Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002 • Hacker News Board

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#61

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:06 PM UTC

jcadam wrote: post #37

shubhamjain wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This makes me feel old. I look at those desktops (particularly the Windows 95 one) and think they look clean and neat, with few distractions. I also know that they ran speedily on rubbish hardware. Are you kidding? It was nightmare to do anything on Windows 98. There were so many things that could result in "dead" state and only solution was to restart and not to mention those frequent BSOD. There was a reason why…

If you thought Win98 was bad, you need to try WinME :) Windows 2000, however, was the pinnacle of MS Operating Systems. It has been downhill ever since.

Oddly, there has been a stream of APIs since then too, yet you can get by writing in the old ones no problem!

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#62

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:07 PM UTC

tammer wrote: post #41

The most surprising thing about these is the stark reminder of Microsoft's dominance during this era. Whether it's the terminal emulator running on NT4 or Internet Explorer being the only sensible browser on a Mac, Microsoft has fallen far with this crowd.

Very true. They succeeded in getting a desktop into most homes.

Staying fashionable is more difficult.

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#63

Post by mml » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:08 PM UTC

a3n wrote: post #33

sengork wrote: post #6

So both creators of C used Windows...

Was probably the cheapest way to get a terminal to unix running at the time. I've been in lots of shops where the given computer is Windows, because that's what the rest of the company runs, and most of my time is spent in terminal windows to unix (Unix long ago, Linux these days). I recall trying to get actual unix on a PC, back around '94 or '95. I actually contacted the local Sun rep, and it was cumbersome and exp…

ugh. hummingbird. don't remind me.

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#64

Post by ant6n » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:09 PM UTC

mangecoeur wrote: post #45

72deluxe wrote: post #12

I really liked these. This makes me feel old. I look at those desktops (particularly the Windows 95 one) and think they look clean and neat, with few distractions. I also know that they ran speedily on rubbish hardware. After ditching my BBC B (I was poor), I remember using Win 3.1 on a 386SX with 4MB RAM that someone had thrown out and installing software to take over program manager and make it look like Win95 beca…

> clean and neat Really? You miss that special "concrete gray and primary blue" feel? I think I used every MS operating system starting with DOS, and I miss exactly none of the "historic" interfaces. To the extent I get annoyed when institutional IT departments force you to use the "classic" theme on modern windows boxes ("It's faster!" - no, it isn't to any human perceptible degree, and I appreciate not having to st…

I'm not sure about the 'huge strides'. I feel nowadays with 'flat design' (is that the right term?) I don't know where I can click and what actions will be performed. It's like the UI is a bunch of text labels, but they may actually be links, but they may actually perform an action. Although there's no way to know, since the label doesn't say what action is performed, and since we don't have mice anymore, we don't have hover-hints.

Take as an example the calling apps in Android. It'll show contacts, with name, an avatar, maybe a phone number. Which of these are clickable? Which of these will result in the phone making a call, and which will result into going into looking at the contact? How do I send an SMS rather than call? How do I edit it? How do I get a call history? Every time I use it I click on things without being sure what will happen and I am always surprised at what happens.

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#65

Post by gtk40 » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:09 PM UTC

mangecoeur wrote: post #45

72deluxe wrote: post #12

I really liked these. This makes me feel old. I look at those desktops (particularly the Windows 95 one) and think they look clean and neat, with few distractions. I also know that they ran speedily on rubbish hardware. After ditching my BBC B (I was poor), I remember using Win 3.1 on a 386SX with 4MB RAM that someone had thrown out and installing software to take over program manager and make it look like Win95 beca…

> clean and neat Really? You miss that special "concrete gray and primary blue" feel? I think I used every MS operating system starting with DOS, and I miss exactly none of the "historic" interfaces. To the extent I get annoyed when institutional IT departments force you to use the "classic" theme on modern windows boxes ("It's faster!" - no, it isn't to any human perceptible degree, and I appreciate not having to st…

Heh, since we're stuck on Windows 7 I still use classic mode despite having a very capable machine, out of preference. I also use fluxbox when on *nix.

