Haiku
Open-source operating system that recreates and continues BeOS, the 1990s desktop OS.
Loved as a pleasant, fast successor to BeOS123 with a distinctive late-90s UI that runs well on older laptops.456 The most common caveats are that it is hard to use as a daily driver789 and that key apps are missing from its limited software catalog.101112
Why people recommend it
Pleasant UI · 3
Commenters enjoy its distinctive BeOS-style look and feel and call it a delight to use.
“I highly recommend you give Haiku a spin”
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“It's a delight to use, if a little esoteric at first.”
Speed · 3
It feels snappy and lightweight, even on old ThinkPads and other aging machines.
“I run Haiku, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Ubuntu, and Pop OS, and all of them go like stink and are daily-drivable”
“impressed by the speed and the reasonable availability of software”
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BeOS successor · 3
BeOS fans recommend it as a usable system based directly on BeOS.
“it's very nice and very usable system based directly on BeOS.”
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“As a long time BeOS fan (and user back in the day) I really enjoy reading about progress on Haiku.”
Daily driver · 2
Some commenters use it as a daily driver for many tasks.
“I've moved back to Haiku as my daily driver for a lot of stuff.”
“I run Haiku, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Ubuntu, and Pop OS, and all of them go like stink and are daily-drivable”
Software catalog · 3
Some commenters found a surprisingly large or reasonable range of software, including new ports like Firefox.
“impressed by the speed and the reasonable availability of software”
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Easy install · 1
One commenter installed and booted it on a 2008 MacBook Pro without problems.
“it installed and booted without any issues”
Caveats and dissent
Not daily-drivable · 3
Several commenters doubt it is usable as a daily driver, partly because it is still in beta.
“not sure anybody can use Haiku as a daily driver”
“is not quite on the same level as daily driver”
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“the beta isn't usable as daily driver, at least not for me”
Missing apps · 3
The ecosystem is limited, and missing tools such as a video editor or a strong debugger keep people on other systems.
“I've moved back to Haiku as my daily driver for a lot of stuff.”
“It's a delight to use, if a little esoteric at first.”
Show 1 more
“I do enjoy Haiku the most”
Hardware support · 2
It works best on generic Intel hardware, and drivers do not make full use of modern hardware.
“the beta isn't usable as daily driver, at least not for me”
Learning curve · 1
It can feel a little esoteric at first.
“It's a delight to use, if a little esoteric at first.”
Often compared with
1 moved from Haiku to Claude Sonnet
1 moved from GPT Luna to Haiku
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“Invoicing app for individual workers in Europe.”
Threads where it came up
- Haiku R1/beta6 has been released 10 mentions
- Haiku OS runs on M1 Macs now 6 mentions
- Haiku 5 mentions
- VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS 4 mentions
- Claude Haiku 5.5 3 mentions
- Infinite Mac: BeOS 2 mentions
Also written as Haiku OS, HaikuOS. Data: haiku.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 43
Claude built me a meta web/notes/code search engine with IOS and MacOS apps, and for fun I asked it to make a Haiku version [1], which it did in under 20 minutes. With AI I feel like a lot of these bygone-era OS's could see a whole new ecosystem of modern apps within a very short period of time. 1. https://github.com/machiya-kobo/shiori/tree/main#haiku
“I really recommend checking out Haiku OS”
"I don't have a Start Menu. This is a Haiku install, but that's not import--" https://m.xkcd.com/806/
“I've moved back to Haiku as my daily driver for a lot of stuff.”
“Haiku also doesn't seem like a competitive price/performance mix.”
“now I want to give it a try”
“I would mostly use Haiku in task or explorer subagents.”
“any time I ask Opus to "try" letting Haiku do the work, it just falls apart”
“Haiku has archived what BeOS programming looked like”
“I run Haiku, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Ubuntu, and Pop OS, and all of them go like stink and are daily-drivable”
“I highly recommend you give Haiku a spin”
“Only reason I used Haiku was when I made Opus 5 run Haiku agents”
“I have an 'ask' alias in my shell that just uses Haiku. I use it daily for pretty much everything”
“a skill/script combo suitable for Haiku to accomplish the task, and now that task happens at minimal cost”
“I added Haiku because it looks and performs so well”
“I understand the policy at least for the main Haiku repo code.”
“it installed and booted without any issues”
“I would love to give Haiku a try. Indeed, I've looked at it's code before (it's quite good, or was, last time I looked at it).”
“Menu that does different things based on modifier keys seems novel to me”
“impressed by the speed and the reasonable availability of software”
“Looks like a user that was porting to ARM64 disagrees with the Haiku AI stance”
This is one of the things I like with NixOS: it's easy enough to add new packages and patch existing ones that stuff like this can either live in the core nixpkgs repo or be managed through some community-supported overlay. (Great example of this is [nixos-hardware](https://github.com/nixos/nixos-hardware) which shares settings and fixes for specific laptop models and the like, or [emacs-overlay](https://github.com/n
“I love the UI style of HaikuOS”
“But honestly Linux felt faster on this machine. The memory usage was about the same”
“Haiku subagents”
“I use sonnet as a smart grep and haiku never”
“As a long time BeOS fan (and user back in the day) I really enjoy reading about progress on Haiku.”
“the estimate you quoted is based on Haiku when we launched”
“My model/agent pool consists of Sonnet, GPT 5.*, Gemini, Haiku, Composer 2.5”
“I use Haiku a lot for agent workflows”
“For example Haiku OS has a compatibility layer”
“Because the Haiku model is quite cheap but doesn't screw up too often I used it for interactive coding”
“Going by CVEs, Haiku is more secure than OpenBSD.”
> Windows 11's UI seems easier on the eyes than Haiku now. I feel the exact reverse. I find modern flat UIs ugly and hard to operate, which makes them more tiring. It is not just me: https://grumpy.website/
“It's a delight to use, if a little esoteric at first.”
“On Intel and for some minimal uses, it probably can be a daily driver.”
“You can also try out a demo in your browser at https://distrosea.com/select/haiku/”
“not sure anybody can use Haiku as a daily driver”
“is not quite on the same level as daily driver”
“There's almost nothing written about Haiku's security”
“it's very nice and very usable system based directly on BeOS.”
“I do enjoy Haiku the most”
“the beta isn't usable as daily driver, at least not for me”