alt Hacker NewsLooks 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.
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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.
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.