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Make Linux look like Windows 95

lunduke.substack.com

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Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#81

Post by lewiscollard »

HDMI_Cable wrote: post #18

I'll be the first to say the unpopular take on HN: I don't think Windows 95 looks that good (compared to today). I personally find more modern (like MacOS 10) styles to look the best, and flat designs to be just as usable as more skeumorphic ones. It seems to me that preference for UI styles is completely personal, probably being influenced by what OS we initially used. As someone (potentially a lot) younger than man…

My brain believes two things simultaneously:

* that Windows 95 was the first GUI I used for any extended period of time and that I will naturally think it's the best one for this reason, for the same reason people tend to think things they liked when they were teenagers peaked when they were teenagers; and

* that Windows 95 really did rule - to repurpose Hoare, "not only an improvement on its predecessors but also on nearly all its successors"

...and those two could fight each other all day.

Taking off the rose-tinted glasses, I might miss the UI, but I definitely don't miss how unstable it was. 25 years on I can still rattle off a Windows 95 product key off the top of my head as a consequence of reinstalling it so often.

Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#83

Post by ziotom78 »

jp0d wrote: post #2

Can anyone think of a reason why to do this? Apart from personal fun project, of course!

I am currently using KDE with the Reactionary theme [1], which gives my desktop a nice Windows95 look. I love it because the meaning of the buttons on the title bars of windows is very clear, and I know exactly which visual elements can be pressed and which one not.

(Disclaimer: I started using computers in late '80s and used Windows95/98/2000 a lot before moving to full Linux when Windows XP came out, so I was already pretty used to the interface.)

[1] https://store.kde.org/p/1253201/

Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#84

Post by voidfunc »

mbg721 wrote: post #35

It won't convincingly look like Windows 95 to me without a ton of Invalid Page Faults in kernel32.dll. (Can somebody give me a basic explanation of what that was??)

My lasting memory of all Win9x editions will be "The program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" error messages which were rampant back then.

Also I remember people freaking out about those messages.

Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#85

Post by voidfunc »

tadfisher wrote: post #70
assttoasstmgr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say marketing so much as Microsoft did a lot of usability testing back then where psychologists threw people in a room and took notes while they interact with the UI. I don't think any OSS projects have this luxury (or money needed to throw around for that sort of thing). Raymond Chen vaguely references it here https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120126-00/?p=84... Also, back then, you had to make…

The Gnome project performs usability tests pretty often. That's what led to decisions like deprecating the secondary app menu (app menu in the title bar) and the newer horizontal workspace layout, iirc.

And the Gnome project consistently gets it wrong because they keep forgetting their primary target users are not rando's that have never used a computer but mostly season Linux vets.

Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#86

Post by IYasha »

I thought my dream came true, but... There's one thing he isn't showing - the infamous GTK's "Cancel-OK" message box combination. As much as I respect Lunduke's work, it's GTK-based. And my Linux environment is completely 95% Qt5 (it'll be 100% if I figure out how to migrate to Qt-based browser). The main advantage of OS/2 or Win9x-like UI is its speed and consistency. And it soesn't allocate/read/render 9 PNG files per element (like button). Works using Line()s and FillRect()s. If modern KDE could do that, I'd have no complains...

Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#87

Post by IYasha »

jmmv wrote: post #31

This looks so nice. Nostalgia indeed, but I miss consistent UIs across apps. SerenityOS must be mentioned in this context too: Win95-like UI on a Unix-like OS. Check it out if you haven’t yet! Edited to add the link I missed: https://serenityos.org/

Wow... just, wow! It's really not just GUI, but an OS!

Re: Make Linux look like Windows 95

#89

Post by IYasha »

In early 2000s I've created a few .theme files in Win98, all with different shades of main window color. And, with minimal tweaking, I made it work in EVERY version of Windows from 95 to 7! That's what I liked about backwards-compatibility. (and, most likely, I won't be using Windows after 7 anymore).
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