# VitruvianOS

13 Hacker News commenters recommended VitruvianOS and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Linux-based desktop that borrows the look of BeOS and uses Linux hardware support; people praise its speed and novelty, though web browsing can be slow.

## Why people recommend it

- Looks and feels like BeOS (2 comments): "you'd have the advantages of a BeOS-like gui and the power of linux!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47516142)) "VitruvianOS has the clothes of BeOS, which is nice and refreshing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47516041))
- Uses Linux hardware support (2 comments): "it is a cunning insight in using the hardware support of Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524371)) "It’s Linux, with all of the support that provides." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47513925))
- Fast and works well installed (2 comments): "it ran surprisingly fast off that. The only thing where it was somewhat slow was web browsing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517791)) "I installed it to HDD and it worked great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47522737))
- Novel approach that differs technically (2 comments): "there's novelty and exploration in here. There's attempt to venture off the local maximum." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517828)) "really differentiates itself technically" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47513590))

## What people warn about

- Web browsing is somewhat slow (1 comments): "it ran surprisingly fast off that. The only thing where it was somewhat slow was web browsing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517791))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows.md): 1287 recommend
- [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos.md): 1041 recommend
- [Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux.md): 745 recommend
- [Haiku](https://hackerapproved.com/p/haiku-os.md): 115 recommend
- [NetBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbsd.md): 100 recommend

## Cite as

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