# NextSpace

5 Hacker News commenters recommended NextSpace and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a free, retro-styled desktop environment close to what some people want. Common caveat: it needs polishing and some things break on FreeBSD.

## Why people recommend it

- Good overall, promising and maturing (3 comments): "It seems more focused on the retro aesthetic, which I personally don’t love, but it’s still really nice to see." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359962)) "Slightly more mature but Stoian's been distracted recently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46493063)) "it needs some polishing but it's good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49830058))

## What people warn about

- Breaks on FreeBSD (2 comments): "a lot of things do not work with a lot of modifications on FreeBSD for example and I found the build systems unexpectedly difficult" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46493739)) "a lot of things do not work with a lot of modifications on FreeBSD" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526428))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [LXQt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lxqt.md): 15 recommend
- [Windows 8 Desktop Environment for Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-8-desktop-environment-for-linux.md): 13 recommend
- [NsCDE](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nscde.md): 7 recommend
- [DMS (DankMaterialShell)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dms.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "NextSpace", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nextspace/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).