Show HN: React95 – A React components library recreating the look of Windows 95 • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: React95 – A React components library recreating the look of Windows 95

#41

Post by hatf0 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 5:04 PM UTC

rezmason wrote: post #26

kristopolous wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one is better. These fonts need work. They were true type without subpixel rendering, hinting, anti aliasing, etc, but at size 32, they weren't just bigger boxes. The thing I used on https://bootstra386.com/ is more faithful. In fact, it's written in the HTML of the time. Also they weren't using off-black greys back then. EGA-16, web-216 or bust. Greys exist, but not those. https://www1.udel.edu/cookbook/web/web…

I readily admit I'm taking some pixeliberties with it. :) The font's because of me, and the purple title bar, but I think I grabbed those grays from 98.css. I might change them to values in my own color lookup table. ...God DAMN dude, don't bury the lede! You made this? http://kristopolous.github.io/BOOTSTRA.386/demo.html This is gorgeous!

Oh good lord. I may have just found the next redesign for my website. That blows this completely out of the water.

Re: Show HN: React95 – A React components library recreating the look of Windows 95

#42

Post by hatf0 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 5:17 PM UTC

prlambert wrote: post #5

hatf0 wrote: post #2

I used this library as part of a major redesign for my personal website ( https://hat.fo ), and thought that others might get a kick out of it. Fun little components library :-)

Nice work! The most surprising part for me was that your websites says you are 20 years old – so I gotta ask, what was the motivation? I'm 39, born in 1983, so I have serious nostalgia around Windows 95. I was 12 when it came out, my parents bought a Dell when it was new and those years were very formative for me. I assumed that nostalgia would be the only driver to do this... But you weren't born until ~8 years afte…

Well, for some context, I had a website prior to this that was pretty bare-bones - the whole thing was basically just a terminal prompt. Realized pretty quickly that was a terrible idea for mobile & general UX, so I wanted to stick with something that still felt ... retro, and that integrated well with the web stack (React/Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Vercel) that I've been using at work. I'm also a huge retro hardware enthusiast, so finding this library checked every box.

Also some nostalgia from that time! My dad was an early adopter of technology (as part of his work - he was head of R&D for a large corporation), so he'd bring home all sorts of cool computers that would be handed down to me. First laptop I ever remember using (when I was 5 or so?) was a ThinkPad (before Lenovo ruined the brand) running Windows XP. I was raised fending for myself in SMF / phpBB forums & IRC chatrooms, so I still hold an appreciation for the times pre-iPhone :P

Re: Show HN: React95 – A React components library recreating the look of Windows 95

#43

Post by adr1an » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 5:37 PM UTC

There's another repo on GitHub that does the same. If the number of stars is of any significance, they have more. See: https://react95.io/ or https://github.com/react95-io/React95

Re: Show HN: React95 – A React components library recreating the look of Windows 95

#44

Post by kristopolous » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

hatf0 wrote: post #41

rezmason wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I readily admit I'm taking some pixeliberties with it. :) The font's because of me, and the purple title bar, but I think I grabbed those grays from 98.css. I might change them to values in my own color lookup table. ...God DAMN dude, don't bury the lede! You made this? http://kristopolous.github.io/BOOTSTRA.386/demo.html This is gorgeous!

Oh good lord. I may have just found the next redesign for my website. That blows this completely out of the water.

I'll be doing a v.5 eventually and fix up v.4 - looking like August.

This isn't a bootstrap "theme". It's more of a fork, the code goes through significant changes but maintains compatibility.

It's used in weird places, like on Gentoo for April fools 2015 : https://jappie.me/website-launch.html (images go through a number of filters to emulate ega-16 color reduction).

Pretty funny to see this as one of my most successful projects. Most people think I'm terrible at front end design.

I want it to be good enough that I'm genuinely tricked by it.