Why is Windows 11 so disliked by programmers – and can Microsoft do anything to change things?

Windows may be a timeless OS, and practically synonymous with modern PCs, but that doesn't mean it's well-loved by its users. In fact, the opposite might be true in some instances, according to anecdotal evidence as well as reports by publications like Windows Central.

While the development world is far from a homogeneous blob, anecdotal consensus suggests that Windows 11 is the least enjoyed mainstream platform for developers, with systems like macOS and Linux overwhelmingly preferred. But why does Windows 11 have such a bad reputation among developers, anecdotally at least?

Whether it's on internet forums, in blog posts, or in our conversations with experts, Windows 11 is often snubbed in favour of macOS or Linux, depending on the context. In fact, one of the best advantages of Windows, developers say, is the capacity to run Linux on mainstream hardware. There are, of course, some advantages to using Windows 11 for development – but what could Microsoft do to get more developers on board?

Which OS do coders and programmers really prefer?

ITPro consulted with more than a dozen programmers, engineers, and developers to understand why they use the platforms they do, and whether Microsoft has the potential to transform Windows into an attractive destination for coding.

Latest Videos From

Watch full video here:

Little research exists into which OS developers truly prefer, although Stack Overflow findings suggest that Windows is the dominant platform in which they work; nearly half (49.5%) use it over alternatives, including macOS (32.9%) and Ubuntu (27.7%), among others. But just because Windows is the "primary [OS] in which you work" — that doesn't mean it's the OS of choice, with organizations and administrators usually calling the shots more often than not.

The developers we spoke with were divided evenly between the three major systems – Windows, macOS, and Linux — with some even using all three depending on the task. However, when we asked which OS they prefer to code on, none answered Windows.

The vast majority say they preferred using macOS when coding, including Mike McQuaid, project lead of Homebrew, the open source package manager. "Apple and the wider ecosystem seem to care more about design and building high-quality applications for free or a reasonable one-off price."

What's the trouble with Windows 11?

McQuaid tells ITPro that "Microsoft’s developer experience on their platforms has never been great", with critique among those we spoke with ranging from concerns with the tools available to the notion that Microsoft is simply less easy on the eye. Where developers use Windows, it's largely because "that's the corporate choice", as Egor Danilkov, global development director at Innowise, neatly summarized it.

The OS is, however, "cumbersome", according to Nikita Kuznetsov, founder and developer of GameAP, an open-source game server management panel, and "ships with tools I don't need"; "the ones I do need have to be installed and configured manually". Some tooling is built for POSIX systems (Linux and macOS) first and is then ported to Windows, so these versions don't always behave as expected.

Many complaints center on inconsistency, with the notion that different developers on identical Windows hardware may end up with environments that behave differently. Windows is also a massive target and attracts far more malicious attention.

There's also the question of how "managed" company machines are. That's something that Jessica Kerr, engineering manager of developer relations at Honeycomb, an observability platform, can attest to.

"Companies can put more restrictions on Windows machines, and these restrictions hamper developers. As a software engineer, I install software. I run unverified, unapproved apps (for instance, when I’m writing them)," she says. "I access the file system from the command line and write scripts and run ad-hoc programs. Windows computers can be locked down, and Macs… if they can be locked down like that, I’ve never seen a company do it."

Much of the feedback around Apple's flagship OS is around the Unix-based terminal, which feels more natural to use and can be very powerful, as well as the fact that shell scripting, SSH, and command-line tooling all behave as you'd expect. Some of the positive feedback also centers around the user interface, which is universally considered intuitive, clean, and well-designed – not that Windows 11 doesn't have its fans. An additional benefit for Danilkov is the way that Apple devices work so well together.

Windows has its problems – but is the criticism unfair?

Danilkov describes some of the criticism as "outdated", suggesting Windows 11 is "leaps and bounds better" than its predecessors and that "many reactions to Windows are based on a version of the platform used years ago". This is an idea that Jitesh Keswani, managing director at e intelligence, a digital marketing agency, expands on.

