The Figma redesign shows an MDI interface, which was simply never a thing on Mac. It would have had floating palettes, like Photoshop: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/683-adobe-photoshop-4-0
(mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
201–210 of 231 posts
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazing and bad reputation are not mutually exclusive. Electron is an impressive engineering accomplishment, but it also has some dimensions that not everyone likes. Electron is great if you're a developer who wants to write apps in javascript+HTML+CSS and put developer preferences over preferences of users. Not everyone agrees that the decisions behind Electron and using it are good decisions.
> Electron is great if you're a developer who wants to write apps in javascript+HTML+CSS and put developer preferences over preferences of users I’m so tired of this. Sure, the case for Electron is that it allows leveraging web-targeting code and skills, which makes more devs able to work on desktop software give the current prevalence of web skills and makes their job easier given the prevalence of web-targeting cod…
As a user, I have yet to find an electron app I have tested and kept using.
There are many tools available as electron apps that I have to use for my daily job that I prefer running in a browser window instead of the buggy electron app such as teams or slack. And I don't see any downside in using the website instead of the electron app, quite the contrary in fact. Even on mobile there are some tools that I prefer to run on the browser, mostly for better control of my privacy.
If you develop on the web, develop on the web. If you want to build desktop app, develop your apps like desktop apps. Users will thank you.
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
> less so for the end users Speak for yourself. As a user I love Electron apps for all the features they bring out of the box to developers. The alternative to a full featured Electron app is not a full featured native app, it’s no heavy client at all, because almost all the native frameworks suck in more ways than Electron does. Also I don’t give a crap that my applications all look the same as long as they make sen…
You've just described your self as a developer, not an end user. End users are Sharon in HR or Bob in the warehouse. The comment you replied to is referring to end users who are generally not-technical people and just want to get work done. Your comment, instead, talks about the developer friendly features of Electron.
They’re arguing: better for developers is better for users. Developers get to spend more time on building features and less on the accidental complexity that comes with supporting all of the competing platforms and frameworks.
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#204Mac OS UI is a great example for why one shouldn't "improve" software just for the sake for changing something. UI design peaked at Windows XP style. the design portraied here falls for my opinion in that category. As a user of xfce (on Linux Mint) which is basically Windows XP with different icons I am super happy. Apple actually came up with only a single valuable UI element and that is the three finger swipe to sw…
> congratulations to Apple for conning even IT experts Which one is more plausible? a) Apple actually "conning" tens of thousands of highly skilled, [mostly] intelligent, [mostly] educated people into spending money on hardware they don't actually need. b) You not understanding some important aspect of the situation and/or having different personal preferences.
(a) ... when it comes to status and self-presentation people tend to ignore their intelligence and education.
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#205just ... wow
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#206Page requires js to see images and I didn't feel like making a noscript exception just to read text and see images so I guess I'm moving on. Please, support raw html fallback web!
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Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and there was also no expectation whatsoever of "touch friendly" controls so everything was a lot more tightly-spaced than today Well if Apple’s Execs are to be believed, touch-screen Macs aren’t in the pipeline, which is aces with me because that’s what my iPad is for. So given that the preeminent pointing devices on a Macintosh are still the mouse and trackpad, I could do with them tightening up the spacing again…
But ios apps are runnable on macs, aren’t they? And on that front apple does want some unification.
On ARM-based Macintoshes, as an option that a lot of apps I personally use haven’t taken.
That kind of thing is gravy, where it works, but it’s not worth optimizing the entire UI around when you can optimize the UI around Mac apps instead.
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#208incredible work (really) but this is obviously not a realistic user experience: I can tell what's clickable on the screen easily and things are generally too consistent and simply make too much sense I mean, neat concept, but really lacking in the user hostility that today's users demand
I don’t get the “I can’t tell what’s clickable” complaint. I just opened up spotify and it’s obvious what’s clickable and what isn’t. Same for gmail. I don’t remember having any issue learning how to use these either.
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't really know what you're trying to say, but my child seems absolutely able to pick up modern UI design, including the hamburger icon and others, and use it very happily and with joy.
Kids would be able to pickup CLI if that were the only way to start their favorite game. Kids also share knowledge even when your attention is away. We had a drive to learn MK combos and used that to win fights, but as adults, barely anyone in a random-100 group knows how to :q Vim. Give your kid a phone with zero interesting activities in it compared to other toys, and he/she would “pick” nothing out of it.
> Kids would be able to pickup CLI if that were the only way to start their favorite game
This is not merely hypothetical! Like many on HN, no doubt, I learned at least how to launch and close my favorite toy programs from the DOS command line before I went to kindergarten.
Re: (mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9
#210Some interactive nostalgia is available here: https://github.com/felixrieseberg/macintosh.js/ "This is Mac OS 8, running in an Electron app pretending to be a 1991 Macintosh Quadra. Yes, it's the full thing."
macintoshjs co-creator Christian Bauer's personal website is appropriately 90s-website-y and full of goodies (recommend the Japan travel pics particularly!)
https://www.cebix.net