Microsoft is open sourcing Windows 11's UI framework

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Perception of Microsoft's UI Strategy

  • Many see Windows UI as a decades‑long mess of overlapping, half-finished frameworks (WinForms, WPF, UWP, WinRT, WinUI, etc.) with no stable “winner.”
  • Repeated rewrites and resets (Win8 → 8.1 → 10 → Project Reunion → WinUI 3) have eroded trust; people expect this framework to be abandoned too.
  • Some note Microsoft rarely “eats its own dogfood”: internal apps often use controls/tech not available or not properly supported for external devs.

WinUI3 and Open-Sourcing Motives

  • Several commenters say WinUI3 is effectively already dead, and this move looks like cost-cutting and “open outsourcing” rather than renewed investment.
  • Language in Microsoft’s announcement about “alignment with business priorities” is widely read as: minimal resources, security fixes only, community is on its own.
  • Skepticism that open-sourcing will fix design-level flaws (e.g., performance, missing features, dependency model).

Developer Experience and Technical Issues

  • Reports of poor DX: needing to “install” apps to debug, heavy deployment sizes (hello world ~150MB), unstable sample apps.
  • Some argue WinUI 3 apps can be unpackaged and small, but it’s not the happy path and tooling is clumsy.
  • Specific issues: performance problems vs WPF, DependencyProperty implemented in native code causing overhead for .NET, lack of feature parity with UWP/older stacks.

Native vs Web-Based UI on Windows

  • Strong resentment toward Windows 11’s growing use of WebView2 (e.g., new Mail/Calendar, some Start menu parts), seen as laggy and unresponsive.
  • Debate over whether the Start menu is fully React Native or only embeds a React Native widget; consensus in-thread: only a section is.
  • Broader feeling that “native UI is dying” on Windows, with HTML/CSS/JS (Electron, PWAs) winning despite bloat.

Alternatives and What Developers Actually Use

  • Many stick with Win32, MFC, WTL, or WPF for serious line‑of‑business apps; WinForms remains popular for quick tools.
  • Third‑party vendors’ weak investment in WinUI controls is cited as a market signal that WinUI isn’t viable.
  • Cross‑platform toolkits (Qt, wxWidgets, Avalonia, Uno) are often preferred, despite their own tradeoffs.

Windows UX Coherence and Product Direction

  • Users complain that Windows 11 combines UI from the 1990s to today, with inconsistent dialogs, Control Panel vs Settings split, and regressed features (taskbar flexibility, quick launch).
  • Some see this open-sourcing as yet another sign that Microsoft’s focus and money are moving to Azure/AI, with Windows becoming a lower‑priority legacy platform.