>nostalgia effect
this. OP's image is objectively hideous:
>mixing serif and sans-serif fonts with abandon
>some stuff is 3d-skeuomorphic, some isn't - whatevs
>weird border around top window
>certified israeli flag colors only
Why was 90s system software so aesthetic?
Ryan Collins
Levi Wright
When you're working with limitations (like low color and resolution) there's less opportunities to fuck up. It's basically what Terry was saying about the 16 colors and the elephant.
Christian Nelson
>winshit
Ew.
Alexander Jenkins
This
But I also know Microsoft were fucking slave drivers. See the hall of tortured souls
Leo Howard
Somebody needs to get a relatively modern Firefox or Chrome onto Plan 9 or Haiku.
Ian Stewart
Somebody needs to nuke the internet
Lincoln Jackson
I'm slightly drunk, but this shit always fascinated me.
With modern interfaces, the goal is typically to provide seemless interactivity while organizing information (or at least whenever you don't run into something designed by a bunch of interns running the latest Javascript framework to try to make their hamburger menus unique and special). This means that anything on the screen for a modern GUI "should" be interchangeable from similar elements while still communicating what those elements are.
Modern OSes can pull off more neat tricks like make the title bar opaque, make a highlighted element gradient, or replace the user's current menu with a sub-menu instead of opening a new one in order to better make the experience non-obtrusive.
The technology of the 90s couldn't pull this off with enough finesse, so it based its standard, default color scheme on a very deep blue and made most colors it used some form of green/cyan/etc to complement it (except for reds and yellows, which explicitly needed to draw attention), so it used its limitations to focus on making a framing that worked with the user experience rather than trying to just facilitate it.
The screenshot in is a wonderful example of this in action - notice that the monotonous text blocks are broken up with images to try to make reading this easier for the user. Highlights needed to replace the element's color entirely with a calming color instead of adding in a tint/shade/gradient. Sub-menus needed distinction from their parent menus, so an emphasis on placement was made that caused sub-menus to lay out like flowcharts that could let a user know at a glance where they were nested.
To summarize, it's the difference between just mounting art on a wall verses carefully selecting a frame to wrap it in. One gets the job done, but the other does it while inviting the viewer to appreciate the designer's implementation.
Andrew Barnes
minimalism (caused by hard resource contraints)
years of ergonomic reasearch into a variety of different interfaces converging onto a window/desktop metaphor
emphasis on functionality instead of cute visual gimmicks to appeal to ADD consumers
Ayden Jenkins
Thanks user, have another screenshot.
Hunter Sullivan
you install ltsc to get rid of that now