# The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen

31 Hacker News commenters recommended The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fun, historically rich engineering stories about Windows and MS-DOS that explain why things work the way they do. One critic notes it is not official documentation.

## Why people recommend it

- Consistently solid, enjoyable articles (7 comments): "Nearly every single entry is interesting, informative, and illuminating" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371638)) "delivering consistently solid stories about Windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554705)) "one of the best things coming out of Microsoft" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45820499))
- Historical stories about Windows (5 comments): "I love Raymond's periodic peeks into how Windows/386 and later were not just shells atop DOS shells" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49278865)) "Raymond Chen has been sharing stories about Windows 95 development for decades at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371264)) "Raymond Chen's articles are the true wealth of contemporary tech-lore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371925))
- Real engineering behind odd behaviour (2 comments): "Every weird thing I've ever seen him address turns out to be something that has had real thought and engineering put into it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48558093)) "The Old New Thing is very much engineering." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45820699))
- Relatable analogies and no fluff (2 comments): "Raymond's work often uses analogies to everyday, real life situations to make the technical stuff more relatable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49377146)) "no fluff and straight to the point" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46515646))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder](https://hackerapproved.com/p/soul-of-a-new-machine.md): 59 recommend
- [Accidental Empires by Bob Cringely](https://hackerapproved.com/p/accidental-empires.md): 15 recommend
- [A History of Lisp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/technical-history-book-on-lisp.md): 11 recommend
- [Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/turing-s-cathedral.md): 10 recommend
- [The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear](https://hackerapproved.com/p/friendly-orange-glow.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen", https://hackerapproved.com/p/old-new-thing/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).