Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Windows for all the terrible imposed by the business is actually pretty nice.

* Active Directory / Group Policy has no equal to the point where FreeIPA and sssd threw in the towel and supplement AD and support group policies directly.

* RDP is the better technology full stop. X forwarding is really cool and VNC is… there but RDP got the abstraction right.

* SMB for all its warts is better at file sharing than anything that Linux has to offer and FUSE, while great, is a band-aid over the wrong permission model— why Linux does mounting a filesystem have security implications? Why after 30 years do we still pretend the filesystem is reliable and paper over the reality that it isn't.

* NTFS got the permission model right where for the most part Linux is still clunking along with chmod. You don't have to deal with user ids sharing a single global namespace. Directories only being able to be owned by one group. NFSv4 even adopted NT ACLs wholesale as well as NT's identity model.

* Windows has undergone truly heroic efforts to make remote home directories work where Linux you will never stop dealing with issues.

I think the, deserved, Microsoft hate has blinded folks a bit to the good things Windows has going for it. I know, tragic, the worst person had some good ideas.



Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: