I Brought the 90s Back to Life with VibeOS using Kiro

Abdul Mazid — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 15:42:53 +0000

I just finished building VibeOS for the Kiroween hackathon, and I'm pretty excited to share how it turned out.

The Idea

I wanted to revive the nostalgic desktop experience of the 1990s ( known as TampleOS ), complete with chunky 3D buttons, green terminal text, CRT monitors, and Windows 95 vibes. However, I wanted it to function rather than just look retro.
I therefore created a full desktop operating system that operates within your browser. With genuine retro aesthetics, you can edit files, play music, upload photos, and even converse with an AI assistant.

Try it: vibeoskiro.vercel.app | Code: GitHub

What It Does

VibeOS has everything you'd expect from a real desktop OS:

📁 File Manager - Create folders, organize files
🖼️ Image Gallery - Upload and view photos (cyan theme!)
🎵 Music Player - Green terminal-style audio player
🎬 Video Player - Red-themed video viewer
📝 Text Editor - Code editor with syntax highlighting
💻 Terminal - Run retro commands like HELP and SYSINFO
🤖 AI Chatbot - Chat with Vibely, the built-in assistant

How Kiro Helped Me Build It

During the hackathon, Kiro essentially became my coding partner. I began by stating that I wanted a browser-based retro desktop operating system, and it promptly scaffolded the entire Next.js project and clarified its structure so I could begin building right away. I simply wrote brief specifications for features like draggable windows, and Kiro immediately generated clear, functional code. Every component it produced automatically matched the style after I shared my retro color scheme and UI guidelines; I didn't have to repeat myself.

A custom hook that enabled me to create new app templates in minutes rather than hours was one of the biggest advantages. While I concentrated on design, layout, and the overall user experience, Kiro took care of the heavy lifting, such as database setup, TypeScript configurations, and deployment fixes.

The Biggest Challenges

Supabase Setup: The authentication and database configuration was overwhelming. Kiro walked me through it step-by-step—generating the schema, RLS policies, and API routes. What would've taken me days took 20 minutes.

Deployment Error: My Vercel build failed with a cryptic error. I panicked, but Kiro identified the issue instantly—wrong Supabase import. Fixed in 1 prompt.

Image Storage: Base64 encoding made files huge. Kiro helped me add proper validation and size limits with clear error messages.

Try It!

Boot up VibeOS and explore: vibeoskiro.vercel.app
Some things to try:
( No need to sign up! You can try the test mode )
1.Upload images to the cyan gallery
2.Play music in the terminal player
3.Chat with Vibely the AI
4.Run HELP in the console
5.Drag windows around the desktop

The code is open source on GitHub if you want to see how it's built!

DEV Community: Abdul Mazid

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