Yet another Hacker News

Zac-OS-9: The classic Platinum desktop, reborn for modern PCs

28 points felixding 2 days ago 16 comments

kunai 2 days ago | parent

Looks somewhat vibe-coded. How much of this is independent work? If it's actually faithful graphic design and integrated, well-thought out code with a bit of Claude glue on top then I'm fairly intrigued, but if the entire thing was built with llm tooling then that does unfortunately sap my interest in this a lot.

I do love the idea though. I do also hate the fact that if I saw a project like this six or seven years ago I'd be in awe at it, but now that there's far less effort required, I just go, "oh neat, eh, but how functional is it really" and move on.

chromasyspro 2 days ago | parent

That's fair, and I get where you're coming from. I do use AI quite a bit for the coding side of things, and I'm not pretending otherwise.

Zac OS originally started as something I was making just for myself. I've always loved the classic Mac OS experience and wanted to bring it to modern hardware. It's actually my everyday OS now, and I figured I'd share it in case anyone else wanted to try it.

It's also a lot more than just a visual recreation. I've been trying to bring back how the original Mac OS actually worked, but integrate that functionality with modern Linux. Things like the Finder-style file management, System Folder, Control Panels, menus and the way everything interacts are meant to feel like the original Mac, while still working with modern applications, hardware and the underlying Linux system.

I'm not a professional developer, and I'm not claiming to have written every line of code myself. It's something I enjoy working on, and a lot of the development comes from using it every day, finding things that don't feel right, and improving them.

There's no big ambition behind it. I just wanted to build something I'd enjoy using, and thought others might enjoy it too.

xena 1 hour ago | parent

Can you please at least write your own comments? https://www.pangram.com/history/dd0ccc3c-c477-4791-b096-85f7...

weezing 1 hour ago | parent

How does this thing work? Can humans learn how to write like AI and vice versa without being detected?

chromasyspro 37 minutes ago | parent

I am really really bad with spelling and grammer. If AI writes what i need to say without adding or taking away facts, its better for both of us that is use it.

idle_zealot 19 minutes ago | parent

Writing is a skill. Use it or lose it. You've set yourself on the track of being perpetually unable to communicate in your own words without a machine intermediary massaging your ideas into grey paste. It's not good for you or your readers.

slipheen 1 hour ago | parent

I'm glad you had a lot of fun and I think it looks like a neat project.

I think that there is certainly room for people to develop software because it makes them happy.

I will take a look at it at some point- Thanks.

Have you been able to handle drag-and-drop?

That's one of the places that I think Linux desktops have traditionally had a lot of difficulty, particularly compared to Macos 9, because you're dragging and dropping complex objects across multiple tool kits, etc..

chromasyspro 36 minutes ago | parent

The OS uses a lot of drag and drop features such as installing/removing software using the applications folder.

manytimesaway 4 minutes ago | parent

Have to agree with this view.

I would love to have a proper retro-looking GUI on my distros that isn't a patchwork over XFCE, but not pure slop.

darknightrealm 52 minutes ago | parent

This is a fantastic project thank you for making it. All those complaining about AI probably aren’t developers and even worse those who think AI written detection tools work. Just ignore the naysayers

chromasyspro 35 minutes ago | parent

Thank you. I appreciate it. My goal here is that those who choose to use it, enjoy it.

tambourine_man 28 minutes ago | parent

I didn't know SourceForge was still used.

Kwpolska 25 minutes ago | parent

The use of Sourceforge might trick you into thinking it's an ancient project built by a human, but nah, it's a month-old slopfest. Yawn.

chromasyspro 21 minutes ago | parent

Thanks for interacting with this post and giving it more attention. Also, its only been public for a month, but its older.

Kwpolska 11 minutes ago | parent

Is it really?

First commit (by Claude Opus 5.5) is from October 1st, and it's very empty: https://sourceforge.net/p/zac-os-9/code/ci/eddaec8ab21df697a...

Second commit, seven minutes later: https://sourceforge.net/p/zac-os-9/code/ci/3784bf686346ca228...

Third commit, 14 minutes later: https://sourceforge.net/p/zac-os-9/code/ci/4f2a87efd6a00592a...

If the code existed earlier, would Claude take 14 minutes to commit it? Would Claude make changes to files instead of committing the final version from the start?

chromasyspro 5 minutes ago | parent