AmigaOS
Shares rank 24 of 87 operating systems by recommenders
Recommended for its preemptive multitasking, smart desktop design and reliability, with ideas that were ahead of their time. Caveat: critics say it fits poorly on modern hardware and high-resolution screens.
Recommended for its preemptive multitasking, smart desktop design and reliability, with ideas that were ahead of their time. Caveat: critics say it fits poorly on modern hardware and high-resolution screens.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 66%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 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.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Preemptive multitasking from the start
“a fully preemptively multitasked OS from day one”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?” “While AmigaOS was pre-emptive”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “Playing Atari ST Music on the Amiga with Zero CPU” Admired desktop UI design
“AmigaOS 2.x layed out a vision of the desktop UI as a malleable and personalizable toolbox”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “July 23 1985, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000: 10 years ahead of its time” “well executed digital desktop designs such as BeOS, AmigaOS or even Windows 2000”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “If you're a button, you have one job” “Amiga OS 2.0 was a huge improvement in that regard! It had more of a 3D look.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes” - Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI”
- Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “July 23 1985, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000: 10 years ahead of its time”
Forward-thinking consumer OS ideas
“The Amiga OS had some interesting ideas with different data types as system extensions”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “The terminal of the future” “AmigaOS was the first to bring a lot of smart ideas to a consumer platform.”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Shipping JPEG XL in Chrome” “Version 2 of the Amiga's operating system did a great thing in version 2 of AmigaOS which explicitly spelled out what conventions to apply”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Stop Making TUIs” Reliable, long uptimes
“I could trust the Amiga to write CDs without creating a coaster every time”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “July 23 1985, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000: 10 years ahead of its time” “I had uptimes of many hundred days with a regularly used Amiga machine”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Amiga-Inspired AROS Goes Bare Metal on Raspberry Pi”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor fit for modern hardware
“how HaikuOS, and AmigaOS for that matter, fail to carry over their aesthetics to a high-resolution/HiDPI world”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Haiku OS runs on M1 Macs now” “The refusal to port AmigaOS to anything but dead or near-dead architectures has always amazed me”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “The Next-Gen Mainboard Designed with AmigaOS4 and MorphOS in Mind” “I don't see the appeal of AmigaOS on modern hardware.”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “The Next-Gen Mainboard Designed with AmigaOS4 and MorphOS in Mind”
Other operating systems people recommend
The four most recommended other operating systems, 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.
See all 87 operating systems, rankedWhat people said
32 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“if this piece of hardware runs PowerPC Mac.. then Amiga OS 4.x or MorphOS and Amiga baby”
“made wonders to reduce memory fragmentation”
“AmigaOS was the first to bring a lot of smart ideas to a consumer platform.”
“a fully preemptively multitasked OS from day one”
“It doesn't hit nearly the same as using AmigaOS on the Amiga did.”
“I had uptimes of many hundred days with a regularly used Amiga machine”
“Version 2 of the Amiga's operating system did a great thing in version 2 of AmigaOS which explicitly spelled out what conventions to apply”
“it's obviously so forward thinking but as other comments state that doesn't automatically lead to uptake”
“But that doesn't seem to be what they have in mind.”
“the MEMF_PUBLIC flag didn't really do anything on the base OS”
“I could trust the Amiga to write CDs without creating a coaster every time”
“I miss multiple screens to this day”
“It's the difference between a RTOS proper (AmigaOS, QNX, BeOS)”
“the problem was/is the OS”
“One big problem is that Amiga "multi-tasking" while not co-operative like Mac or Win 3.x, can be switched off as a convenience for programmers.”
“AmigaOS was pretty late to the party with their trashcan”
“AmigaOS 2.X is still a fantastic UI and design language”
“AmigaOS 2.x layed out a vision of the desktop UI as a malleable and personalizable toolbox”
“things like ARexx, datatypes, screens, and assigns still feel hopelessly missing.”
“well executed digital desktop designs such as BeOS, AmigaOS or even Windows 2000”
“There have been some very nice OSes in the past (e.g. AmigaOS, BeOS, QNX, Plan 9)”
“how HaikuOS, and AmigaOS for that matter, fail to carry over their aesthetics to a high-resolution/HiDPI world”
“Amiga definitely had the smoothest experience.”
“While AmigaOS was pre-emptive”
“oh wow was AmigaOS 1.x fugly”
“Amiga OS 2.0 was a huge improvement in that regard! It had more of a 3D look.”
“I would rather still have Amiga OS or BeOS”
“Hyperion charge money for the OS and don't pay the developers at all”
“AmigaOS was the pinnacle of personal computing OS design.”
“I don't see the appeal of AmigaOS on modern hardware.”
“The refusal to port AmigaOS to anything but dead or near-dead architectures has always amazed me”
“The Amiga OS had some interesting ideas with different data types as system extensions”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.