5 ms·

This makes me wonder.. Are there any quirky whimsical or nostalgic but still functional desktop OS out there.. Like the fantasy console PICO-8, but for Desktop

This makes me wonder.. Are there any quirky whimsical or nostalgic but still functional desktop OS out there.. Like the fantasy console PICO-8, but for Desktop applications?

nxobject 2y ago
Nothing's stopping you from making classic MacOS that OS – infinitemac.org is a tremendous website full of emulators with a large software collection and drag and drop file transfer! It has very good ergonomics if you just want to play around with it, throw some software you downloaded on to it, etc. When coding for the very early Mac, you just targeted a B&W 512x384 display. The Macintosh Toolbox is a bit verbose, though.
snovymgodym 2y ago
There's this https://www.haiku-os.org/ https://www.haiku-os.org/
- rcarmo 2y ago
  Haiku lost the plot as far as I'm concerned when they didn't even try to support the Raspberry Pi as a target (where it would have been incredibly awesome). Right now the RISCv port is usable, but a lot of momentum was lost to the gods of fully open hardware...
  - cylinder714 2y ago
    Looks like they're working on it: https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/building/compiling-arm64/ https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/building/compiling-arm64/
    - rcarmo 2y ago
      They have been working on ARM64, but avoided touching the Pi.
Kehvarl 2y ago
The makers of Pico-8 just released a fantasy desktop called Picotron, and it's rather amusing. Not really a suitable daily-driver yet, though.
- ibll 2y ago
  I've been having an absolute blast with it though! Don't think it's really geared to be daily drivable at all, just a fun environment to make stuff.
hgs3 2y ago
For me Ubuntu and Fedora give me nostalgia for Mac OS 10.5 and earlier. They remind me of that pre-iPhone era when software was shared via websites, when code signing and developer accounts hadn't become a thing yet, when the App Store was a radical suggestion, and before the OS became locked down with security and sandbox "features".
- draxil 2y ago
  Yeah, you can still live in that era thankfully :)
Tevo 2y ago
9front, seemingly Plan 9's de-facto successor, is almost surely quirky, often whimsical, at times nostalgic. It might even be functional, depending on how you define that[1]. Is actively developed, has a vibrant community. Puts an interesting spin on how you lay out systems, but doesn't diverge much from the Bell Labs formula. I'd certainly recommend giving it a shot, for the UNIX-inclined. [1] I've daily driven it back in high-school, for all that's worth. Wrote assignments in troff and all. Some people might be able to tell of less mundane success stories as well.
- rcarmo 2y ago
  I tried Plan9 as a minimalist desktop. I soon realised that three-button mouse chording isn't doable in this decade, and wish someone had written a Platinum-like window manager to replace rio.
  - anthk 2y ago
    Forking Rio to create a Twm clone would be nice.
    - rcarmo 2y ago
      It's been somewhat done (there are a couple of forks out there, but nothing usable or maintained).
  - lproven 2y ago
    > I soon realised that three-button mouse chording isn't doable in this decade, The scroll wheel on any wheelmouse is a button and you can click it as well as spinning it. All wheel mice are also 3-button mice.
    - rcarmo 2y ago
      Try doing that on a trackpad--but if I wanted to use a mouse, the chording is too cumbersome.
ndiddy 2y ago
SerenityOS is probably your best shot, although it’s definitely not ready to be a daily driver yet.
snvzz 2y ago
Maybe uxn[0]? 0. https://permacomputing.net/Uxn/ https://permacomputing.net/Uxn/
HeckFeck 2y ago
If you have a RPi, RISC OS is an option.
bitwize 2y ago
AROS -- an AmigaOS-like environment -- can run in "hosted mode" on Linux or Windows environments, maybe Mac as well, in addition to standalone. https://www.aros.org https://www.aros.org Note that because it's an API-compatible reimplementation of AmigaOS, it's not really a "fantasy OS". Hosted mode is rather a tool for serious OS development. Nevertheless, it's much more like a modernized retro Amiga than it is any extant DE for Windows/Linux/Mac.

