Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11 • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#101

Post by steve1977 » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:44 PM UTC

schmuckonwheels wrote: post #87

hackyhacky wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or: Steve Ballmer oversaw the decline of Mircosoft's flagship product, but left before he could be blamed for it. A lot of Windows' current problems can be traced back to the Ballmer era, including the framework schizophrenia, as Microsoft shifted between Win32, UWP, WPF, and god knows what else. This has lead to the current chaotic and disjointed UI experience, and served to confuse and drive away developers. Repeat…

>including the framework schizophrenia, as Microsoft shifted between Win32, UWP, WPF Ah yes, and the solution being presented is Linux, with Xlib, Motif, Qt, GTK, and your choice of 167 different desktop environments. Don't forget the whole Wayland schism. Mac is no better, shifting SDKs every few years, except Apple goes one step further by breaking all legacy applications so you are forced to upgrade. Can't be schi…

macOS has Cocoa since 2000, which is still useable, and SwiftUI since a few years. No comparison to the mess of UI toolkits on Windows.

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#102

Post by Der_Einzige » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:44 PM UTC

thesnide wrote: post #21

Flux159 wrote: post #15

"What Andy giveth, Bill taketh away" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_and_Bill%27s_law On a more serious note, I really only use Windows for games & I'm still always frustrated with how many updates (& restarts during updates) Windows needs. My fans are always constantly spinning on Windows too (laptop or desktop) whereas my Mac & Linux machines are generally silent outside of heavy load.

I'm now even using wine & proton for it. Thanks to Valve only very few games don't work. And it's not that i don't like windows, it is just too damn slow for me. And no. I do not want to upgrade my gear every 2 years or so

All the games that "don't work" are the games that PEOPLE ACTUALLY PLAY!

It's always hardcore multiplayer games with the actual crowd. Using linux for gaming is a great way to continue down the path to becoming a recluse.

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#103

Post by kachapopopow » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC

to be fair windows 11 is the most secure windows ever created, the amount of random checks it has is astonishing. Unfortunately it gets undermined by poor driver code from third-parties, much less of a problem with hyper-v based security, but still a huge problem.

Obviously all these security features cost performance and something that linux and macos can live without since they generally do not have closed source drivers that can't be fixed (except nvidia, but it seems to be changing as nvidia is giving up and starting to open up due to AI). Windows has to be proactive and that is one of the biggest performance hurdles it faces. It's actually incredible how comparatively safe windows is if you have all the security features enabled, there are obviously still one-offs due to having to maintain compatibility and what was effectively usermode code ported to kernelmode ruining it, thankfully that also seems to be changing since they're slowly rewriting it to be secure by design with Unstrusted guards making these issues significantly less common.

as for apple doesn't have third party code in the kernel at all so they can also fix it themselves.

side note, the restrictive linux license might seem like it is preventing adoption since for example the whole HDMI 2.1 spec is centered around proprietary code, but in reality they have this illusion that their 'proprietary' code can be protected and somehow linux undermines it when in reality people can reverse everything to sourcecode if they spend enough time on it - if anyone is curious you can just take one of the firmware dumps from any hdmi 2.1 capable TV dongle, extract the kernel module responsible handling the authentication for hdmi 2.1, extract the code, put it in your amdgpu opensource driver, now you have hdmi 2.1 on linux.

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#104

Post by WillAdams » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

If I could still be running Windows 2000, I would --- it simply flew on a Fujitsu Stylistic ST2300, and I was able to hack the Compaq TC1000 Finepoint digitizer driver for Windows NT to run on it --- w/ a CF--IDE adapter, no spinning rust to worry about, and I even had room for a full install of Encarta, my only worry until it died was buying AAAA batteries for the stylus, and the only thing I missed was pressure sensitivity (but my work computer had a Wacom Intuos, so the delicate stuff was done on that).

That said, my favourite Windows computer ever was the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4110 w/ transflective display and Wacom EMR digitizer --- put an SSD in it, carried a couple of spare batteries, added a USB GPS, and kept a pair of docking stations w/ power supplies at my desks at work and the office and a third power supply in my laptop bag and it just worked --- despair of really replacing it, the Samsung Galaxy Book 12 was close, but then Fall Creators Update came out and crippled styluses down to an 11th touch input so that they would scroll rather than select text... getting by w/ a Book 3 Pro 360, but Windows 11 has me looking at a Raspberry Pi paired w/ a Wacom One or Movink display....

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#105

Post by wackget » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

kachapopopow wrote: post #103

to be fair windows 11 is the most secure windows ever created, the amount of random checks it has is astonishing. Unfortunately it gets undermined by poor driver code from third-parties, much less of a problem with hyper-v based security, but still a huge problem. Obviously all these security features cost performance and something that linux and macos can live without since they generally do not have closed source d…

Random checks?

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#106

Post by secondcoming » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

The people working on the windows kernel must be gutted to see their hard work destroyed by sub-standard devs elsewhere in MS.

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#107

Post by broof » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

doodlesdev wrote: post #47

epolanski wrote: post #29

I liked the path windows was going in late 2010s. WSL, power toys, many great utils, great performance. But it has since then stalled and got increasingly worse. Especially with this AI shoving everywhere, not even mentioning getting ads at some point in notifications and start menu. I'm not particularly in love with MacOS either (but have no realistic alternative on my MacBooks). I'm more and more inclined of switch…

Why would you go for a random Linux distribution backed by DHH (a Ruby developer) instead of a established upstream distribution such as Debian or Fedora?

I’m a user of omarchy and I like it a lot. I wanted a Linux experience that I didn’t have to set up myself, and this one was designed specifically for devs who are used to a macOS environment. It took about 6 minutes to set up and everything just works. I don’t really know that much about dhh or his politics, like some sibling comment mentioned. I just think it matches my sweet spot of ease to set up and provided good UX

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#108

Post by throwmsreply » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

Running W11 on unsupported hardware aside.

I was surprised the other day when I used a W11 machine that the new context menu took a perceptible second to appear and it still didn't have everything the old had so you still have to call the old one, very dismaying.

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#109

Post by secondcoming » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:48 PM UTC

api wrote: post #99

secondcoming wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes little sense, notepad.exe already exists. The only development required on it would be to add AI shit to it. They could just leave it alone.

That means you have to work on the original code, and modern entry-mid level devs can't do that. It's probably in C++. Your expensive senior and staff level devs are on more important projects. Make it a web app and your cheap entry level grads can do it.

But there's no need to change it, that's the point. It's a finished product pretty much. Just ship it as is.

If a PM needs NotepadAI for their career progression then start it from scratch.

Re: Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11

#110

Post by ada0000 » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:48 PM UTC

api wrote: post #99

secondcoming wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes little sense, notepad.exe already exists. The only development required on it would be to add AI shit to it. They could just leave it alone.

That means you have to work on the original code, and modern entry-mid level devs can't do that. It's probably in C++. Your expensive senior and staff level devs are on more important projects. Make it a web app and your cheap entry level grads can do it.

Microsoft has the resources to train people.