{"slug": "project-oberon", "name": "Project Oberon", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.695, "rising": 2.35, "first": "2025-11-18", "latest": "2026-08-16", "why": "you should take a look at Wirth's Oberon language and operating system", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "you should take a look at Wirth's Oberon language and operating system", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "projectoberon.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.projectoberon.net", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Project Oberon"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 789187473, "item_id": 49324217, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49324217", "by": "mikethe", "date": "2026-08-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "closely connected to the simplicity and elegance of oberon", "excerpt": "I am currently exploring languages, operating systems.. my conclusions so far are that the two fish in the pond are plan9, and oberon. I am also aware of Geoff Collyers criticisms of RISC-V, and the criticisms of oberon of principia-softwarica. But that's about where my knowledge ends. I am also extremely suspicious of any project that makes any use of c++, being familiar with both the art of unix programming, and th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A Project Oberon System version running on RISC-V instead of RISC-5"}, {"id": 787745456, "item_id": 49234091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234091", "by": "Rochus", "date": "2026-08-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "People unaware of Project Oberon should rather have a look at https://projectoberon.net/", "excerpt": "People unaware of Project Oberon should rather have a look at https://projectoberon.net/ where they can find the free book and additional material by Prof. Wirth.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A Project Oberon System version running on RISC-V instead of RISC-5"}, {"id": 750613392, "item_id": 46913337, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913337", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The core of Project Oberon is about 4000 lines of code", "excerpt": "> Really wish that there were drivers available to make that run nicely/natively on a Raspberry Pi rather than in an emulator: So very much this. The Pi range has redefined public expectations of what a small cheap computer is and can do. But it runs a cut-down version of a huge, complex OS. We should give it its own small OS, one simple enough for a single ordinary person to read and understand. The core of Project ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wirth's Revenge"}, {"id": 735476160, "item_id": 45967260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45967260", "by": "Rochus", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should take a look at Wirth's Oberon language and operating system", "excerpt": "Since you are all so enthusiastic about Kay's idea of object orientation, you should take a look at Wirth's Oberon language and operating system, which is inded a message-based object system and uses a message-passing architecture rather than virtual method dispatch (in contrast to Smalltalk): https://www.projectoberon.net/", "context": "", "use_case": "message-based object system", "switched_from": "", "story": "OOP: The worst thing that happened to programming"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["message-based object system"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49230891", "title": "Show HN: A Project Oberon System version running on RISC-V instead of RISC-5", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46895381", "title": "Wirth's Revenge", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45959149", "title": "OOP: The worst thing that happened to programming", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 789187473, "item_id": 49324217, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49324217", "by": "mikethe", "date": "2026-08-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "closely connected to the simplicity and elegance of oberon", "excerpt": "I am currently exploring languages, operating systems.. my conclusions so far are that the two fish in the pond are plan9, and oberon. I am also aware of Geoff Collyers criticisms of RISC-V, and the criticisms of oberon of principia-softwarica. But that's about where my knowledge ends. I am also extremely suspicious of any project that makes any use of c++, being familiar with both the art of unix programming, and th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A Project Oberon System version running on RISC-V instead of RISC-5"}, {"id": 787745456, "item_id": 49234091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234091", "by": "Rochus", "date": "2026-08-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "People unaware of Project Oberon should rather have a look at https://projectoberon.net/", "excerpt": "People unaware of Project Oberon should rather have a look at https://projectoberon.net/ where they can find the free book and additional material by Prof. Wirth.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A Project Oberon System version running on RISC-V instead of RISC-5"}, {"id": 787714512, "item_id": 49232157, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49232157", "by": "thisislife2", "date": "2026-08-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Love your commitment to this. You are doing excellent work to keep Wirth's computing spirit alive. Oberon's philosophy ( https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Oberon/Oberon07.Report.pdf ) is beautiful for the power it hides behind its simplicity and I wish it was a more popular language ...", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A Project Oberon System version running on RISC-V instead of RISC-5"}, {"id": 750613392, "item_id": 46913337, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913337", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The core of Project Oberon is about 4000 lines of code", "excerpt": "> Really wish that there were drivers available to make that run nicely/natively on a Raspberry Pi rather than in an emulator: So very much this. The Pi range has redefined public expectations of what a small cheap computer is and can do. But it runs a cut-down version of a huge, complex OS. We should give it its own small OS, one simple enough for a single ordinary person to read and understand. The core of Project ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wirth's Revenge"}, {"id": 735476160, "item_id": 45967260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45967260", "by": "Rochus", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should take a look at Wirth's Oberon language and operating system", "excerpt": "Since you are all so enthusiastic about Kay's idea of object orientation, you should take a look at Wirth's Oberon language and operating system, which is inded a message-based object system and uses a message-passing architecture rather than virtual method dispatch (in contrast to Smalltalk): https://www.projectoberon.net/", "context": "", "use_case": "message-based object system", "switched_from": "", "story": "OOP: The worst thing that happened to programming"}]}