KDE in 1999: https://czechia.kde.org/screenshots/images/medium/matthiase1.jpg https://czechia.kde.org/screenshots/images/medium/matthiase1... GNOME in 1999:

KDE in 1999: https://czechia.kde.org/screenshots/images/medium/matthiase1.jpg https://czechia.kde.org/screenshots/images/medium/matthiase1... GNOME in 1999: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/GNOME_1.0_%281999%2C_03%29_with_GNOME_Panel_1_and_File_Manager.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/GNOME_1.... Of course, it's a matter of taste, but GNOME and KDE looked pretty bad back then. If I had the money, I'd definitely preferred NeXTSTEP. It's just so much cleaner and better thought-out. This is what it looked like in the early 90ies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTSTEP#/media/File:NeXTSTEP_desktop.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTSTEP#/media/File:NeXTSTEP_... BTW, this is what NeXTSTEP looked like in 2000 (Mac OS X public beta): https://512pixels.net/projects/aqua-screenshot-library/mac-os-x-public-beta-kodiak/#jp-carousel-15269 https://512pixels.net/projects/aqua-screenshot-library/mac-o... I love NeXTSTEP, because it was awesome for its time, but I greatly prefer the latest macOS :).