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Beautiful. It’s crazy to see this and realize how much current Windows is unusable. I haven’t used Windows in ~10 years and every time I see the current interf

Beautiful. It’s crazy to see this and realize how much current Windows is unusable. I haven’t used Windows in ~10 years and every time I see the current interface I can’t believe someone is able to use it without losing their mind.

gernb 4y ago
Just curious but in what ways? Me, I used Windows for years until ~2008. In 2008 I started using both Mac and Windows. In 2010 I started using Linux, Mac, and Windows. I never really found one better than another. Each one had their strengths, none of them had huge UI issue for me at least. For example, one plus I find on Windows vs MacOS is I use Chrome with multiple profiles. Windows is able to display an icon per profile in the dock. Mac is not (not idea if this is a limitation of MacOS or Chrome on MacOS) Another plus I find on Windows is zip support is better. On Mac, to use a zip you double click it and the OS uncompresses the zip. On Windows you double click it and Windows Explorer just looks inside the zip like it's a folder. You can directly copy and paste, or drag and drop, files out of the zip into other folders or apps, no need to first unzip it. I'm not saying Windows is better, just different. Windows 11 cleaned some things up. Explorer is streamlined compared to 10 for example. Plenty of things I like on Mac, like Terminal with bash or zsh vs Powershell on Windows (though I can run WSL but for actual windows stuff I usually stick to powershell). Airplay I use often to stream to my TV.
- kreativ_py 4y ago
  For me the taskbar in W11 is a giant step back, all windows are collapsed into a group. No idea why they removed the ability to keep them expanded other than trying to mimic the look of OSX
  - daveoc64 4y ago
    That's been the default since Windows 7 though. Most people have been using the taskbar that way for nearly 15 years, only a minority of people would have switched away from the default.
  - conductr 4y ago
    Every other major release is a step back for Windows. It’s as if they’ve not noticed that trend.
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
    I'm not upgrading to w11 because of this. such bs
    - jonathanlydall 4y ago
      I use ExplorerPatcher so that on W11, I can still have a button per open application: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher It also brings other Windows 10 UI paradigm's back in.
- jacob019 4y ago
  My favorite part of Windows is how it likes to add new features and demand my attention. And constantly use tons of cycles on VMs that aren't doing any work. And the bifurcated GUI configuration.
- leidenfrost 4y ago
  MacOS desktop feels weird after years of using gnome2, gnome3 and Kde as dsily driver. Some things are a dream come true in terms of utility. Others feel really archaic compared to FOSS desktops.
- rollcat 4y ago
  > For example, one plus I find on Windows vs MacOS is I use Chrome with multiple profiles. Windows is able to display an icon per profile in the dock. Mac is not (not idea if this is a limitation of MacOS or Chrome on MacOS) I have a strong feeling that this is Chrome's limitation. The builtin Activity Monitor on macOS can even plot a realtime graph of CPU usage in the dock icon, and various other apps (including third party) are able to alter their own icon as well, so this doesn't look like a private API. Having two separate instances of an app in the dock is achievable with minimal hackery (I managed to do this a couple of times by accident, just by poking at and exploring the system). Of course nothing helps if the app doesn't want to go the extra mile to integrate with the platform, which is how we keep ending up with the lowest common denominators for everything.
buryat 4y ago
if you havent used in 10 years how can you judge the usability objectively?
cube00 4y ago
I'll take it over the current slow WPF mess.
- ripley12 4y ago
  What WPF mess are you talking about? Aside from Visual Studio, I can't think of many first-party GUIs that are written in WPF.
  - cube00 4y ago
    I was thinking Visual Studio, fired up 2008 on a VM with minimal specs the other day and it's amazing how fast it used to be. Admittedly I know WPF needs good graphics hardware which I'm sure Citrix is not providing. I know we need to scale for different screens but the reality is it's slower then ever on faster hardware.
    - spaetzleesser 4y ago
      The port of VS to WPF was definitely not a showcase for WPF capabilities. Pretty much everything was worse or slower after the port. And a ton of features was missing. Even now the customization of toolbars is not as elegant as it was on 2008. Not a surprise that they didn’t use XAML for any other big application
      - ripley12 4y ago
        > Not a surprise that they didn’t use XAML for any other big application UWP/WinUI/Metro uses XAML and Microsoft was very committed to that for a while. UWP didn't really pan out, but that was for reasons other than XAML and WinUI IMO.
Aeolun 4y ago
I have more or less this theme on my linux installation. It’s both nostalgic and very useable. Just need a slight update for high dpi, since the buttons are a tad hard to click.

