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98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

jdan.github.io

31–40 of 185 posts

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#31

why would anyone want to resurrect that terrible operating system? that’s the bar with which crappy software is measured against

I can imagine this making the internet a little less scary to some legacy users who are still working with ‘98 tech (you would be horrified at how many there are).

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#33

why would anyone want to resurrect that terrible operating system? that’s the bar with which crappy software is measured against

Consider that for some people that terrible operating system might have been the first system the have ever used, maybe as a kid.

I (an avid linux user who spends more time in the terminal than on a UI) certainly recall that my first contact with any computer with a keyboard was Windows 95. It was a complete mystery to me. The fascination that unexplainable object had on a 7 year old certainly had an effect on my life.

And guess what I remember? That grey interface with the blue title bar.

So as crappy as it might have been, as ethically unsound as the company who made it might have behaved themselves, the visual likeness of the system of my childhood tingles some old memories. And that is not even remotely odd. People can be nostalgic for literally everything, because we do not long for the old artifacts themselves, but for the feelings, friends and times we might have had when they were around.

For some of us the grey windows of Microsofts operating system have gained symbolic value beyond the aesthetical or functional qualities inherent to the system itself.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#34

I wouldn't really call this "faithful", I have yet to see actual pixel-perfect recreations of any Windows UI in any form whatsoever, but I'd love to see one.

I would

^ @prezjordan is the creator of 98.css, FYI :)

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#35

why would anyone want to resurrect that terrible operating system? that’s the bar with which crappy software is measured against

When it comes to look and feel specifically, these days it's not rare for websites and even apps to use styling such that it's impossible to tell a link from a label, and either from a button - everything is flat, and color differences are often deliberately minimal. That was not a problem in Win98 days.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#36

Cool. Does not support dark mode though.

There was no dark mode fad in 1998. Different color schemes for visually impaired people existed, but they were most often not very aesthetic.

I remember Encarta being darkmode in 98. Maybe some of the MSN stuff too. Even painted their own titlebars differently.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#37
post #20

Very cool! I want a Windows 2000 version of it. I think that was the nicest looking Windows. It is very close to this, but with a slightly different main GUI color. Not a complete gray, but ever so slightly beige. Makes it more pleasant to the eye, IMO.

Ideally it should support easy recoloring to match any of the exciting Windows classic themes! Hotdog Stand support when?

Also, agree that Win2000's color scheme was the best looking iteration of the classic Windows look.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#38

Hey HN - author here. This was my burnout recovery project in April of 2020. Very much a labor of love and a surprising way to realize I still liked programming. I wrote some scattered thoughts here [0] I also "run" this project quite differently than I usually do - when I receive a pull request instead of merging it I do a quick glance through the user's github to make sure they're not a spammer before giving them _…

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Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#40
post #30
post #3

Honestly full-assed implementation. Font hinting is a bit odd with a green sheen on Firefox Win 10...

There are some minor discrepancies. Window titlebars weren't gradient in Win98 - that came in Win2k and WinME. The combobox dropdown has rounded ages (Win11 + Edge) and there's a gap between it and the textbox. The tree view has different widths for "+" and "-" on the nodes, and neither is properly aligned with the dotted lines of the tree. The biggest giveaway, though, is that you can drag to highlight text pretty m…

Windows 98 used a gradient for its title bar [1]:

https://microsoft.fandom.com/wiki/Windows_98?file=W98-2.png

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