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Remembering Windows 2000

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Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#211

Post by fomine3 »

Miraste wrote: post #174
elwes5 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree on the vertical space thing. I would add that lack of contrast between controls is very annoying. That 'flat' look is a pain. Can I or can I not click on this? The one that is a real pain is the disappearing scroll bar. It is there. The space for it is used. But just gone until you hover over it. Then it is clunky to use in relation to all of the other windows controls. The rules for making a GUI were dead si…

I must use scrolling windows differently than you, because I haven't clicked and dragged a scroll bar probably for years. The only thing I need a scroll indicator for is to see how far I am down the page, which I only do when I'm actively scrolling. MacOS disappearing scrollbars (which do not waste space when inactive, but pop in over content when you scroll) are my ideal implementation.

I want to know current position and I still sometimes grab scrollbar and drag because it sometimes comfortable than scrolling a wheel.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#212

Post by fomine3 »

sergeykish wrote: post #45
gruez wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad that they got rid of it in windows 8 and later. >the classic theme was a lot leaner on system resources maybe , but it probably also made things run slower because it forces everything to be done in software rather than hardware. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20130327-00/?p=48... >Starting in Windows Vista, a lot of visual effects were offloaded to the graphics card. Consequently, the impact on…

Windows 10 is full of distractions, one time I thought my display was broken - transparency on title bar. And animations just add latency. Disable transparency and windows animations (Settings > Display > Show transparency on Windows, Show animations in windows). Also disable "Fade or slide menus into view". Much better experience and not much to offload.

I recommend to enable colors on Window Title Bar. It really improves visibility of foreground window.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#213

Post by peter_d_sherman »

>"For a true blast from the past, let’s take a look at Windows 2000 Professional’s bare minimum system requirements at the time:

133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.

64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum; more memory generally improves responsiveness.

2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 650 MB of free space."

My guess is that with any reasonable speed SSD and a swap file -- you could have a responsive system at as little as 32 megabytes (MB) of RAM -- or possibly even less...

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#214

Post by dehrmann »

lsllc wrote: post #2

"If you used a PC in the late ’90s, you were quite familiar with the frequent crashes, lockups, and reboots that were common on MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 9x. The DOS-based PC ecosystem was a house of cards built on an ancient patchwork of code that ran on endless variations of hardware." House of cards literally and figuratively -- I have fond memories of fighting with QEMM386 and PROTOCOL.INI/NET.CFG and IRQs…

I remember writing essays in Word, and if you didn't save them every minute, who knows how much work you might randomly lose.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#215

Post by int_19h »

Wistar wrote: post #88
ogre_codes wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YES. Windows 2000 was also one of the most consistently designed versions of Windows. XP also introduced tons of design language chaos as they only migrated some of the UI over to the new controls and left big chunks of the OS to languish. I think Control Panel had widget rot well into Windows 10 (Maybe still has this issue?). I only grudgingly moved to XP and shortly after switched to Desktop Linux full time. > I'm…

As someone once remarked "On XP everything looks as though it should go MOO! when you click on it."

Out of the box, sure. But it wasn't difficult to configure it to look almost exactly like Win2K.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#216

Post by int_19h »

zozbot234 wrote: post #133
barrkel wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux has been much worse for margins in UIs, FWIW.

Really? It looks just fine to me. People like to complain about the GTK3 header bars, but those encompass everything that you'd previously find in toolbars and menubars, at least for simple utils. And they enable full touch readiness, as do the slightly bigger buttons and widgets.

How many people actually use desktop Linux on touch devices?

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#217

Post by int_19h »

kccqzy wrote: post #131
amiga-workbench wrote: post #17

Windows 2000 also represents the zenith of UI design for Microsoft software. I'm still rather baffled about how people look back fondly on XP, it looked like a toy for toddlers, and installing the Zune theme was the first thing I did after a fresh install to try and tone it down. The in-your-face over decoration of UI's thankfully hasn't persisted, but instead we're seeing a similar kind of decadence among our suppos…

Windows 2000 always reminded me of brutalist architecture. It was efficient, functional, and worked well, but it wasn't pretty at all. This is probably a very unpopular opinion but I rather liked Windows Vista's design. It was still very compact compared with later designs, and it had a certain charm from its prevalent use of translucency. I disliked XP for the same reason you cited, and upgraded to Vista almost as s…

Vista was too bubbly and glossy, much like early OS X.

Win7 had a fairly decent balance of shiny chrome and usability by reducing both of those, while still retaining enough visual cues to e.g. clearly highlight buttons.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#218

Post by brnt »

barrkel wrote: post #121
linguae wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. One of my annoyances with Microsoft's post-Windows 2000 design philosophy is its penchant for consuming large amounts of vertical space. This started with the large title bars used in the Windows XP Luna theme. I wasn't impressed with this "Fischer-Price" theme and always switched to the Windows Classic theme, which I continued to do even during the Windows 7 days. Next, Microsoft introduced the ribbon in Of…

Linux has been much worse for margins in UIs, FWIW.

Have a look at KDE! One of the reasons I switched.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#219

Post by brnt »

kccqzy wrote: post #131
amiga-workbench wrote: post #17

Windows 2000 also represents the zenith of UI design for Microsoft software. I'm still rather baffled about how people look back fondly on XP, it looked like a toy for toddlers, and installing the Zune theme was the first thing I did after a fresh install to try and tone it down. The in-your-face over decoration of UI's thankfully hasn't persisted, but instead we're seeing a similar kind of decadence among our suppos…

Windows 2000 always reminded me of brutalist architecture. It was efficient, functional, and worked well, but it wasn't pretty at all. This is probably a very unpopular opinion but I rather liked Windows Vista's design. It was still very compact compared with later designs, and it had a certain charm from its prevalent use of translucency. I disliked XP for the same reason you cited, and upgraded to Vista almost as s…

But, and I say that as a brutalist hater, W2K is then one of those more humane brutalist designs. Some detailing, rounded instead of sharp edges, a concrete that is ever so slightly warmed toned than basic concrete, nooks and crannies to break up long flat surfaces.

I find flatUI far more brutalist in the way it disorients by removing and humane clues as to its structure and use.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#220

Post by rasz »

zozbot234 wrote: post #27
amiga-workbench wrote: post #17

Windows 2000 also represents the zenith of UI design for Microsoft software. I'm still rather baffled about how people look back fondly on XP, it looked like a toy for toddlers, and installing the Zune theme was the first thing I did after a fresh install to try and tone it down. The in-your-face over decoration of UI's thankfully hasn't persisted, but instead we're seeing a similar kind of decadence among our suppos…

You could also revert to the classic widget theme, even in Windows Vista and 7. And people absolutely did that - the classic theme was a lot leaner on system resources and visually clearer in many ways.

Switching to classic theme in Win 7 turns off hardware compositor and disables Vsync for the desktop and shock horror the browser, at least on Intel integrated graphics laptop. Ugly theme or a vsync artifact while watching youtube, your choice.
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