> [...] Basically, a 2005 Windows UI is mostly a bad windows UI. It is good to look back at what they did wrong, but also what they did right. For me the most

> [...] Basically, a 2005 Windows UI is mostly a bad windows UI. It is good to look back at what they did wrong, but also what they did right. For me the most notable things: BAD: too many windows and dialogs. The 90s GUI paradigm was all about pumping out a new window or dialog for every interaction or feature. In this regard Microsoft Windows was actually the least offender, most Unixes and Macs went even further and had each toolbar on its own window, it was madness. In this regard modern single-window apps are much better, the modern tabbed web browsers being the best example (I love that even the config dialog was turned into a tab). GOOD: the clear visual separation of "layers". Modern GUIs are too flat for their own good, there is little visual cues separating the app window vs app content, everything has almost the same off-white background so the app toolbars and the app content sit on the same visual domain. The late 90s Windows had a very clear distinction: content have white background, app (window,menus,toolbar,widgets,...) had grey background, so the eye was automatically drawn to the one you wanted. Looking at the screenshots in the article the difference is jarring, the Windows XP/8/10 panels are mostly visually flat, there is nothing guiding your eyes to what you want (content vs toolbars), while the 95/98/2000/ME and Vista had clear visual layers.