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Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

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Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#161

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

mcny wrote: post #55
ilyt wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like how it looks (prefer a bit flatter buttons, but that are still buttons), but windows didn't really get any more usable after that...

> windows didn't really get any more usable after that... The old UI is good but I am not a fan of the everything is folders and files idea of the start menu. Maybe I'm misremembering but iirc as a child I used to forget which sub menu inside the thing I needed was except for the ones I used frequently. I like being able to just type obs and press enter in the new windows. I preferred the old theme better than window…

I don't understand this objection. The Start menu (which was a step backward from Program Manager) really went downhill when it obscured or removed the ability to group your programs into folders. Why do I want my audio & music programs jumbled together with my development tools? Or my graphics programs mixed in with general office apps?

People who argue that you should just type into a search bar 100% of the time to find and launch apps are naíve. First of all, unless you have a trivial number of applications, it's absurd to expect everyone to remember the name of every program on his computer. Oh gee, what was that SD-card-formatting utility again? I don't know, but hey in two clicks I'm in my Utils folder and there it is. I'm not scouring a disorganized, flat list of 100 applications to find it.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#162

Post by jwells89 »

jeroenhd wrote: post #21
Karellen wrote: post #14

Such a pity GTK3 and later aren't intended to be themeable, and the devs make no release-to-release compatibility guarantees for the theme engines. If this only affected Gnome, I wouldn't mind so much. But so many regular non-Gnome apps I use are GTK-based, even if I pick a different DE (which I do), I can't personalise my own user experience in a way that's consistent. The UX I keep behind a password, so I doesn't m…

I love the Gnome design language but the way they made theming so difficult has put me off using GTK for anything. Sadly, I don't know any better alternatives for my language of choice (Rust). I get that developers don't want their app to be stylized and broken by distro maintainers, but now none of them look native or good. It's like that time Android apps all started inventing their own bad UI themes, nothing feels…

> Sadly, I don't know any better alternatives for my language of choice (Rust).

This is the case for a lot of languages. I believe Qt being written in C++ hurts its adoption much more than some might think… plain C bindings are must for UI toolkits.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#163

Post by Dalewyn »

userbinator wrote: post #155
Dalewyn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With certain programs (in this case Paint Shop Pro 5), you can get Windows 11 to render Windows Aero.[1] [1]: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/747297210613498216/10...

That's not "real" Aero (as in the GPU accelerated effects that came with Vista); it looks like the "Windows Basic" theme in Windows 7. Aero looks like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Aero_Example....

Yes, it's Windows Aero minus most of the 3D accelerated special effects. It was also used on low performance systems or if you RDP'd in to save bandwidth.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#164

Post by creata »

gattilorenz wrote: post #22

Related: is there any "high resolution" version of setup.bmp ( https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grassmunk/Chicago95/5670fd... ) that does not kill the spirit of it? I tried upscaling it, but it's like upscaling pixel art... I guess my best bet would be retaking the original pictures (the OG MS Natural Keyboard, CDs, etc.) and recreating it, but it sounds like plenty of work

You probably already thought of this, but this looks like a 1-bit dithered image (maybe Floyd-Steinberg?) so maybe you can blur it to get something like the original image, then scale it up, and apply the dither again.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#165

Post by dmonitor »

treve wrote: post #41
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.

KDE Plasma in my opinion comes closest to this. It's stayed very snappy over the years and I'm mainly a laptop user.

turn off animations and it flies

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#166

Post by zilti »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #161
mcny wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> windows didn't really get any more usable after that... The old UI is good but I am not a fan of the everything is folders and files idea of the start menu. Maybe I'm misremembering but iirc as a child I used to forget which sub menu inside the thing I needed was except for the ones I used frequently. I like being able to just type obs and press enter in the new windows. I preferred the old theme better than window…

I don't understand this objection. The Start menu (which was a step backward from Program Manager) really went downhill when it obscured or removed the ability to group your programs into folders. Why do I want my audio & music programs jumbled together with my development tools? Or my graphics programs mixed in with general office apps? People who argue that you should just type into a search bar 100% of the time to…

That's why in KDE, you can also search for the program "description". E.g. if I type "Editor", I get back Emacs, Kate, etc.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#168

Post by midasuni »

accrual wrote: post #91
wanderingstan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to believe that a few system crashes per day was the norm. You just hoped you hadn’t lost too much, would re-boot and go get a drink while you waited. Due to that “training” I still hit CTRL-S obsessively even when it hasn’t been needed for years.

Initial versions of Windows 95 would crash if uptime exceeded 49.7 days. :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28340101

This bug was never found because nobody managed to keep windows 95 up for more than 49.7 hours, let alone days!

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#169

Post by lelanthran »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #161
mcny wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> windows didn't really get any more usable after that... The old UI is good but I am not a fan of the everything is folders and files idea of the start menu. Maybe I'm misremembering but iirc as a child I used to forget which sub menu inside the thing I needed was except for the ones I used frequently. I like being able to just type obs and press enter in the new windows. I preferred the old theme better than window…

I don't understand this objection. The Start menu (which was a step backward from Program Manager) really went downhill when it obscured or removed the ability to group your programs into folders. Why do I want my audio & music programs jumbled together with my development tools? Or my graphics programs mixed in with general office apps? People who argue that you should just type into a search bar 100% of the time to…

> People who argue that you should just type into a search bar 100% of the time to find and launch apps are naíve. First of all, unless you have a trivial number of applications, it's absurd to expect everyone to remember the name of every program on his computer. Oh gee, what was that SD-card-formatting utility again? I don't know, but hey in two clicks I'm in my Utils folder and there it is.

Maybe you should relook at this again; they don't work like that anymore - you don't need to remember "Brasero" when searching for a CD burning tool, the menu items all have a description field which is also searched.

So for your specific example, all you'd need to do is search for "SD Card", even if the name does not have the text "SD" or "Card" in it.

Re: Chicago95 – Windows 95 Theme for Linux

#170

Post by lelanthran »

Roark66 wrote: post #111
wanderingstan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to believe that a few system crashes per day was the norm. You just hoped you hadn’t lost too much, would re-boot and go get a drink while you waited. Due to that “training” I still hit CTRL-S obsessively even when it hasn’t been needed for years.

>Hard to believe that a few system crashes per day was the norm. It certainly wasn't for me! At the time I had my first it job in a local pc repair shop and we had a series of 24h burn in tests. If the newly installed pc crashed during it, there was something wrong with the hw. My personal windows 95 definitely didn't crash more than once every few weeks of heavy use. Programs did crash, explorer did crash, but the a…

> My personal windows 95 definitely didn't crash more than once every few weeks of heavy use.

You didn't need heavy use; there was a signed 32 bit integer bug that would cause W95/98 to lock up consistently every 31.5 days or so.

You can load Windows 95 into a VM today and still get the same results every 31.5 days.

[EDIT: 49.7 days]

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