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#66

Post by Syssiphus » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:10 PM UTC

apas wrote: post #28

You know you've made it when you can casually say “I don’t know how to make a screenshot, because I normally use my computer in text-mode.” Badass Richard.

Maybe that is the one thing EMACS cannot do.. making screenshots ;)

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#67

Post by amelius » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:11 PM UTC

My desktop looks much more boring than these. But then again, I'm using multiple "workspaces" :)

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#68

Post by 6785yesfg » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:14 PM UTC

mangecoeur wrote: post #45

72deluxe wrote: post #12

I really liked these. This makes me feel old. I look at those desktops (particularly the Windows 95 one) and think they look clean and neat, with few distractions. I also know that they ran speedily on rubbish hardware. After ditching my BBC B (I was poor), I remember using Win 3.1 on a 386SX with 4MB RAM that someone had thrown out and installing software to take over program manager and make it look like Win95 beca…

> clean and neat Really? You miss that special "concrete gray and primary blue" feel? I think I used every MS operating system starting with DOS, and I miss exactly none of the "historic" interfaces. To the extent I get annoyed when institutional IT departments force you to use the "classic" theme on modern windows boxes ("It's faster!" - no, it isn't to any human perceptible degree, and I appreciate not having to st…

> "It's faster!" - no, it isn't to any human perceptible degree

MS uses it as the default on server systems because it is faster and IT departments are often forced to make the best of aging hardware, and sometimes turning off the effects can, in combination with a lot of other little tweaks, contribute that little bit needed to make a system useful for another budget period.

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#69

Post by ant6n » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:19 PM UTC

creshal wrote: post #31

72deluxe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite miss the brushed metal look. It is interesting that you could take OSX from back then and put it in front of someone today and it'll behave mostly the same. Sadly the same could not be sad about mainstream Linux environments (GNOME3, Unity etc.) or Windows 8/10. Windows 10 you can to some extent. Thought provoking.

> Windows 10 you can to some extent. Only compared to Windows 7 or Vista maybe. Definitely no compared to, NT4/Me/2000/XP from back then. > Sadly the same could not be sad about mainstream Linux environments I'm still wondering what the Unity/Gnome/KDE devs smoke. From what I've gathered from Gnome users, the only way to make it bearable is by ripping out half its functionality and replacing it with (Gnome-specific)…

lxde ftw

Re: Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

#70

Post by rcamera » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:19 PM UTC

mangecoeur wrote: post #45

72deluxe wrote: post #12

I really liked these. This makes me feel old. I look at those desktops (particularly the Windows 95 one) and think they look clean and neat, with few distractions. I also know that they ran speedily on rubbish hardware. After ditching my BBC B (I was poor), I remember using Win 3.1 on a 386SX with 4MB RAM that someone had thrown out and installing software to take over program manager and make it look like Win95 beca…

> clean and neat Really? You miss that special "concrete gray and primary blue" feel? I think I used every MS operating system starting with DOS, and I miss exactly none of the "historic" interfaces. To the extent I get annoyed when institutional IT departments force you to use the "classic" theme on modern windows boxes ("It's faster!" - no, it isn't to any human perceptible degree, and I appreciate not having to st…

I have used pretty much all MS operating systems as well, except windows 10, and I remember how windows XP felt "too colourful and distracting" when it first came out (with those very bright green grassy hills wallpaper, along with green and blue taskbar), how Vista's start menu was so slow when compared to XP, how windows 7 grouping of programs in the task bar, showing only the program's icon, was painful, or how terrible windows 8 entire user experience was.

While many engineers have a lot of nostalgia for old stuff, much of it is not displaced. Interfaces got a lot better, for those people who are not completely acquainted with computers. But power users, such as many engineers, still use terminals and other tools that while less intuitive, are much more powerful.