# Windows 1287 Hacker News commenters recommended Windows and 3582 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (192 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for running the software and games people depend on, day-to-day stability and solid underlying engineering, but critics widely object to Windows 11's ads, telemetry, forced accounts and UI regressions. ## Why people recommend it - Runs professional software and games (4 comments): "Windows really does suck from a UX perspective, but if you are trying to make money doing things professionally with a computer, it's hard to beat." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500794)) "On the exact same box running Windows I was able to have VS Code, Chrome with 15+ tabs, terminals, docker, etc. all running with zero issues." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349425)) "The absolute only reason I installed windows on the home machine is because gaming is still essentially nonexistent in the Linux sphere." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571722)) - Stable, things just work (4 comments): "no Linux distribution ... comes close to Windows in terms of stability and cohesion when managing windows, even though Windows still has a lot of room for improvement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48246437)) "Yeah this is why I stick with Windows. Unlike it seems a lot of people on HN I don't really see any issues with it that would want to make me move away" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47718383)) "Things are very occasionally annoying right now when a new update enables some new idiotic thing but 99.9% of the time things just work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579995)) - Strong kernel, APIs and security (4 comments): "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" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46567994)) "It is handicapped by explicit anti-consumer decisions shoving things users don't want into it, but the kernel is hands down better than Linux's kernel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48144087)) "Windows 11 still ships with the installer from Vista." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958638)) - Large ecosystem and support network (2 comments): "Windows is a better choice for most people and most organizations because the Windows ecosystem has lots of documentation, training, system integrators, and consultants." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47132845)) "I am giving props to Microsoft because it did wrangle an industry together to standardize where one company makes the operating system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847106)) ## What people warn about - Ads, telemetry and enshittification (5 comments): "It had very strong functions for office work and stock trading, but the only drawback was that there were many advertisements and vulnerabilities." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49839331)) "Windows 7 was definitely lauded as decent contemporaneously." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46624708)) "If it wasn’t for the forced cloud integration, forced AI and other user-hostile behaviour, Windows 11 would actually be quite a nice OS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920597)) - Forced Microsoft account, dark patterns (3 comments): "Be warned that they employ extreme amounts of dark patterns to try and trick you into converting the offline account into an online one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480472)) "If it wasn’t for the forced cloud integration, forced AI and other user-hostile behaviour, Windows 11 would actually be quite a nice OS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920597)) "I have a perfectly useable machine but since I'm unable to login due to vague Microsoft nonsense and there doesn't seem to be a way to fix it I need to reinstall." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47997879)) - Inconsistent UI and regressions (4 comments): "Windows 10 reversed a lot of the controversial UI changes from Windows 8, but the mouse/keyboard UX was still largely a regression from Windows 7" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50282190)) "Windows 10 was reasonable in terms of how it worked, it was also butt-ugly, but now you couldn't do much of anything to customize it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589848)) "Why accept mediocrity when Microsoft has shown to be capable of producing something better than their current iteration of Windows?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996556)) - Buggy updates and bad software (4 comments): "Windows update broke hibernate few weeks back. When laptop gets out of hibernate - Wifi works for a few minutes and then once in a while the Wifi Adapter isn't detected." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49074086)) "it happened due to what is for all intents and purposes bitrot: It breaks during regular use due to small compounding errors that happen due to bad software design" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49738217)) "Month after month I read this stuff (along with the seemingly neverending gaming issues with MPO?) and think, yep, I will stay off Win 11 as long as I can" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46780782)) ## Alternatives hackers 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 - [ChromeOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chromeos.md): 91 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Microsoft+Windows+11+Home&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Windows", https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).