gernb 4y ago

Just curious but in what ways? Me, I used Windows for years until ~2008. In 2008 I started using both Mac and Windows. In 2010 I started using Linux, Mac, and Windows. I never really found one better than another. Each one had their strengths, none of them had huge UI issue for me at least. For example, one plus I find on Windows vs MacOS is I use Chrome with multiple profiles. Windows is able to display an icon per profile in the dock. Mac is not (not idea if this is a limitation of MacOS or Chrome on MacOS) Another plus I find on Windows is zip support is better. On Mac, to use a zip you double click it and the OS uncompresses the zip. On Windows you double click it and Windows Explorer just looks inside the zip like it's a folder. You can directly copy and paste, or drag and drop, files out of the zip into other folders or apps, no need to first unzip it. I'm not saying Windows is better, just different. Windows 11 cleaned some things up. Explorer is streamlined compared to 10 for example. Plenty of things I like on Mac, like Terminal with bash or zsh vs Powershell on Windows (though I can run WSL but for actual windows stuff I usually stick to powershell). Airplay I use often to stream to my TV.

kreativ_py 4y ago
For me the taskbar in W11 is a giant step back, all windows are collapsed into a group. No idea why they removed the ability to keep them expanded other than trying to mimic the look of OSX
- daveoc64 4y ago
  That's been the default since Windows 7 though. Most people have been using the taskbar that way for nearly 15 years, only a minority of people would have switched away from the default.
- conductr 4y ago
  Every other major release is a step back for Windows. It’s as if they’ve not noticed that trend.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
  I'm not upgrading to w11 because of this. such bs
  - jonathanlydall 4y ago
    I use ExplorerPatcher so that on W11, I can still have a button per open application: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher It also brings other Windows 10 UI paradigm's back in.
jacob019 4y ago
My favorite part of Windows is how it likes to add new features and demand my attention. And constantly use tons of cycles on VMs that aren't doing any work. And the bifurcated GUI configuration.
leidenfrost 4y ago
MacOS desktop feels weird after years of using gnome2, gnome3 and Kde as dsily driver. Some things are a dream come true in terms of utility. Others feel really archaic compared to FOSS desktops.
rollcat 4y ago
> For example, one plus I find on Windows vs MacOS is I use Chrome with multiple profiles. Windows is able to display an icon per profile in the dock. Mac is not (not idea if this is a limitation of MacOS or Chrome on MacOS) I have a strong feeling that this is Chrome's limitation. The builtin Activity Monitor on macOS can even plot a realtime graph of CPU usage in the dock icon, and various other apps (including third party) are able to alter their own icon as well, so this doesn't look like a private API. Having two separate instances of an app in the dock is achievable with minimal hackery (I managed to do this a couple of times by accident, just by poking at and exploring the system). Of course nothing helps if the app doesn't want to go the extra mile to integrate with the platform, which is how we keep ending up with the lowest common denominators for everything.

buryat 4y ago

if you havent used in 10 years how can you judge the usability objectively?

cube00 4y ago

I'll take it over the current slow WPF mess.

ripley12 4y ago
What WPF mess are you talking about? Aside from Visual Studio, I can't think of many first-party GUIs that are written in WPF.
- cube00 4y ago
  I was thinking Visual Studio, fired up 2008 on a VM with minimal specs the other day and it's amazing how fast it used to be. Admittedly I know WPF needs good graphics hardware which I'm sure Citrix is not providing. I know we need to scale for different screens but the reality is it's slower then ever on faster hardware.
  - spaetzleesser 4y ago
    The port of VS to WPF was definitely not a showcase for WPF capabilities. Pretty much everything was worse or slower after the port. And a ton of features was missing. Even now the customization of toolbars is not as elegant as it was on 2008. Not a surprise that they didn’t use XAML for any other big application
    - ripley12 4y ago
      > Not a surprise that they didn’t use XAML for any other big application UWP/WinUI/Metro uses XAML and Microsoft was very committed to that for a while. UWP didn't really pan out, but that was for reasons other than XAML and WinUI IMO.

Aeolun 4y ago

I have more or less this theme on my linux installation. It’s both nostalgic and very useable. Just need a slight update for high dpi, since the buttons are a tad hard to click.