Our commitment to Windows quality • Hacker News Board

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#691

Post by phyzome » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:54 AM UTC

hdivider wrote: post #605

PaulKeeble wrote: post #469

Microsoft has spent over a decade swimming against their users interests at this point and during that time frame Linux has been improving its desktop and improving kernel performance. We are now at the point where Linux emulating Window's entire API space for games with worse drivers is dangerously close on performance with none of the privacy invasion and anti user features. Its pretty late in the game for them to…

I really hope you're right. The challenge with Linux still seems to be practicalities -- like in particular, does Zoom run well on most distributions? Reports seem to be of system crashes and degraded performance. I imagine there are lots of 'it works for me' stories, but think: for Linux to eat into Windows user market share (which I would greatly support), critical things like Zoom have to work at least as reliably…

Zoom works fine for me on Ubuntu. Or at least, it's no more flaky than it is on Mac.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#692

Post by samiv » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:54 AM UTC

* We're going to make sure we double down on our dark patterns slamming our obnoxious account requirements in your face every chance we get. We'll also make sure to "accidentally forget" any "unfavourable" setting you might have turned to your liking just to make sure you get the best experience we want.

* We're going to keep shoving AI and copilot in your face in every corner of the system whether you want it or not. It's what we want after all. Please subscribe to copilot now or 3 days later.

* We're going to continue vibe coding core system components and interface elements in JavaScript to minimize our developer costs. Just get over it already.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#693

Post by tw04 » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:55 AM UTC

So still nothing about local accounts, or disabling copilot entirely.

This is basically: we’re doing the absolute minimum possible to claim we’re listening to users while still pursuing exactly what we were doing before. We realized we just need to boil the frog a little slower.

If they were hoping this would help shake microslop, they’re in trouble.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#694

Post by _ink_ » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:56 AM UTC

> More taskbar customization, including vertical and top positions: [...] We are introducing the ability to reposition it to the top or sides of your screen, making it easier to personalize your workspace.

This already existed. You took it away. If anything, you are back peddling and re-introducing it. But I don't care anymore. Made the switch to Linux and don't look back.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#695

Post by jmull » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:56 AM UTC

PaulKeeble wrote: post #469

Microsoft has spent over a decade swimming against their users interests at this point and during that time frame Linux has been improving its desktop and improving kernel performance. We are now at the point where Linux emulating Window's entire API space for games with worse drivers is dangerously close on performance with none of the privacy invasion and anti user features. Its pretty late in the game for them to…

> its going to take Microsoft a long time to row back

They won't actually move back to a user-focused OS at all. It's nice for them to declare they will, but their culture and business pressures will prevent any kind of sustained effort. (Their users aren't their customers.)

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#696

Post by kstrauser » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:56 AM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #444

kstrauser wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, at least on end-user devices as opposed to servers. If you make it possible to defer updates indefinitely, users will. Guaranteed. Doesn't matter how urgent or critical the update is, how bad the bug or vulnerability it patches is, how disastrous the consequences may be: they'll never, ever voluntarily apply them. If you're running a server, and willing to accept the risk of deferral because 1) you're in…

The real sin is combining security updates with feature updates. An argument can be made for enforced security updates(1). There is no good argument for forcing feature updates. Most security-only updates have a low risk of interfering with with the user or causing instability. Most feature updates have a high risk of doing so. (1) Although I think there should be some way of disabling even those, even if that way is…

Alright, I can buy that. Although from a dev POV I can also appreciate the not-fun of testing a combinatorial explosion of security updates vs features.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#697

Post by wraptile » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:56 AM UTC

dmos62 wrote: post #195

I'm somewhat surprised that Windows is still most of personal computers. In my eyes, it's fundamentally inferior to Linux, and its superficial superiority only comes from the ecosystem, which is to say adoption, not some inherent trait. But then, since Linux adoption didn't meaningfully change in the last 20 years, I'm forced to confront the fact that either I'm wrong about its fundamentals, or the market is able to…

Microsoft hasn't been able to get marketplace in any other consumer product line. This seems pretty clear that Windows team is mostly just coasting on the fact that Windows is being forced upon people and frankly most people don't even understand what's an operating system so this strategy has been and will continue working well.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#698

Post by brightball » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 1:59 AM UTC

PaulKeeble wrote: post #469

Microsoft has spent over a decade swimming against their users interests at this point and during that time frame Linux has been improving its desktop and improving kernel performance. We are now at the point where Linux emulating Window's entire API space for games with worse drivers is dangerously close on performance with none of the privacy invasion and anti user features. Its pretty late in the game for them to…

I really wonder how much of an impact these AI tools are going to have on the Linux ecosystem. Seems like huge potential advantage brewing over proprietary OSs. Look how fast Omarchy came together and improved…it’s phenomenal.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#699

Post by casey2 » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #499

PaulKeeble wrote: post #469

Microsoft has spent over a decade swimming against their users interests at this point and during that time frame Linux has been improving its desktop and improving kernel performance. We are now at the point where Linux emulating Window's entire API space for games with worse drivers is dangerously close on performance with none of the privacy invasion and anti user features. Its pretty late in the game for them to…

Normal people can not install an OS. Aside from like 3 ThinkPads on Lenovo's website, you can't really buy Linux pre installed on a computer. This is about the MacBook Neo coming for the budget laptop market. At 500$ it's an easy choice.

These days it's as easy as running a powershell script. There is 0 functional barrier to installing Linux from any windows machine. Soon the same will be true for the Neo.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#700

Post by rsanheim » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 2:03 AM UTC

PaulKeeble wrote: post #469

Microsoft has spent over a decade swimming against their users interests at this point and during that time frame Linux has been improving its desktop and improving kernel performance. We are now at the point where Linux emulating Window's entire API space for games with worse drivers is dangerously close on performance with none of the privacy invasion and anti user features. Its pretty late in the game for them to…

Yes. This. Too little too late MSFT.

And it really comes down to $MSFT. If the stock keeps dropping, how long do you think any real commitment to “quality” for a boring, low(no?) revenue product will last? Very little when the ad/partner revenue really starts flowing for “ai focused metrics” that can directly tie to windows surveillance (ie recall).