Best of Microsoft — 2025
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It's Foss·23w
Denmark Begins Its Exit from Microsoft — and This Is Just the Start
Denmark's Road Traffic Authority is piloting SIA Open, a government initiative to replace Microsoft Windows and Office applications with open source alternatives. The agency cites data sovereignty and avoiding vendor lock-in as key motivations. This pilot involves a portion of their 600 employees, with plans to expand to 15,000 government users across multiple state agencies. The specific open source alternatives haven't been disclosed yet.
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Hacker News·48w
microsoft/edit: We all edit.
Microsoft has released Edit, a simple terminal-based text editor written in Rust that pays homage to the classic MS-DOS Editor while incorporating modern interface elements similar to VS Code. The editor aims to be accessible to users unfamiliar with terminals and can be installed via WinGet on Windows or built from source using Rust's nightly toolchain. The project includes detailed build instructions and configuration options for package maintainers, particularly regarding ICU library dependencies for search and replace functionality.
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Linus Torvalds Defends Windows' Blue Screen of Death
Linus Torvalds suggests that Windows' Blue Screen of Death errors are often caused by unreliable hardware rather than software bugs. He emphasizes that ECC (Error Correction Code) memory makes systems more reliable, and believes memory issues and hardware problems, especially in overclocked gaming systems, are frequently responsible for system crashes that users attribute to Windows instability.
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The Register·25w
Zig quits GitHub, gripes about Microsoft's AI obsession
The Zig Software Foundation is migrating from GitHub to Codeberg, citing declining engineering quality and neglected critical bugs in GitHub Actions. A CPU-spinning bug in GitHub's safe_sleep script went unaddressed for years despite being reported multiple times, causing CI runners to hang indefinitely. Zig's president criticized Microsoft's AI focus as distracting from core platform maintenance, pointing to what he calls 'vibe-scheduling' where jobs run seemingly at random. The move reflects broader developer concerns about GitHub's priorities, with Codeberg doubling its membership since January as other projects also consider leaving.
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Visual Studio Blog·37w
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here!
Microsoft announces Visual Studio 2026 Insiders, featuring deeply integrated AI capabilities, significant performance improvements for enterprise-scale development, and a modern UI redesign using Fluent UI. The release introduces the new Insiders Channel replacing the Preview Channel, includes GitHub Copilot Free integration, and promises faster solution loading, building, and debugging across both x64 and Arm64 architectures. The IDE now offers enhanced code understanding, automated testing suggestions, performance profiling with AI-powered fixes, and 11 new color themes.
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Coding with Lewis·23w
Atom: The Editor That Accidentally Built Its Own Killer
Atom was a revolutionary open-source code editor built on web technologies that pioneered the Electron framework. Created by GitHub's Chris Wanstrath in 2015, Atom democratized code editor customization using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, Electron's architecture caused performance issues. Microsoft leveraged the same Electron framework to build Visual Studio Code, which proved significantly faster through better optimization. After Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018, Atom development stalled despite promises of continued support. The editor was officially sunset in 2022, but its legacy lives on—Electron now powers billions of daily interactions in applications like Slack, Discord, and VS Code itself.
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Theo - t3․gg·40wThings aren’t looking good for GitHub…
GitHub's CEO Thomas Dohmke has stepped down, and the platform is now being integrated directly into Microsoft's Core AI organization, ending its independent operation. This shift raises concerns about GitHub's future direction, as Microsoft appears to be prioritizing AI features over core platform improvements. The author argues that GitHub has been coasting on legacy sentiment while competitors like Graphite offer better developer experiences. With GitHub now reporting to an AI-focused team, there are worries that non-AI features will be deprioritized, and the platform may not be well-positioned for the future of AI-assisted development.
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ThePrimeTime·24wGithub continues to Downfall
GitHub Actions has suffered from critical bugs for years, including a poorly implemented sleep function that causes infinite loops, consuming entire CPUs and costing users thousands of dollars. A simple fix submitted in 2024 took over a year to merge despite the bug causing CI jobs to hang indefinitely. The codebase shows questionable engineering decisions, from using ping commands as sleep alternatives to busy-wait loops that waste compute resources. These neglected issues have led projects like Zig to abandon GitHub entirely for alternative platforms.
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DevBlogs·32w
PowerToys 0.95 is here: new Light Switch utility, faster Command Palette, and Peek with Spacebar
PowerToys 0.95 introduces Light Switch, a new utility for automatic light/dark mode switching based on time or location. Command Palette receives major performance improvements with a new fuzzy matcher, reducing search times by up to 95% in some cases. Peek now opens with the spacebar by default, Find My Mouse supports transparency, and shortcut conflicts can be ignored or unassigned. Additional updates include Mouse Pointer Crosshairs customization, DSC v3 support, and ZoomIt smooth zooming.
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Docker·1y
New Docker Extension for Visual Studio Code
Docker and Microsoft have launched a new, open-source Docker Language Server and Docker DX VS Code extension. This integration improves Dockerfile linting, provides inline image vulnerability checks, supports Docker Bake files, and includes an outline view for Docker Compose files. The extension is designed to speed up development by offering real-time feedback and suggestions, enhancing the developer workflow in Visual Studio Code.
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Announcing WinUI Gallery 2.7
WinUI Gallery 2.7 introduces sample history and favorites functionality, new samples for TitleBar and ThemeShadow controls, upgraded StoragePicker APIs with Windows App SDK 1.8, fresh typography and button styles, and over 100 community-driven improvements including accessibility fixes and UI polish.
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Lobsters·35wDon't even consider starting with Microsoft
A software developer compares Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace after switching companies, highlighting numerous UX issues and architectural problems. Key complaints include Outlook's email-based meeting system, the confusing SharePoint/OneDrive relationship, overlapping functionality across apps, and limitations with group management. The author argues Microsoft's products suffer from legacy baggage and poor integration between old and new systems, making them unnecessarily complex compared to Google's cloud-native approach.
