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Ask HN: How much would it cost to build a new commercially viable OS?

1 quacked 4 8/7/2025, 11:07:41 PM

Assume you’re an eccentric centi-billionaire that wants to create a new desktop/server-class OS that can match Windows, macOS, and Linux in performance, compatibility, and security, and be sold commercially as a competitor.

What would it cost to develop from scratch? How many engineers do you need? How many lawyers?

Comments (4)

sema4hacker · 3h ago

You'll probably have to spend more money on marketing to try to get people to use it than you will on engineering just to create it.

unsupp0rted · 4h ago

All the current commercial operating systems today are basically interchangeable, not counting a handful of design decisions (e.g. Finder vs. Explorer) or hardware compatibility.

They're all basically the same thing.

Heck Android and iOS are basically the same thing.

Would a new commercially viable OS be able to offer anything that current ones don't? If not, it's not really commercially viable.

bigyabai · 4h ago

Commercially-viable? Windows and MacOS are both basically given away for free these days. It's been this way on the server for decades; commercial viability means the user pays nothing.

You could probably spend a trillion dollars reinventing the kernel and still lose out to Linux in a world where the internet still exists. If you insist on a commercialized outcome then no amount will really be enough.

alganet · 4h ago

I'm not eccentric or rich, that's not my problem to solve. Good luck!

Anyway, why do you think that's a problem you need to think of?

No comments yet