NextSpace
Shares rank 23 of 24 desktop environments by recommenders
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.
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.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not 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: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Good overall, promising and maturing
“It seems more focused on the retro aesthetic, which I personally don’t love, but it’s still really nice to see.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “KDE at 30” “Slightly more mature but Stoian's been distracted recently”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Gershwin-desktop: OS X-like Desktop Environment based on GNUStep” “it needs some polishing but it's good”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Breaks on FreeBSD
“a lot of things do not work with a lot of modifications on FreeBSD for example and I found the build systems unexpectedly difficult”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Gershwin-desktop: OS X-like Desktop Environment based on GNUStep” “a lot of things do not work with a lot of modifications on FreeBSD”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Gershwin-desktop: OS X-like Desktop Environment based on GNUStep”
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 |
| NextSpaceThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it needs some polishing but it's good”
“It seems more focused on the retro aesthetic, which I personally don’t love, but it’s still really nice to see.”
“I think it's the closest thing to that dream today.”
“I wish projects like nextspace could get more love.”
“a lot of things do not work with a lot of modifications on FreeBSD”
“a lot of things do not work with a lot of modifications on FreeBSD for example and I found the build systems unexpectedly difficult”
“Slightly more mature but Stoian's been distracted recently”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.