- 14Theo - t3․gg·23w
The Github Tax (I can't believe they actually did this...)
GitHub announced a new fee structure charging 0.008 cents per minute for using self-hosted runners with GitHub Actions, even when compute runs on third-party platforms like Blacksmith or Depot. This pricing change affects all self-hosted runners and has sparked widespread criticism from developers who view it as penalizing users for choosing alternatives to GitHub's infrastructure. The fee applies regardless of whether jobs run for seconds or minutes, and critics argue GitHub is extracting revenue from an ecosystem while failing to invest in improving Actions' performance, reliability, and observability. The change has intensified concerns about GitHub's direction under Microsoft ownership and lack of clear leadership.
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The European Union Linux desktop
European governments are increasingly moving away from Microsoft Windows and Office to Linux-based alternatives, driven by concerns over digital sovereignty and data privacy. Denmark, Germany's Schleswig-Holstein, and French cities are leading this transition, citing worries about US political influence over American tech companies and the need to maintain control over government data. The shift is accelerated by Microsoft's push toward cloud subscriptions and recent incidents involving service disruptions to international organizations under US sanctions.
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PowerToys 0.93 is here: faster Command Palette, new dashboard UX and more
PowerToys 0.93 introduces significant performance improvements through AOT compilation, reducing startup memory by 15%, load time by 40%, and installation size by 55%. The release features a redesigned Settings dashboard with clearer utility toggles and shortcuts, a new Spotlight mode for Mouse Highlighter that dims the entire screen except around the cursor, and enhanced Command Palette functionality including restored clipboard history and app pinning capabilities.
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Microsoft promises to make WinUI 'truly open source'
Microsoft announced plans to make WinUI, their modern Windows UI framework, fully open source after years of developer frustration over slow progress and bugs. The transition will happen in four phases, starting with more frequent code mirroring to GitHub and eventually making it the primary repository. However, the timeline remains unclear due to dependencies on proprietary Windows components. Developers remain skeptical about Microsoft's commitment, citing years of stagnation and questioning whether sufficient resources will be allocated to improve the framework.
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The Verge·1y
Microsoft reveals its rejected Start menu redesigns
Microsoft has revealed several concept designs for the Windows 11 Start menu, showcasing alternative layouts that were considered before finalizing the new design. Key features include greater customizability and the option to disable the recommended feed, enhancing user accessibility and personalization. The redesign process involved testing with more than 300 users, using eye-tracking and feedback to refine the design, which is currently being tested with Windows Insiders.
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InfoWorld·1y
The programming language wars
Programming language wars often involve heated debates about which language is superior. Nick Hodges reflects on the historical rivalry between Delphi and Visual Basic and notes that while such disputes are common today, a definitive answer on the best language is elusive. He emphasizes the importance of choosing a language that works best for an individual's needs and dismisses the notion of a universally superior language.
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Microsoft’s new Windows 11 Start menu is bigger and fixes a major pain point
Microsoft is redesigning the Windows 11 Start menu, making it larger and more customizable. The updated menu allows users to disable the recommended feed of files and apps, pin more apps, and access all apps on a single scrollable page. This new design is being tested in the 24H2 builds and has been backported to 23H2 versions, suggesting a wider release soon.
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Fireship·1yMicrosoft goes nuclear on TypeScript codebase…
Microsoft has announced a complete rewrite of the TypeScript compiler in the Go programming language, aiming for significant performance improvements. The decision to switch to Go is rooted in its compiled nature, automatic memory management, and portability. The new compiler is already showing a 10x speed increase, but it will take time for developers to see these benefits as the rewrite will be completed for TypeScript 7.
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Collections·41wGitHub's Transition Under Microsoft's AI Strategy
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke is stepping down by end of 2025, with GitHub being integrated into Microsoft's CoreAI division instead of getting a new CEO. This strategic shift positions GitHub as a central component of Microsoft's AI ambitions, particularly around GitHub Copilot which serves over 20 million developers. The reorganization raises questions about GitHub's future autonomy and its role in the open-source community as it becomes more tightly integrated with Microsoft's AI strategy.
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Microsoft is not rewriting Windows in Rust
Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Galen Hunt clarified that his LinkedIn post about eliminating C and C++ code by 2030 was a personal research goal, not a corporate strategy. His team is developing AI-powered tools to automate code translation between languages at scale, aiming for "1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code." The research project uses Rust as a demonstration target but isn't specifically focused on rewriting Windows. While pressure exists to adopt memory-safe languages due to security vulnerabilities, research shows AI-generated code typically contains more issues than human-written code.
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OpenAPI.NET: The Biggest Update Ever
Microsoft released OpenAPI.NET v2 and v3, the library's biggest updates since 2018. Version 2 adds OpenAPI 3.1 support with 50% faster parsing and 35% less memory usage through System.Text.Json integration. Version 3 introduces OpenAPI 3.2 support with enhanced media types, hierarchical tags, and extended parameter options. These updates impact major .NET tools like Swashbuckle, NSwag, and ASP.NET Core's native OpenAPI support in .NET 10.
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Awesome·21w
One MILLION lines of code every month
Microsoft posted a job seeking an engineer to output 1 million lines of code monthly using AI to replace C/C++ with Rust by 2030. This represents a problematic industry trend of measuring software quality by lines of code rather than actual value. The expectation that one person could meaningfully review 65 lines per minute is unrealistic. Industry leaders are promoting AI-assisted junior developers over experienced seniors for cost savings, despite evidence that many companies laying off workers end up increasing expenses and rehiring later. The push treats software development as industrialized manufacturing rather than skilled problem-solving work.
