# Pharo

21 Hacker News commenters recommended Pharo and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source Smalltalk environment that people praise for live modification and tooling, with the most common caveat being a dated-looking interface and a flat package browser.

## Why people recommend it

- Free and open source (2 comments): "pharo nowadays which is free, opensource and under active development" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49981370)) "There is Pharo (and Squeak) as a free SmallTalk." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49981868))
- Good for experimenting with ideas (2 comments): "Smalltalk environments such as Squeak and Pharo appear to be great environments to play around with such ideas" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46664241)) "Smalltalk seems like the most promising platform for implementing it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48770248))
- Actively developed, improving releases (3 comments): "order of magnitudes better than say, Pharo 9-- in every way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50256553)) "pharo nowadays which is free, opensource and under active development" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49981370)) "continue to make advances and new releases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245023))
- Runs well, good display support (2 comments): "It could use some UI improvements, but it runs much better than other apps I've tried" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105912)) "moved to Pharo to get better high resolution display support" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49256744))

## What people warn about

- Looks dated, needs UI work (4 comments): "Smalltalk/Squeak/Pharo was supposed to be the future, but it feels like an IDE stuck in the 90's." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49244193)) "It could use some UI improvements, but it runs much better than other apps I've tried" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105912)) "They should add more soul, and make the next one look like it's from 2003!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50246963))
- Seems impractical for everyday work (2 comments): "I could never make myself like Pharo (or Smalltalk). Yes, it's interesting and exotic, but it never seemed really practical." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46258055)) "for many things pharo/squeak are really shitty runtimes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46448056))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Squeak Smalltalk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/squeak.md): 25 recommend
- [Cuis Smalltalk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cuis-smalltalk.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

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