Best of Windows — December 2025

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    Article
    Avatar of itsfossIt's Foss·17w

    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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    Article
    Avatar of itsfossIt's Foss·19w

    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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    Article
    Avatar of phoronixPhoronix·15w

    Unexpected Surprise: Windows 11 Outperforming Linux On An Intel Arrow Lake H Laptop

    Benchmark testing on a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 with Intel Arrow Lake H processor reveals Windows 11 outperforming Ubuntu Linux in multiple workloads, contradicting years of consistent results showing Linux performance advantages. The unexpected findings persisted across different kernel versions and power management configurations, with Lenovo and Intel teams confirming the hardware is working as expected. This marks a potential shift in the traditional Windows vs. Linux performance landscape, though it's unclear if this is isolated to this specific laptop model or represents a broader trend with newer hardware.

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    Video
    Avatar of linuxcastThe Linux Cast·18w

    This is NOT The Year of the Linux Desktop

    Linux is experiencing renewed interest as Windows 10 reaches end-of-life and Windows 11 hardware restrictions push users to consider alternatives. However, the same fundamental barriers that have historically prevented mainstream Linux adoption remain: driver issues (especially Nvidia), software availability gaps (Adobe, Microsoft Office), distribution fragmentation, and installation complexity. While some growth is expected, particularly from motivated users fleeing Windows limitations, the structural challenges inherent to open-source software make a dramatic shift to mainstream adoption unlikely. A modest 2% market share increase would represent significant progress, but the "year of the Linux desktop" remains an unrealistic expectation.

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    Article
    Avatar of duckdbDuckDB·18w

    Announcing DuckDB 1.4.3 LTS

    DuckDB 1.4.3 LTS is now available with important bugfixes addressing correctness issues in HAVING clauses, JOIN operations, and indexed table updates. The release introduces beta support for Windows ARM64, including native extension distribution and Python wheels via PyPI. Benchmarks on TPC-H SF100 show 24% performance improvement for native ARM64 compared to emulated AMD64 on Snapdragon-based systems. Additional fixes include race condition crashes, memory management improvements during WAL replay, and various edge cases in Unicode handling and Parquet exports.

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    Video
    Avatar of techlinkedTechLinked·19w

    Microsoft, Please Stop.

    Windows 11 users face bugs including invisible login buttons and slower File Explorer performance despite updates. Amazon and Google launched a service simplifying multi-cloud connectivity between AWS and Google Cloud. OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT conversations, while a study found 21% of AI research peer reviews were likely AI-generated. Hardware news includes the IO X2 gaming handheld with AMD Ryzen AI Max Plus chip, AMD's accidentally leaked Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor, and Netflix removing casting support from newer Chromecast devices. India mandates pre-installed government security app on all smartphones, and Japan unveils a $385,000 human washing machine capsule.

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    Video
    Avatar of youtubeYouTube·17w

    I’ve Had Enough of Windows - Switching to Linux

    A frustrated Windows user documents their switch to Linux Mint after growing tired of Windows 11's ads, forced updates, privacy concerns, and invasive features like Copilot. The author walks through installing Pop OS (which had issues) and then Linux Mint, testing hardware compatibility, gaming performance, and daily workflows. While they still need Windows for Adobe Premiere editing and certain anti-cheat-protected games, Linux Mint handles their primary tasks—browsing, writing, casual gaming—better than Windows. The experience highlights Linux's speed, cleanliness, and respect for user control, making it their new main OS despite keeping Windows for specific use cases.

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    Article
    Avatar of nickjanetakisNick Janetakis·15w

    Productivity Environment on Windows with WSL 2 and Docker — Nick Janetakis

    A comprehensive walkthrough of a Windows-based development environment that combines WSL 2 for Linux tooling with native Windows applications. The setup includes terminal configuration with Tmux and Neovim, Docker Desktop integration, productivity tools like AutoHotKey for hotkeys and Dexpot for virtual desktops, and various utilities for screenshots, clipboard management, image/video editing, and system monitoring. The workflow demonstrates how to effectively balance Linux development tools through WSL 2 with Windows native applications for a complete productivity setup.

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