This makes me wonder.. Are there any quirky whimsical or nostalgic but still functional desktop OS out there.. Like the fantasy console PICO-8, but for Desktop applications?

nxobject 2y ago

Nothing's stopping you from making classic MacOS that OS – infinitemac.org is a tremendous website full of emulators with a large software collection and drag and drop file transfer! It has very good ergonomics if you just want to play around with it, throw some software you downloaded on to it, etc. When coding for the very early Mac, you just targeted a B&W 512x384 display. The Macintosh Toolbox is a bit verbose, though.

snovymgodym 2y ago

There's this https://www.haiku-os.org/ https://www.haiku-os.org/

rcarmo 2y ago
Haiku lost the plot as far as I'm concerned when they didn't even try to support the Raspberry Pi as a target (where it would have been incredibly awesome). Right now the RISCv port is usable, but a lot of momentum was lost to the gods of fully open hardware...
- cylinder714 2y ago
  Looks like they're working on it: https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/building/compiling-arm64/ https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/building/compiling-arm64/
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    They have been working on ARM64, but avoided touching the Pi.

Kehvarl 2y ago

The makers of Pico-8 just released a fantasy desktop called Picotron, and it's rather amusing. Not really a suitable daily-driver yet, though.

ibll 2y ago
I've been having an absolute blast with it though! Don't think it's really geared to be daily drivable at all, just a fun environment to make stuff.

hgs3 2y ago

For me Ubuntu and Fedora give me nostalgia for Mac OS 10.5 and earlier. They remind me of that pre-iPhone era when software was shared via websites, when code signing and developer accounts hadn't become a thing yet, when the App Store was a radical suggestion, and before the OS became locked down with security and sandbox "features".

draxil 2y ago
Yeah, you can still live in that era thankfully :)

Tevo 2y ago

9front, seemingly Plan 9's de-facto successor, is almost surely quirky, often whimsical, at times nostalgic. It might even be functional, depending on how you define that[1]. Is actively developed, has a vibrant community. Puts an interesting spin on how you lay out systems, but doesn't diverge much from the Bell Labs formula. I'd certainly recommend giving it a shot, for the UNIX-inclined. [1] I've daily driven it back in high-school, for all that's worth. Wrote assignments in troff and all. Some people might be able to tell of less mundane success stories as well.

rcarmo 2y ago
I tried Plan9 as a minimalist desktop. I soon realised that three-button mouse chording isn't doable in this decade, and wish someone had written a Platinum-like window manager to replace rio.
- anthk 2y ago
  Forking Rio to create a Twm clone would be nice.
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    It's been somewhat done (there are a couple of forks out there, but nothing usable or maintained).
- lproven 2y ago
  > I soon realised that three-button mouse chording isn't doable in this decade, The scroll wheel on any wheelmouse is a button and you can click it as well as spinning it. All wheel mice are also 3-button mice.
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    Try doing that on a trackpad--but if I wanted to use a mouse, the chording is too cumbersome.

ndiddy 2y ago

SerenityOS is probably your best shot, although it’s definitely not ready to be a daily driver yet.

snvzz 2y ago

Maybe uxn[0]? 0. https://permacomputing.net/Uxn/ https://permacomputing.net/Uxn/

HeckFeck 2y ago

If you have a RPi, RISC OS is an option.

bitwize 2y ago

AROS -- an AmigaOS-like environment -- can run in "hosted mode" on Linux or Windows environments, maybe Mac as well, in addition to standalone. https://www.aros.org https://www.aros.org Note that because it's an API-compatible reimplementation of AmigaOS, it's not really a "fantasy OS". Hosted mode is rather a tool for serious OS development. Nevertheless, it's much more like a modernized retro Amiga than it is any extant DE for Windows/Linux/Mac.