u/That-Confection-9035

Hey guys,

If you are looking for a modern, lightweight, completely open-source alternative to heavy PDF readers or web browsers to view your files, I just published a native Windows port of **GNOME Papers**.

It supports single and multiple-page document formats including **PDF, Comic Book Archives (CBR), DjVu, and TIFF**.

https://preview.redd.it/txe5h7l14ebh1.png?width=1155&format=png&auto=webp&s=6744c1054edadc5da3eb5e8ba6e5083dd6330c9e

### Why use it?

* **Zero Bloat:** No telemetry, no cloud subscriptions, no tracking.

* **Native Speed:** Built using C and Rust, running directly on the Universal C Runtime (UCRT64).

* **Modern UI:** Uses the clean, dark-mode-supporting interface adapted from the Linux desktop ecosystem.

*Note: Since it relies on a variety of underlying open-source rendering libraries, the project currently provides an automated PowerShell script to pull the environment together, as well as a pre-compiled release.*

Check out the project here: https://github.com/harshmishrahm01/papers-for-windows

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, I love the clean design language of GNOME, but I have to use a Windows machine for specific tasks (dual-booting/gaming/work). I got tired of using heavy, tracking-laden web-based readers or outdated PDF viewers on Windows, so I decided to port the new **GNOME Papers** natively.

https://preview.redd.it/quh1tf363ebh1.png?width=1155&format=png&auto=webp&s=82655a570fe25e1788e174e7c48bf2d64ef992fb

https://preview.redd.it/j3kr69183ebh1.png?width=1162&format=png&auto=webp&s=67f492b44946e675f22241c615d9fe6700f98bfe

This isn't running in WSL; it’s a native Windows port using MSYS2 and the UCRT64 toolchain.

### What’s working:

* Full native rendering of PDFs, and TIFF. DjVu and CBR need work

* Complete Libadwaita/GTK4 interface rendering beautifully on Windows 11.

* Rust shell execution fallback via `std::process::Command`.

### Key Porting Adjustments:

* **Win32 PAL:** Extracted platform-dependent GUI and rendering functions into `libview/pps-platform-win32.c` to swap out Unix coordinate mapping.

* **POSIX Gating:** Gated Unix-specific file descriptor operations (`fcntl`/`F_DUPFD_CLOEXEC`) behind `#ifndef G_OS_WIN32` blocks.

* **Rust Shell:** Replaced Unix-only `glib::spawn_command_line_async` in the shell execution path.

The repository includes a detailed README and an automated PowerShell setup script to pull down the required compiler toolchains and library dependencies (like `poppler-glib` and `libadwaita`).

I’ve also published a working release for those who want to try it out. I'd love to get feedback from other GNOME users who spend time on Windows!

**Repository:** https://github.com/harshmishrahm01/papers-for-windows

Apple is known to be one the few companies that actually care about user experience after google, unlike microsoft and more - Apple's ui is it's signature and one of the most optimized User interfaces in it's application and os ecosystem, although it get's almost unusable on the only cross platform application by apple: Apple Music,
I use apple music because i have an IEM but services like tidal are unavailable in indian subcontinent, i use apple music on my mac mini, android phone and my gaming laptop, the best experience of apple music is with the mac mini ofc because Apple HIG is designed to work for apple's own ecosystem, but it should not be so hard to run on other operating systems (specially windows, as gamers are directly dependent on windows, i'm not asking it to be ported to linux - ofcourse apple would never port or create an app for linux) that it becomes unusable, as much as i like dolby atmos+192Khz ALAC from apple music, i'll immidiately switch to anything else that can give me something close to this in sound quality in my region.

My point is that apple music on windows is a dark spot on the apple's almost perfect design

https://preview.redd.it/co864rjii4zg1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a8cb90d0a333b50fc21c10bbc4b06c4691dea2b