I don't disagree with your points about SparrowOS. But I don't agree in practice that HN is the best place to find discussion of things like a hobbyist OS writ

I don't disagree with your points about SparrowOS. But I don't agree in practice that HN is the best place to find discussion of things like a hobbyist OS written in ASM, because it is so strongly oriented toward the business end of the startup scene. It is very typical to see posts about how engineers are arrogant and socially inept, or how annoying it is that there is so much technical stuff on HN, or how RMS is dangerous and revolting, etc. So frequently the yardstick for judging things is popularity and money and ability to manipulate perceptions, rather than knowledge or playfulness or building things which are really high quality for its own sake. So while (say) Zuckerberg's "Hacker" concept might go down well here, I don't think that old school "Hacker" values really have much place here.