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Windows98 Running in the Browser

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181–190 of 271 posts

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#181
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean before windows tried to be designed as a a tablet OS while being on desktop for 8.0, failed on both as easily predicted, and then refused to admit the mistake ever since beside the one mandatory change of adding a normal start button / menu back? That full screen start view was one hell of an abomination....

To be honest, I think it was not that bad from a usability point-of-view, agnostic of history. People were just not used to a full-screen, search-focused start menu. A similar thing happened with Vista, people were overwhelmed with the wildly different UI. The next version was then a slightly milder version of it, and at the same time people had gotten used to it a bit, so most were happy with Windows 7 and are now h…

Another example was GNOME 2.32 to GNOME Shell, which Microsoft later attempted to emulate in 8.x, though with the major conveniences removed - namely, a "classic" fallback mode.

Today, GNOME Shell is a default DE for major distributions, and while people have their preferences, it's more popular than the 2.32 fork, Cinnamon, which I think is good evidence of change-averseness.

I had my differences with the GNOME Foundation's handling of things, but I have few complaints about the convenience of their DE today.

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#182
post #108

Does anybody have a reasonable explanation why windows 10 requires a SSD and so much ram? I wish a kernel engineer could give a good answer to that question. One side of the answer could be that the software that is bigger, but honestly that doesn't explain everything. I wish somebody could confirm Wirth's law is real and that there are valid example of it.

Is it bad that it requires much ram? I mean, as long as it's utilized well I don't really mind?

The question is, what is it actually doing that requires that much RAM? Is it being utilized well?

The experience of using the actual operating system isn't that far away from Windows 98, which ran on a few megabytes of RAM.

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#183
post #168

Back when the system settings could be reached with less clicks, were organised in a logical way and didn't use most of the screen as white-space.

System settings were easiest in the Vista/7 era. Window Key+"sound" brought up sound settings, so you didn't need to know where they were placed in control panel. Now in Windows 10, doing the same brings up "Sound settings" which is a stripped-down settings bar barely more than a master volume setting. The actual sound settings are hidden in control panel, which doesn't come up when searching for 'sound'. This (broke…

>This (broken search) is the single biggest complaint I have with Windows 10. Everything else I can overlook.

Search in Windows 10 is garbage. I install Everything on ever y PC I use for home or work and it does wonders: https://www.voidtools.com/

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I think it was not that bad from a usability point-of-view, agnostic of history. People were just not used to a full-screen, search-focused start menu. A similar thing happened with Vista, people were overwhelmed with the wildly different UI. The next version was then a slightly milder version of it, and at the same time people had gotten used to it a bit, so most were happy with Windows 7 and are now h…

Another example was GNOME 2.32 to GNOME Shell, which Microsoft later attempted to emulate in 8.x, though with the major conveniences removed - namely, a "classic" fallback mode. Today, GNOME Shell is a default DE for major distributions, and while people have their preferences, it's more popular than the 2.32 fork, Cinnamon, which I think is good evidence of change-averseness. I had my differences with the GNOME Foun…

Well I for one do have multiple complains, but I'm impartial now to it's success having switched to KDE years ago. If something happened to KDE I'd switch to Cinnamon. If something happened yet again, I'd continue my search for a desktop-focused DE, but gnome would be the last resort (I do say that as someone who's otherwise quite committed to redhat)

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#185

It's funny how I find Win98 more user friendly and logical than Win10. Just look at the start menu where thing are sorted in folders. No ads optimizations anywhere. Just an annoying shortcut on the desktop for MS Internet. Is it possible to make a program like the sheep.exe nowadays? It is awesome.

Honestly how often does anyone use the start menu these days?

I am on windows all day long for analysis/development, anything I actually use is just pinned to the taskbar (like osx).

And when I do have to use the start menu to find something like newly installed.. not sure how you really think it's that different than win98? The left part is the same thing, it's just sorted alphabetically by program names etc.. and in theory now instead you just start typing for search instead of looking.

Overall calling win98 more user friendly than win10 sounds ludicrous, unless you are someone who never actually uses windows..

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#186

It's funny how I find Win98 more user friendly and logical than Win10. Just look at the start menu where thing are sorted in folders. No ads optimizations anywhere. Just an annoying shortcut on the desktop for MS Internet. Is it possible to make a program like the sheep.exe nowadays? It is awesome.

Gnome 2 was Windows 95 UI, refined, cleaned of all bloat and with a modern look (for his time). All installed apps were automatically stored is the right sub-menu in the Application button. It was really neat to use.

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#187
post #104

To me, still the best UI/UX OS experience. That menu organization is just perfect. Everything is crystal clear about what is selected or not. No idea why the OS moved from this layout.

yes. in my opinion though, windows 2000 was the pinnacle. it had the user experience of windows 98 but was also a lot more stable.

>it had the user experience of windows 98 but was also a lot more stable.

I tried Windows 2000 and really wanted to make it my daily driver but I kept getting blue screens when I played games. I spent hours looking for a solution never figured it out. Went back to 98se up till Windows XP release.

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#189
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean before windows tried to be designed as a a tablet OS while being on desktop for 8.0, failed on both as easily predicted, and then refused to admit the mistake ever since beside the one mandatory change of adding a normal start button / menu back? That full screen start view was one hell of an abomination....

To be honest, I think it was not that bad from a usability point-of-view, agnostic of history. People were just not used to a full-screen, search-focused start menu. A similar thing happened with Vista, people were overwhelmed with the wildly different UI. The next version was then a slightly milder version of it, and at the same time people had gotten used to it a bit, so most were happy with Windows 7 and are now h…

> To be honest, I think it was not that bad from a usability point-of-view, agnostic of history.

Perhaps in a vacuum it might work. But this is the real world were hypothesis are just that.

> A similar thing happened with Vista, people were overwhelmed with the wildly different UI

No. People were apparently overwhelmed by system instability and resource hogging (mainly hard drive grinding). I don't remember people complaining about the UI's usability. Though there were UI complaints which were mostly echos of the same complaints leveled at the glossy "Teletubby" XP theme.

> It's interesting to see how strongly change-averse most people are when it comes to those things.

Interesting? It's human nature. We develop habits and routines which take time to memorize and get right. It's work which we personally invested. I'm sure you have routines that if changed by an external force without choice would be upsetting to you.

Re: Windows98 Running in the Browser

#190
post #185

It's funny how I find Win98 more user friendly and logical than Win10. Just look at the start menu where thing are sorted in folders. No ads optimizations anywhere. Just an annoying shortcut on the desktop for MS Internet. Is it possible to make a program like the sheep.exe nowadays? It is awesome.

Honestly how often does anyone use the start menu these days? I am on windows all day long for analysis/development, anything I actually use is just pinned to the taskbar (like osx). And when I do have to use the start menu to find something like newly installed.. not sure how you really think it's that different than win98? The left part is the same thing, it's just sorted alphabetically by program names etc.. and i…

That is because “these days” the start menu is a dumpster fire.
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