# QNX Photon microGUI

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/photon/

19 people recommended QNX Photon microGUI in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 12 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Photon as a lightweight, responsive GUI with a well-liked look, and see it as the best part of QNX.

Summary written by Claude from the comments below.

## Why people recommend it

- Lovely look and feel (6 comments in the sample): "Photon just looked and felt so lovely and came with a visual C++ builder making GUI apps development so nice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46403110)) "photon seems to have a special place in people's hearts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402629)) "One of my favourite GUIs, closely tied with CDE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398645))
- Admired as QNX's signature design (4 comments in the sample): "Only things I've seen that achieved something similar were QNX/Photon" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48124884)) "Porting it to the modern QNX and other systems would be great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654755)) "that's half of what made QNX so great back in the day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48642068))
- Lightweight and responsive multitasking (3 comments in the sample): "blew my mind that you could literally kill and restart Photon without disturbing any of the GUI apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399672)) "It was extremely responsive and could multitask without any stuttering" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48635298)) "Very lightweight and fast." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399229))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://qnx.software/en)

## 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, "QNX Photon microGUI", https://hackerapproved.com/p/photon/ (19 recommend, 1 mixed, 1 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.