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The site depicts a linear progression, but (like most things) it's more like a tree. You can draw a line from Star → Lisa → System 1 → Windows 1 → Windows 3 →
by thristian 7y ago
The site depicts a linear progression, but (like most things) it's more like a tree.
You can draw a line from Star → Lisa → System 1 → Windows 1 → Windows 3 → Windows 95, and maybe Windows 1 → NeXTstep, but it's more likely to be System 1 → NeXTstep.
MacOS 8's scrollbar comes from Win95, System 7, and NeXTstep (it was an option to have the arrow buttons at one end, like NeXT, or at both ends, like System 7), and MacOS X's scrollbar comes from MacOS 8's.
Windows XP's scrollbar comes from MacOS 8 (the grab handle), MacOS X (the bitmap-all-the-things theme) and Win95 (in function), and of course Vista's scrollbar follows on from that.
MacOS Lion's scrollbar actually comes from MacOS X and the conventions of mobile devices, which is a whole other lineage not even present.
And the Windows 10 scrollbar comes from MacOS Lion (and the minimalist design trend in general) and Vista.
- eschaton 7y agoThe Windows 95 look and feel is almost entirely attributable to NEXTSTEP. Proportional scroll bars on the Mac go back to Lisa and were used in GS/OS before Mac OS. Windows had nothing to do with their adoption.
- kick 7y agoThat's false, actually. The Windows 95 look can be tied to IBM doing a massive amount of market research for their previous operating systems efforts; the monotone and 3D look was found to be the least-offensive UX globally.
- wtallis 7y agoAnd the feel/function of a Windows 95 scrollbar differs from that of a NeXT scrollbar in almost every way possible.
- echelon 7y ago> The site depicts a linear progression, but (like most things) it's more like a tree. > Windows XP's scrollbar comes from MacOS 8 More like a DAG, then! :)