# GentleOS Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/gentleos/ 9 people recommended GentleOS in Hacker News comments and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 12 months, in 1 thread. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. 9 of the 9 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “GentleOS – Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI”. **Verdict:** People recommend GentleOS for its clean, readable C code and its lovely retro look on vintage 32-bit and 16-bit PCs. Summary written by Claude from 10 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 9 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Clean, readable C code (2 comments in the sample): "The code is cleaner that what I was expecting from a C repo." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461193)) "the code is so clean my dumb ass can understand it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48460096)) - Simple OS for retro x86 (1 comment in the sample): "Love the photos of it running on 386/486 laptops. So cute!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461691)) - Lovely retro look (1 comment in the sample): "What a lovely-looking OS!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461041)) ## Other operating systems people recommend - [Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux/): 597 recommend, 106 mixed, 243 criticize - [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows/): 537 recommend, 415 mixed, 3187 criticize - [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos/): 521 recommend, 333 mixed, 1695 criticize - [FreeBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freebsd/): 243 recommend, 65 mixed, 73 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "GentleOS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/gentleos/ (9 recommend, 0 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.