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Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

theverge.com

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Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#11

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

nip180 wrote: post #8
Ayesh wrote: post #6

XP was the peak of desktop customizations. There were "theme packs", one of the most popular being a Vista Theme Pack. The teen in me, with a Nokia 6600 besides the computer, was in awe when a single installation of Vista Theme Pack and rebooting a couple times meant that everything on my 40GB HDD Pentium computer was changed from the login screen to icons, wallpaper, fonts, shell, file copy boxes, disk space meter,…

Are you aware of the very large number of desktop environments and window managers available on *nix systems? “Skins” were popular in the windows ecosystem around XP, but it was far from the peak of customization.

It was definitely the peak. I was heavily involved in several communities, and also ran plenty of other desktops environments, but XP had the largest following by far. The sheer number of websites devoted to skinning XP was astounding. Popular websites had thousands and thousands of themes. Winamp 3 was thriving too.

It was most definitely peak customization.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#12

Post by sudosysgen »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #11
nip180 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware of the very large number of desktop environments and window managers available on *nix systems? “Skins” were popular in the windows ecosystem around XP, but it was far from the peak of customization.

It was definitely the peak. I was heavily involved in several communities, and also ran plenty of other desktops environments, but XP had the largest following by far. The sheer number of websites devoted to skinning XP was astounding. Popular websites had thousands and thousands of themes. Winamp 3 was thriving too. It was most definitely peak customization.

Even with that scale, the capabilities and ahievements are nowehere near what can be done with a proper *nix DE.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#13

Post by ab_testing »

trashburger wrote: post #5

Windows Codename Whistler (beta codename for XP) actually contained a Watercolor theme that looked like a modernized version of the classic theme[0] that this seems to be based off of. That theme actually looked quite nice. [0]: https://www.deviantart.com/rainingskies/art/Windows-Whistler...

Makes me want to run xp again

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#14

Post by MereInterest »

101008 wrote: post #3

Windows XP original theme was the best. Not at a nostalgic level only (which of course affects me and my memory), but I felt it was so easy to use and so easy to find everything. Today, Windows 10 control panel is a mess.

> Today, Windows 10 control panel is a mess.

Oh gosh, yes. It gets a little bit better if you organize it alphabetically, but then it is alphabetical left to right, top to bottom. It's as if somebody intentionally designed it to be as difficult to scan through as possible.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#15

Post by slipheen »

sudosysgen wrote: post #12
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was definitely the peak. I was heavily involved in several communities, and also ran plenty of other desktops environments, but XP had the largest following by far. The sheer number of websites devoted to skinning XP was astounding. Popular websites had thousands and thousands of themes. Winamp 3 was thriving too. It was most definitely peak customization.

Even with that scale, the capabilities and ahievements are nowehere near what can be done with a proper *nix DE.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the extent to which people altered things, such as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiteStep

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#16

Post by untog »

trashburger wrote: post #5

Windows Codename Whistler (beta codename for XP) actually contained a Watercolor theme that looked like a modernized version of the classic theme[0] that this seems to be based off of. That theme actually looked quite nice. [0]: https://www.deviantart.com/rainingskies/art/Windows-Whistler...

I forgot about this! I ran this theme for many years, it was a great balance of understated (compared to the blue and green default) and visually appealing (classic theme is fine, but dull)

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#17

Post by bdcravens »

trashburger wrote: post #5

Windows Codename Whistler (beta codename for XP) actually contained a Watercolor theme that looked like a modernized version of the classic theme[0] that this seems to be based off of. That theme actually looked quite nice. [0]: https://www.deviantart.com/rainingskies/art/Windows-Whistler...

I recall MSN software being similarly styled

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#18

Post by flomo »

101008 wrote: post #3

Windows XP original theme was the best. Not at a nostalgic level only (which of course affects me and my memory), but I felt it was so easy to use and so easy to find everything. Today, Windows 10 control panel is a mess.

By far the best feature of XP theming was you could turn it off and it looked just Windows 2000 :)

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#20

Post by sudosysgen »

slipheen wrote: post #15
sudosysgen wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with that scale, the capabilities and ahievements are nowehere near what can be done with a proper *nix DE.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the extent to which people altered things, such as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiteStep

I did run LiteStep actually, it's still not nearly as much customization as what is possible nowadays with modern DEs.

LiteStep is amazingly customizable and versatile, but it doesn't come close to being able to, for example, define pixel shaders in a theme, or being able to easily change any UI element anywhere using simple HTML/CSS, or completely switching paradigms by just changing around a few dotfiles.

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