Our commitment to Windows quality • Hacker News Board

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#411

Post by Gigachad » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:41 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #243

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and its superficial superiority only comes from the ecosystem So the only superiority is that it runs the apps most people want to run? And this is why geeks are always the “Less space than Nomad. No Wireless. Lame” types or the HN equivalent when talking about DropBox: “For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and…

Most people want a web browser. Even Microsofts esteemed moat (office) is “Web only” on the lowest tier.

I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who only uses the web browser exclusively.

It’s true that most stuff is in the browser, but basically every user has a couple things that are native apps which don’t work on Linux.

Wine has come a long way for gaming, but my experience is for regular programs, most stuff doesn’t work. Even the simple apps are usually critically broken.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#412

Post by fgonzag » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:41 PM UTC

GettingOld wrote: post #405

fgonzag wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change is hard. My father is a 70-year-old software engineer who programs .NET Core in Notepad and builds using custom BAT files that build the project using csc (the outright compiler). He browses and copies files in the Windows Terminal. He is also accustomed to Linux since we deploy to it in our business, and he can do everything comfortably in the Linux terminal. He trusts me almost blindly, yet I can’t convince…

I'm only a decade younger - I write .Net (C#) professionally - work it is Windows & Visual Studio (there is no way I'd want to mange any project that size without an IDE, tbh I much prefer using a IDE since I first got one in early 90s) But at home - I use Jet Brains Rider (free non commercial) for C# .Net projects on Linux machines (Debian + KDE or Mint depending on machine) I wonder if you mean Notepad++ not Notepa…

I mean Notepad the original.

He tried textpad (the other included text editor ) at some point and hated it

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#413

Post by jmward01 » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:41 PM UTC

No commitment to keeping your machine yours with local only accounts. No commitment to blocking ads. Honestly though, at this point even if they did massive changes and addressed privacy and ownership I would be years away from trying them again. They could pay me and I would say no.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#414

Post by Gigachad » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:42 PM UTC

operatingthetan wrote: post #240

chezelenkoooo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're vastly underestimating the technical illiteracy most people have with computers. 99% of people buy a desktop and don't even consider what the operating system is let alone think about changing it to something else. I would imagine they don't even know that a difference exists between operating systems.

I try new distros all the time and not a single one of them is 'GUI native' in the sense that you can do everything without touching a terminal. Some weird stuff always happens and you need to do a bunch of research to figure out how to fix it. The settings GUIs never have parity with the config files and it shows.

Depends what you are doing. I have Bazzite Linux on my gaming desktop and I don’t even connect a keyboard to it, let alone open a terminal. Everything is accessible via a controller.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#415

Post by b473a » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #364

fsloth wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I want to have a computer with stable vendor supported OS so _I can do my stuff_ not tweak some os level configs. I _don’t_ want to spend my time playing an os systems programmer. OS is a _component_. Like the wifi driver. I think it’s great some people love developing wifi drivers but personally I just want network that-just-works because there are billion other cool things you can do with a computer. Simil…

> I want an OS that just works! This is exactly why modern Windows is problematic. MacOS is better. A right Linux distro (e.g. Fedora Silverblue) on right hardware (e.g. Thinkpad T series) also just works™; this basically the same kind of limitation as with MacOS. I wish they issued a Windows Rock Stable edition. Ancient as rocks (Win7 look, or maybe even WinXP look), every known bug fixed, every feature either suppo…

Mac works great out of the box. Linux can do whatever you want if you put some work into it. Windows sits kind of in the middle, and it turns out for a lot of people that's a comfortable spot even with its trade-offs.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#416

Post by some-guy » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC

I'm at a large enterprise outfit, and "shoving things in your face" has been a problem with large software suites for a long time, long before the AI craze. I keep telling my skip level leadership that we need more User-Experience "mob goons" that have authority across product domains to (metaphorically) beat the living daylight out of bad "PM-brained" ideas.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#417

Post by thiht » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC

nixpulvis wrote: post #109

ChicagoDave wrote: post #105

No one wants copilot. You can make it an app, but any OS level integration is a non-starter. My next laptop will be a MacBook Pro. My Surface Laptop 5 will be collecting dust in case I need it, but that’s highly unlikely.

So Apple Intelligence doesn't bother you?

I don’t think I’ve ever even noticed Siri/Apple intelligence on macOS. I’ve disabled it somehow (probably at install) and have not heard about it since

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#418

Post by dijit » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:44 PM UTC

bangaladore wrote: post #385

dijit wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people want a web browser. Even Microsofts esteemed moat (office) is “Web only” on the lowest tier.

> Microsofts esteemed moat (office) is “Web only” on the lowest tier. If you've ever used it before, you'd quickly come to the conclusion that web only Office is only useful for someone writing essays for school. The moment you need to do anything more complex than that, the document renders completely differently on web vs app-- not to mention there are tons of critical features that aren't even available on the web…

Sorry, I think I didn’t make myself clear enough.

I meant that Microsoft is intentionally removing their own moat.

That the tools are awful is just the standard microsoft affair. (with some notable exceptions, which ironically include Excel).

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#419

Post by Gigachad » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:44 PM UTC

radlad wrote: post #266

chezelenkoooo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're vastly underestimating the technical illiteracy most people have with computers. 99% of people buy a desktop and don't even consider what the operating system is let alone think about changing it to something else. I would imagine they don't even know that a difference exists between operating systems.

Do non-tech people even buy computers anymore? I imagine you basically have tech enthusiasts, gamers, and IT at offices buying desktop computers at this point.

I’ve never met someone who doesn’t own a computer. Every uni student owns a personal laptop. For all the marketing from Apple, the iPad still isn’t close to replacing a laptop.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#420

Post by attentive » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:45 PM UTC

"Repositioning the taskbar is one of the top asks we’ve heard from you".

Tell us why it was removed in the first place, why it takes years to put it back and it's still future promises as of March 2026. That's just a clown show.