221–226 of 226 posts
I've got a screenshot somewhere of using this theme while playing the dos game Jetpak Christmas in dosbox with Xsnow running, it was fun.
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
For dithered images I find waifu2x with the noise removal at 'None' to be pretty good at scaling these things up without destroying the dithered shapes. Unrelated (Maybe related actually) this tool for applying old-school style dithering to an image with a bunch of settings and dithering algos: https://doodad.dev/dither-me-this/
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> 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…
> everything is folders and files idea of the start menu Your comment is Ribbon/magic-search-bar vs hierarchical-organization preference in a nutshell. I've decided there are two mutually-exclusive sorts of people: (a) those who want search to surface things for them, and hate having to remember where to find things & (b) those who want to remember where/how to find things, and hate relying on fuzzy search to surface…
I'm in this camp, but with a bit of nuance. Fuzzy search tends not to work well for me -- if I can't remember the exact name of the application I want to use (and I often can't), then search is an iffy way to locate it.
But mostly, it's about not liking to switch between using the mouse and using the keyboard. If I'm firing up a program, I'm almost certainly using the mouse at the moment. Switching to keyboard adds a bit of unnecessary disruption.
> Ribbon would have gotten less flak if they hadn't also simultaneously made a mess
My problem with the ribbon is that the contents move around, which means I'm constantly having to search through it for the thing I want to do.
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> I used to forget which sub menu inside the thing I needed was except for the ones I used frequently The trick was to create your own folders to flatten the hierarchy, so you never have to look inside the "Programs" sub menu. You could even move your most frequently used items to the top level, with no folders at all, so they're available with a single click. This got a lot easier with Windows 98 (or with the IE ver…
Yeah. The default experience was not great, but with a little curation it was super streamlined. When I saw developers using the default setup it was usually a pretty reliable clue as to their skill level. Of course... Linux users would have said the fact that I was using Windows was an even bigger clue about my skill level.
But in which direction? I'm very skilled, and used to customize things like this -- but at a certain point, I stopped doing it because I'd develop muscle memory for my customizations that would really mess me up when using someone else's computer.
So now, I don't customize anything. It makes my life easier.
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> I've decided there are two mutually-exclusive sorts of people: (a) those who want search to surface things for them, and hate having to remember where to find things & (b) those who want to remember where/how to find things, and hate relying on fuzzy search to surface them. Funny because I belong in both camps, but for different things. I prefer fuzzy, flat search for launching applications (I mean we basically do…
> fuzzy, flat search for launching applications (I mean we basically do the same on the CLI right? The first time we each had to debug a $PATH search order issue makes this a yes&no answer from me. There's still a hierarchy and locations... but most of the time we can just ignore it and get on with things.
I'm a big fan of this aesthetic. If you appreciate the usability of W95 without needing a pixel perfect copy, it's very easy to theme KDE to strike a really good balance. As your global theme, use 'Reactionary'. Set your application style to 'MS Windows 9x'. For your icons, use 'Memphis98'. For cursors, 'Hackneyed (scaleable)'. Your Plasma style, colours, and window decorations should all follow your global theme (Re…
> If you appreciate the usability of W95 without needing a pixel perfect copy My experience suggests "not pixel perfect" usually means severely imperfect to the point of very ugly when Linux WMs try to imitate Windows 95. "Redmond" themes have been around for decades, always ugly as hell, only reminding of Windows 95 very loosely.