your keyring.

And that the Linux community will still be telling themselves that the real reason nobody uses Linux is because some lootbox game needs a kernel level anti-cheat, or because the latest gamer keyboard with rainbow-colored LEDs doesn't have a Linux driver, or that the average person just absolutely needs features that only photoshop/microsoft office have.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#103

Post by skissane » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:14 AM UTC

What I’d like to see them do, is add more POSIX APIs to Win32 (not some separate environment like WSL is). It would make porting apps from Linux/macOS/etc to Win32 a lot easier, and remove the amount of code required in cross-platform apps/frameworks

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#104

Post by tombert » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:18 AM UTC

hougaard wrote: post #26

Because the "UX" of Windows sucks, Microsoft will switch the "Kernel" to Linux? I don't get the argument. There are parts of Windows I don't like, so I have chosen a 3rd-party (often open-source) replacement. The exact same process as I do on Linux. I don't see why I have to switch to Linux to have that freedom. (and to be honest, I don't care where the taskbar is)

Yeah, I was about to say. The NT kernel isn’t bad at all; it’s arguably better than Linux. It’s just that an OS is more than a kernel, and pretty much all the other crap in Windows is terrible.

Honestly, what I would like them to do is make/support a modern Copy on Write filesystem so that System Restore actually works, and so that it’s easy to roll back when Windows Update borks your PC.

You don’t need Linux for either of these things. You need software engineers to build a modern filesystem or make Windows natively support ZFS or something.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#105

Post by tombert » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:20 AM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #72

wackget wrote: post #63

I'll consider switching to Linux when the GUI becomes as configurable as Windows 10 or earlier. For example, this is my taskbar layout: https://i.ibb.co/1GqKH27L/taskbar-layout.png To my knowledge, it's not possible to achieve anything like this layout on Windows 11, Linux or Mac. I did try it in various Linux distros a few times but frankly got sick of navigating the maze of window managers et cetera. I think someth…

You can definitely do this with KDE Plasma. Plasma is so configurable you can make things that are almost impossible to use! And probably good layouts too.

I haven’t used KDE in more than a decade, but I remember it being irrationally funny to me that I could rotate the desktop icons to any weird angle.

I have no idea why anyone would do that, but it was really fun to make my desktop look like it was arranged by someone who hadn’t developed motor skills yet.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#106

Post by tombert » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:23 AM UTC

skissane wrote: post #103

What I’d like to see them do, is add more POSIX APIs to Win32 (not some separate environment like WSL is). It would make porting apps from Linux/macOS/etc to Win32 a lot easier, and remove the amount of code required in cross-platform apps/frameworks

I am an avid Linux user, but honestly I think Windows’ lack of POSIX is arguably a benefit.

I feel like POSIX has effectively codified mediocrity. It’s not “bad” but I don’t think it’s the be all end all either. Even NT 1 was arguably ahead of the POSIX standard.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#107

Post by daviddever23box » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:30 AM UTC

keyle wrote: post #68

hougaard wrote: post #26

Because the "UX" of Windows sucks, Microsoft will switch the "Kernel" to Linux? I don't get the argument. There are parts of Windows I don't like, so I have chosen a 3rd-party (often open-source) replacement. The exact same process as I do on Linux. I don't see why I have to switch to Linux to have that freedom. (and to be honest, I don't care where the taskbar is)

This is a good point. The kernel stuff of Windows isn't really the problem. I've been on macOS for eons, but I still hope that some day, someone at microsoft will have the balls to make a Windows Redux. Which is just Windows 7 with a coat of paint; and less stuff, installable separately; geared towards speed and not stuffings.

ReactOS has entered the chat.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#108

Post by bfrog » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:31 AM UTC

More like windows market share will continue to erode from hostility towards the customer. Who wants SpywareOS 11 with AI-fail on the side while it locks up and freezes the ui on my 16 core machine because it was downloading a file off the internet. It’s abysmal quality control, likely derived from AI centered development and KPIs about user activity monitoring rather than stability, usability, and performance.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#109

Post by okanat » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:36 AM UTC

keyle wrote: post #68

hougaard wrote: post #26

Because the "UX" of Windows sucks, Microsoft will switch the "Kernel" to Linux? I don't get the argument. There are parts of Windows I don't like, so I have chosen a 3rd-party (often open-source) replacement. The exact same process as I do on Linux. I don't see why I have to switch to Linux to have that freedom. (and to be honest, I don't care where the taskbar is)

This is a good point. The kernel stuff of Windows isn't really the problem. I've been on macOS for eons, but I still hope that some day, someone at microsoft will have the balls to make a Windows Redux. Which is just Windows 7 with a coat of paint; and less stuff, installable separately; geared towards speed and not stuffings.

I don't know about you but I am happy with most of the stuff that Microsoft still ships with Windows userspace (surprisingly) and kernel.

Win32, stable driver APIs (I can still run Win11 on my old Nvidia GPU laptop which Linux doesn't support), COM, good remote desktop infrastructure, DirectX 12, WPF, ClearType or certain Win32 aspects like IO completiton ports (allows true async like uring does but in Windows since NT times) are all has some good engineering and widespread adoption. Many other OSes still copy what Windows offered in early 00s.

They are fucking their last mile a big time. They fuck explorer, they fuck desktop experience. All in the name of stupid fads. Silicon Valley hustler Microsoft is worse than shirts with Ballmer's fluids Microsoft.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#110

Post by thunderbong » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 3:37 AM UTC

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #91

wackget wrote: post #63

I'll consider switching to Linux when the GUI becomes as configurable as Windows 10 or earlier. For example, this is my taskbar layout: https://i.ibb.co/1GqKH27L/taskbar-layout.png To my knowledge, it's not possible to achieve anything like this layout on Windows 11, Linux or Mac. I did try it in various Linux distros a few times but frankly got sick of navigating the maze of window managers et cetera. I think someth…

Took me about 2 minutes to replicate on KDE Plasma[0][1]. I have a lot more things in my taskbar that I don't want to remove for this test, so it looks a little more crammed up. [0] https://i.imgur.com/esNjPNg.png [1] I didn't try to replicate it perfectly; things like smaller icons/etc are settings but cba

It's not the same, though.

The parent comment shows two rows of different types - the upper row consists of the taskbar, and the lower row has the quick launch icons, drive links, and a music bar.

Quite an interesting layout, imho.