Luna was one of my favorite Windows themes of all time. Microsoft was actually way ahead on “flat” design but it was usable, looked modern, and was attractive.

Luna was one of my favorite Windows themes of all time. Microsoft was actually way ahead on “flat” design but it was usable, looked modern, and was attractive. They threw it away to mimic the Aqua aesthetic but didn’t really understand why Aqua worked, just kind of how it looked. The final XP themes were so ugly and inconsistent. It was like at least three different widget designs were mashed together (the window frame, the standard widgets, and the scroll bars all appear to be from different worlds). Office XP and Visual Studio.NET had their own variations of flat widgets that also looked fantastic and seemed true to Luna. For a few seconds, Netscape 6 also had a really nice flat design that was replaced with bulbous, XP-esque chrome. It would have been great if Microsoft would have stuck with that flat design language. It was original, very true to their brand, and looked “professional”. I would love to hear why it was scrapped in favor of what shipped.