Windows Server
Ranked 14 of 87 operating systems by recommenders
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.
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.
93 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 53
- criticize it
- 40
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 53 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
No bloat, ads or forced updates
“I was pleased to see our new Windows Server boxes still have regular Notepad and Explorer.”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft Account bugs locked me out of Notepad – are Thin Clients ruining PCs?” “MS provides the LTSC & Server editions to businesses which lack all that retail cruft”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI” “use Win Server as a daily. Both are crap-less and can be fully debloated in minutes.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes” - Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft kills official way to activate Windows 11/10 without internet”
- Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft Account bugs locked me out of Notepad – are Thin Clients ruining PCs?”
- Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders”
- Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “2025 was a disaster for Windows 11 as bugs and intrusive features erode trust”
Works well as a desktop OS
“I now run windows server as my windows guest so I dont get all the client cruft. Works like a charm”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too” “use Win Server as a daily. Both are crap-less and can be fully debloated in minutes.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes” “I still run Win2003 because it just workz. GUI is great, it snappy”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Classic 7 is a Windows 10 LTSC mod to look 1:1 to Windows 7” - Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back”
- Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone”
Active Directory integration and tooling
“There is also no comparable replacement for Active Directory DCs which run every major company on Planet Earth.”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Windows Server 2025 Runs Better on ARM” “there is nothing that comes even close in terms of integration and how everything works together”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Windows Server 2025 Runs Better on ARM” “Windows Server with AD offers incredible amount of things out of the box”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft: We see all the backlash and we know we have a lot to fix in Windows” Strong PowerShell, SQL Server and .NET
“Sure, Microsoft has stumbled a bit recently, but around the 2010s it was a glorious era of PowerShell and Windows Server releases”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “IBM i (OS/400) the Database Operating System” “in no way that I can see is MSSQL or Server "legacy"”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Windows Server 2025 Runs Better on ARM” “Windows server, mssql and .NET are a great combo.”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Windows Server 2025 Runs Better on ARM”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Costly and restrictive licensing
“the cost was not fixed and predictable, because every now and then we wanted to extend our activities”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Windows Server 2025 Runs Better on ARM” “With a standard windows server license you are only allowed to have a two hyperv virtual machines”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Toro: Deploy Applications as Unikernels” “costs like 20x of regular Windows license while supporting almost none of the applications”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Microsoft Needs Windows Lite” - Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Windows 11's Patch Tuesday nightmare gets worse”
Updates cause reboots and breakage
“Windows updates impacted the dhcp service on one server, which wasn't an obvious thing till leases started running out the following morning.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” “Even the Server Core edition, which has a much smaller "surface area" needs reboots almost every month.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” Weaker than Linux outside Active Directory
“While Windows Server 2025 is not dreadful , the Linux experience is so much nicer”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Linux 7.2 Released” “extraordinarily inferior in every regard except for the AD Domain services interface”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Windows 11's Patch Tuesday nightmare gets worse” Performance regressions in some versions
“Microsoft did something around Windows Server 2008 R2 that killed performance (literally halved it) for RemoteFX.”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “I Put a Datacenter GPU in My Gaming PC for £200” “Windows Server 2025 is somewhat better on reads but only at low parallelism.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Copy-Item is slower than File Explorer”
Other operating systems people recommend
The four most recommended other operating systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 87 operating systems, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 106 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it didn't seem much worse to admin than the CFEngine / Puppet type tooling we had for Linux at the time”
“While Windows Server 2025 is not dreadful , the Linux experience is so much nicer”
“Sure, Microsoft has stumbled a bit recently, but around the 2010s it was a glorious era of PowerShell and Windows Server releases”
“All of the following products and services are fantastic in 2026”
“costs like 20x of regular Windows license while supporting almost none of the applications”
“Windows Server 2022 comes up just fine in 4-8GB RAM disposable qubes”
“you get a fully working and managed Kerberos experience without having to deal with 30, 60, 90 day password rotations.”
“Windows was routinely found to have a lower TCO than Linux as a server OS”
“Microsoft did something around Windows Server 2008 R2 that killed performance (literally halved it) for RemoteFX.”
“transfer files over the network faster than Windows 7 running on bare metal”
“kept most of the 2000-era gui, though the start menu got more vista-shaped”
“I still run Win2003 because it just workz. GUI is great, it snappy”
“use Win Server as a daily. Both are crap-less and can be fully debloated in minutes.”
“I saw windows servers as perfectly fine machines for closet/under-the-table infra”
“the cost was not fixed and predictable, because every now and then we wanted to extend our activities”
“Windows server, mssql and .NET are a great combo.”
“there is nothing that comes even close in terms of integration and how everything works together”
“I recall opting to use Windows Server 2003 over XP back in the day for desktop/workstation use.”
“There is also no comparable replacement for Active Directory DCs which run every major company on Planet Earth.”
“in no way that I can see is MSSQL or Server "legacy"”
“this was a rare case where they were able to right the ship”
“Even the Server Core edition, which has a much smaller "surface area" needs reboots almost every month.”
“No forced updates, no ads or messed up things with account”
“I was pleased to see our new Windows Server boxes still have regular Notepad and Explorer.”
“When I need to use Windows, I use Windows Server in Desktop mode”
“$5/mo a pop for each device using _any_ service provided by the Windows Server.”
“extraordinarily inferior in every regard except for the AD Domain services interface”
“I now run windows server as my windows guest so I dont get all the client cruft. Works like a charm”
“No bloatware, less garbage, almost identical driver and application support.”
“Windows server is the best Windows os (can be use as a client os) but it's still Windows shit.”
“It does not ask you to play Candy Crush, for example.”
“Server 2003 was the last release supervised by Cutler, so would have my vote.”
“With a standard windows server license you are only allowed to have a two hyperv virtual machines”
“MS provides the LTSC & Server editions to businesses which lack all that retail cruft”
“Windows Server 2022 as my desktop OS. It works really well”
“Windows Server 2025 is somewhat better on reads but only at low parallelism.”
“Windows updates impacted the dhcp service on one server, which wasn't an obvious thing till leases started running out the following morning.”
“Its actually kind of awesome to see what they can do when they care to.”
“updates are not forcefully installed on Windows Server”
“Windows Server with AD offers incredible amount of things out of the box”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.