Genuine question, especially here on HN. Why would a developer use Windows in 2026?

I even develop windows apps. On Linux, built on GitHub actions.

If I had windows forced on me for corp reasons, like I did once, just full screen a VM

> If I had windows forced on me for corp reasons, like I did once, just full screen a VM

Ah, the naivete of the innocent. You are vastly underestimating the amount of spyware like Crapstrike Falcon that the IT department will force on you. And you think that shit runs on a VM?

Consider yourself lucky that you don't suffer Windows at work. I have only a single thought for all Microsoft software: death.

Because the IT department makes them. Windows (and Mac) have an abundance of turn-key MDM solutions. I did the research to avoid having to use Windows at a previous employer, and there weren't many options (and specifically _any_ that covered 100% of what they wanted).

Game development, all those desktop applications that 70% of the market happens to use?

Additionally some of us really enjoy Visual Studio with the .NET ecosystem, the C++ tooling able to do hot reloading, REPL, debug release binaries?

Powershell based tooling.

If you're developing for Windows you should definitely develop on Windows so you can dogfood what your users experience. You don't have to do everything else on Windows.

> Why would a developer use Windows in 2026?

To have somewhat working desktop OS with access to one of the most powerful dev environments in a form of Visual Studio?

Developing apps for platform you are not using is just pointless exercise in frustrating your users. If app fails on Windows, how are you going to support your users? You don't have Windows, so you are unable to replicate the error at a first place.