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Genuinely wondering: Are we at the point where people feel nostalgic about early 2000s computing? As someone who was in their mid to late teens at the time, I

Genuinely wondering: Are we at the point where people feel nostalgic about early 2000s computing? As someone who was in their mid to late teens at the time, I find nostalgia for Windows XP in particular a bit funny because back then, people couldn’t disable the new UI and activate the “classic look” (Windows NT/9x style) fast enough.

userbinator 5y ago
I think most people liked XP specifically because they could use the classic UI, and in may other areas it was an improvement.
int_19h 5y ago
I'm in the same age cohort, and I am nostalgic about the UI feel of the era (which was basically polished IBM CUA), not the look. As far as the theming goes, you're right - I recall most power users at the time switching back to classic slate grey. But that was purely a visual difference; it behaved exactly the same. Today, I'd be willing to tolerate the ugliness of XP Blue Luna if it meant consistent UX behavior. But this isn't an endorsement of Luna - merely a sign of how far we've fallen.
ikr678 5y ago
I am certainly nostalgic for winamp every time I launch spotify.
tomjen3 5y ago
I am a little bit younger than you, and I do remember XP looking weird to begin with, but there is no doubt for me that the classic design is better and prettier than this modern flat stuff. I know, because I accidentally ran the test on myself when I picked up a test devices at one point and marved at how beautiful the new iOS was, then I realized that I had picked up a super old device that was running iOS 6, which was the last one before the flat era. XP was a huge upgrade over 98, and Win 7 was the last good operating system MS has made. If I could get a security/stability/driver upgrade to Win xp so that it works with modern hardware, I might still have been a Windows user today. Except WSL Microsoft hasn't added any useful features to Windows that I can recall or are excited about since. That said, I don't think you should put too much into the exact version of Windows emulated here - had it been 98, 95 or even Windows for Workgroups it would have been equally awesome.

userbinator 5y ago

I think most people liked XP specifically because they could use the classic UI, and in may other areas it was an improvement.

int_19h 5y ago

I'm in the same age cohort, and I am nostalgic about the UI feel of the era (which was basically polished IBM CUA), not the look. As far as the theming goes, you're right - I recall most power users at the time switching back to classic slate grey. But that was purely a visual difference; it behaved exactly the same. Today, I'd be willing to tolerate the ugliness of XP Blue Luna if it meant consistent UX behavior. But this isn't an endorsement of Luna - merely a sign of how far we've fallen.

ikr678 5y ago

I am certainly nostalgic for winamp every time I launch spotify.

tomjen3 5y ago

I am a little bit younger than you, and I do remember XP looking weird to begin with, but there is no doubt for me that the classic design is better and prettier than this modern flat stuff. I know, because I accidentally ran the test on myself when I picked up a test devices at one point and marved at how beautiful the new iOS was, then I realized that I had picked up a super old device that was running iOS 6, which was the last one before the flat era. XP was a huge upgrade over 98, and Win 7 was the last good operating system MS has made. If I could get a security/stability/driver upgrade to Win xp so that it works with modern hardware, I might still have been a Windows user today. Except WSL Microsoft hasn't added any useful features to Windows that I can recall or are excited about since. That said, I don't think you should put too much into the exact version of Windows emulated here - had it been 98, 95 or even Windows for Workgroups it would have been equally awesome.