GentleOS
Shares rank 51 of 87 operating systems by recommenders
People recommend GentleOS for its clean, readable C code and its lovely retro look on vintage 32-bit and 16-bit PCs.
People recommend GentleOS for its clean, readable C code and its lovely retro look on vintage 32-bit and 16-bit PCs.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Clean, readable C code
“The code is cleaner that what I was expecting from a C repo.”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “GentleOS – Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI” “the code is so clean my dumb ass can understand it”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “GentleOS – Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI” Simple OS for retro x86
“A simple OS for retro x86 hardware is a really cool project!”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: GentleOS – A pair of hobby OSes for vintage 32-bit and 16-bit PCs” “Love the photos of it running on 386/486 laptops. So cute!”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “GentleOS – Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI” Lovely retro look
“Love the photos of it running on 386/486 laptops. So cute!”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “GentleOS – Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI” “What a lovely-looking OS!”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “GentleOS – Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI”
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
10 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“A simple OS for retro x86 hardware is a really cool project!”
“Am I crazy or are the "photos" generated?”
“Love the photos of it running on 386/486 laptops. So cute!”
“Now I feel like integrating that into various things....”
“The code is cleaner that what I was expecting from a C repo.”
“What a lovely-looking OS!”
“More like a Win 3.1 theme with BeOS colors and a NeXT desktop.”
“the floppy does not boot on this machine. Just a black screen.”
“the code is so clean my dumb ass can understand it”
“Nice to see a platform target stability instead of constantly reinventing itself and its APIs.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.