Amiga Workbench
Shares rank 19 of 24 desktop environments by recommenders
People recommend it for its sharp look and for surviving sudden power loss without filesystem damage. The most common caveat is that it was cumbersome to use.
People recommend it for its sharp look and for surviving sudden power loss without filesystem damage. The most common caveat is that it was cumbersome to use.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Cumbersome and hard to use
“It was cumbersome, but just good enough to let you use the system”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows” “did you ever try and use workbench in Amiga?”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes”
Other desktop environments people recommend
The four most recommended other desktop environments, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KDE Plasma | 650 | 264 | 71% | 13 | 2 yrs79 owners | Approved |
| GNOME | 340 | 464 | 42% | 12 | 5 yrs29 owners | — |
| Xfce | 183 | 48 | 79% | 12 | 10 yrs29 owners | Approved |
| COSMIC desktop | 75 | 28 | 73% | 12 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Amiga WorkbenchThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“you could just hit the power button whenever you pleased, and the filesystem was none the worse for wear”
“It was cumbersome, but just good enough to let you use the system”
“did you ever try and use workbench in Amiga?”
“I remember being amazed at how sharp the Amiga Workbench looked”
“One of the things I miss most about the Amiga workbench is variable size icons.”
“it seems to not be open source. Too bad.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.