# Windows Server 53 Hacker News commenters recommended Windows Server and 40 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend Windows Server for Active Directory, a Windows stack without consumer bloat or ads, and solid desktop use. Critics say licensing is costly and updates force reboots. ## Why people recommend it - No bloat, ads or forced updates (7 comments): "I was pleased to see our new Windows Server boxes still have regular Notepad and Explorer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46930388)) "MS provides the LTSC & Server editions to businesses which lack all that retail cruft" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46433557)) "use Win Server as a daily. Both are crap-less and can be fully debloated in minutes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48109819)) - Works well as a desktop OS (5 comments): "I now run windows server as my windows guest so I dont get all the client cruft. Works like a charm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582856)) "use Win Server as a daily. Both are crap-less and can be fully debloated in minutes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48109819)) "I still run Win2003 because it just workz. GUI is great, it snappy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48133730)) - Active Directory integration and tooling (3 comments): "There is also no comparable replacement for Active Directory DCs which run every major company on Planet Earth." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47857719)) "there is nothing that comes even close in terms of integration and how everything works together" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858273)) "Windows Server with AD offers incredible amount of things out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942301)) - Strong PowerShell, SQL Server and .NET (3 comments): "Sure, Microsoft has stumbled a bit recently, but around the 2010s it was a glorious era of PowerShell and Windows Server releases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143447)) "in no way that I can see is MSSQL or Server "legacy"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47857476)) "Windows server, mssql and .NET are a great combo." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47860910)) ## What people warn about - Costly and restrictive licensing (4 comments): "the cost was not fixed and predictable, because every now and then we wanted to extend our activities" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47861124)) "With a standard windows server license you are only allowed to have a two hyperv virtual machines" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437340)) "costs like 20x of regular Windows license while supporting almost none of the applications" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48730040)) - Updates cause reboots and breakage (2 comments): "Windows updates impacted the dhcp service on one server, which wasn't an obvious thing till leases started running out the following morning." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46143303)) "Even the Server Core edition, which has a much smaller "surface area" needs reboots almost every month." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47462460)) - Weaker than Linux outside Active Directory (2 comments): "While Windows Server 2025 is not dreadful , the Linux experience is so much nicer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49387766)) "extraordinarily inferior in every regard except for the AD Domain services interface" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46770061)) - Performance regressions in some versions (2 comments): "Microsoft did something around Windows Server 2008 R2 that killed performance (literally halved it) for RemoteFX." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48347994)) "Windows Server 2025 is somewhat better on reads but only at low parallelism." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46178611)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows.md): 1287 recommend - [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos.md): 1041 recommend - [Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux.md): 745 recommend - [Haiku](https://hackerapproved.com/p/haiku-os.md): 115 recommend - [NetBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbsd.md): 100 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Microsoft+Windows+Server+2025+Standard&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Windows Server", https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-server/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).