ArcaOS, KolibriOS, AROS, FreeDOS, Plan 9, TempleOS, or even just an older version of Windows or Linux.
What’s your use case? How’s your experience?
I occasionally use Haiku on an older laptop, just for fun.
I mostly use my Linux box for gaming, so Haiku is not the best fit for this.
I get ya. I use it on my Asus eee machine but it’s more due to the “because I can” mentality than anything practical.
I’m just waiting for someone to admit to using TempleOS as their daily driver
TempleOS is cool. You don’t need the Internet, it establishes a direct connection to the Seventh Heaven in the process.
Does Qubes OS count? I’ve been using Fedora Silverblue and Qubes really isn’t that different especially with the Fedora templates. The default XFCE4 desktop is UGLY so I had the tweak it a bit to be more Gnome-ish. (I once installed Gnome in dom0 but didn’t like the experience). I like the privacy benefits of Linux and disposable template VMs as well as added security with Qubes.
Thanks, I’ve never heard of ArcaOS, AROS or MorphOS before. Always nice to find new things.
I don’t daily drive them as they don’t really seems like daily drivers. I’d be surprised if even the devs manage that. Temple OS is really only useful if you want to align with the divine, Plan9 could be doable if all you do is code and appreciate acme but even then it’s a research OS that’s meant to be deployed on a network, everything is a file!, but seems to mainly target just running as a vm.
I tend to play around with linux and bsd, occasionally even hurd, as they seem to have better potential for getting basic ‘daily driver’ functionality even in obscure niches.
The Glaucus dev has an nice https://github.com/firasuke/awesome of projects that inspired them to create a beautiful little daily driver linux OS. I tested Glaucus a few years ago but my current systems are ancient and Glaucus is targeting new tech, which is nice.
What happens if you find someone like that? Temple OS has no Internet connection and is difficult to use. In fact, it is quite possible to use Haiku OS and even FreeDOS. You will just be using web versions of popular applications, that’s all. Even for DOS, there used to be a software package called Arachne browser. It is a static web browser, messenger, word processor and more.
Any madman daily driving TempleOS is too powerful to be left alive.
nope. I use Debian Test. I keep it simple.
is ReactOS really obscure? 😅
Does NixOS count? I’ve been using it for a few months now and love it.
Care to tell me a bit about it?
Yeah! Nix is a declarative, reproducible operating system; so instead of changing configuration files for each service (wayland, ssh, etc.) you have an OS-level configuration file that configures and deploys all services. If the configuration works once, each time you apply the configuration (to any computer) it will work in exactly the same way again. Changing this configuration file creates a new “generation” of the operating system, and you can switch seamlessly between generations – so if your wayland changes brick your system, it’s really easy to roll back. It’s also really easy to test things and roll forward.
The downside is that this configuration file comes with a lot of syntatical magic that requires reading a ton of source code. You also have to learn the Nix programming language, which is relatively simple by itself; but the way it interacts with your servers can be really opaque.
If you’re a programmer or really excited by the idea of a declarative, reproducible operating system, you will seriously love it. If you’re more of a Linux enthusiast… not so much.
Not as a daily, I do like seeing what obscure and old OSes I can get booting in UTM on my M1 Macbook though
I hadn’t checked in on the HaikuOS project in well over a decade. It’s great to see all of the progress they’ve made!
I run the unstable HaikuOS build in a HyperV VM and keep updating it every week or two. Waiting on compatibility for hardware and just being able to use a web browser without issues. The epiphany port is decent but it’s still lacking. Things seem pretty active and really hope it’s more usable eventually. If done right, it could become the desktop OS alternative the world needs. Seems great design decisions were made early that should help it do well once the thousand paper cuts are reduced a bit.
HaikuOS is covered mostly by action retro in Youtube, it’s okayish… mostly I think tabbing and the UX design of Haiku is useful for me…
I even imitate it in XFCE Fedora Spin