"In the past, developers found it difficult to get their development environments up and running," he explains. "This typically involved a plethora of command-line tools. In addition, many of the development environments set up on a developer’s Windows desktops would not work in the same way on the Linux-based production servers that they were deployed to. This is a legacy problem that Windows still has to overcome."

Windows does have its advantages – and that primarily comes in the form of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which lets developers run full Linux environments directly on Windows 11 platforms without the need for a dual-boot setup or virtual machine (VM). Dwellwell Analytics' data science engineer, Olga Kuzmich, humorously quips: "The best feature for developers on Windows is the one that lets you run Linux."

This system repeatedly came up in our conversations. Many of the compatibility issues simply aren't relevant anymore thanks to this platform. It also means developers can run Windows applications, Linux tools, Docker containers, and more, all on the same machine. The next iteration, WSL3, is also getting a major upgrade, with new features such as the ability to take full advantage of your machine's GPU and NPU without a "performance tax".

The other advantages come in the form of Visual Studio, which Danilkov and Taimur Ijlal, information security leader at Proxy Coupons, UK, both describe as one of the strongest Integrated development environments (IDEs) available. Ijlal also describes Windows Terminal as "top shelf". The advantages of coding on Windows also extend to certain development platforms. As Jiří Fabián, co-CEO & founder of TopMonks, put it: "I would choose Windows only if I were a .NET developer working on Windows desktop applications or a game developer."

Giving Windows a new lease of life for coding and programming

With so much hesitation and opposition to using Windows as a system for coding, barring the ability to run WSL, is there anything that Microsoft can do to tempt the developers that ITPro spoke with?

There isn't a clean fix, says Omari Wright, web development manager at digital marketing agency seoplus+. "A lot of what makes macOS work well for development teams is structural, and changing it would mean Microsoft moving away from the openness that Windows users value," he says, adding that the tech giant could push harder on WSL and "make it feel less like a workaround and more like a first-class development path".

Nothing, however, would pull Kuzmich back. "Linux is just too natural now, and I think a lot of developers feel the same. That's exactly why, in my opinion, Microsoft had to ship WSL in the first place, and this is very telling."

Doubling down on WSL and improving this as a feature is where the majority of developers we spoke with centered their feedback around. Microsoft could make the remaining gaps between Windows and Linux file systems less noticeable, for example, and improve performance when working with larger repositories, containers, and some tools.

Keswani also suggests that Microsoft should push Windows as close as possible to a native Linux environment without sacrificing the user-friendly elements. This focus on user-friendliness is great "for end-users who don't need to know much about what's going on under the hood," Fabián adds, but to win more developers over, "Microsoft would need to base the core of Windows on Unix, which will never happen".

He continues: "With the rise of AI and heavier terminal usage, I need all core Unix utilities bundled with the system, without having to install and maintain them myself — tools for file manipulation, SSH, search, and so on."

McQuaid, meanwhile, centers his criticism on the direction that Microsoft has been taking Windows in the last few years, lamenting: "Stop trying to overrule my preferences on how to use my computer". He tells ITPro: "I use Edge and Bing there now just because they keep overruling or pressing me to change my defaults.

"There are ads (or what feels like ads) and upselling all over the OS. It’s gross and feels bargain-basement compared to Apple. I'd love to see Microsoft make Windows feel like “spammy” and more of a cohesive, overall pleasant developer experience."

There are various reasons why developers prefer other systems over Windows 11, macOS especially, with the main benefit of Microsoft's flagship OS, according to the programmers that we interviewed, being the fact that it lets you run Linux and bypass Windows entirely.

Nobody, Microsoft included, would describe Windows 11 as perfect, hence why there's such an active Insider program with updates shipped frequently and continuously. There are some unrealistic demands on developers' wish list, like making Windows Unix-based, but more realistic seems to be giving WSL more love – making it streamlined, more functional, and more powerful so that developers feel more supported by their devices at work.