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Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

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Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#4

Post by reacharavindh »

Not that I want the UX To _look_ like Windows 95, but I sure do feel nostalgic how fast and responsive the desktop “felt” back in those days. These days, it is a rarity to see a native app that is as responsive. It feels like all native apps burn through CPU cycles in cosmetic things and animations that it feels sluggish in comparison.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#5

Post by Sakos »

mrabcx wrote: post #2

Some of these old style themes are interesting for nostalgic reasons but then after a while you do realize that there are reasons why the world has moved on.

I'm not sure I agree. I used the Chicago95 theme (with some added 98 icons) for a good 2 years. The only reason I stopped was because I left the job I was at and couldn't be bothered to replicate the experience on my private device and haven't really been using Linux as my main driver. My team found it hilarious and I thought the theme was quite usable. I find modern Windows windowing far more egregious and unusable. I can't even think of anything you might mean that would justify moving away from the 90s themes or UI concepts.

edit: I've recently been using Chromafiler (https://github.com/vanjac/chromafiler) and I'm realizing we've gone off in completely the wrong direction since the 90s.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#6

Post by Pannoniae »

mrabcx wrote: post #2

Some of these old style themes are interesting for nostalgic reasons but then after a while you do realize that there are reasons why the world has moved on.

I dunno but there's only a few things missing from those old-style UIs. (Notably, hiDPI support for example)

This is probably a niche opinion but I think we have been steadily devolving and going backwards in terms of user design. We waste so much space, require so many clicks for worse usability than we started with. With the death of skeumorphism and textual UIs we regularly have to guess or hover buttons to find out what they are. Even scrollbars are starting to be unusable - I can barely see some of them because they are small, low-contrast and auto-hiding.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#7

Post by moron4hire »

reacharavindh wrote: post #4

Not that I want the UX To _look_ like Windows 95, but I sure do feel nostalgic how fast and responsive the desktop “felt” back in those days. These days, it is a rarity to see a native app that is as responsive. It feels like all native apps burn through CPU cycles in cosmetic things and animations that it feels sluggish in comparison.

My Windows 11 laptop at home is quite snappy. My Windows 10 laptop at work with more RAM, a better SSD, and a newer, faster CPU, is not. It's because they virus scan and authorization check every single file access, every time. Even starting small programs like Notepad takes at least 2 seconds at work whereas it's instantaneous at home.

Same story at my previous job. Actually, my work laptop had been faster than my personal one for a while because I had gotten a special purchase due to the nature of my work and IT didn't know what to do with it (we contracted IT services out to a 3rd party. We were a small non-tech company). But then someone caught wind and I was made to figure out how to get IT's tracking software installed for them. And that's when I started working from home all the time (a situation I could manage as the non-tech company wanted me to own the code personally. Yes, a little weird, but it was all a tiny sure other for the company).

It's not the tech, it's the bureaucracy.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#8

Post by KirillPanov »

reacharavindh wrote: post #4

Not that I want the UX To _look_ like Windows 95, but I sure do feel nostalgic how fast and responsive the desktop “felt” back in those days. These days, it is a rarity to see a native app that is as responsive. It feels like all native apps burn through CPU cycles in cosmetic things and animations that it feels sluggish in comparison.

WHATWG has joined the chat

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#9

Post by mati365 »

reacharavindh wrote: post #4

Not that I want the UX To _look_ like Windows 95, but I sure do feel nostalgic how fast and responsive the desktop “felt” back in those days. These days, it is a rarity to see a native app that is as responsive. It feels like all native apps burn through CPU cycles in cosmetic things and animations that it feels sluggish in comparison.

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