Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think it's fair to say that NeXTSTEP is considered to be extraordinary for its time, and one of the most influential

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think it's fair to say that NeXTSTEP is considered to be extraordinary for its time, and one of the most influential GUIs in history. When NeXTSTEP 0.8 came out in 1989, here's what it and some competitors looked like: NeXTSTEP 0.8: http://toastytech.com/guis/ns08.html http://toastytech.com/guis/ns08.html Windows 2.1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2.1x https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2.1x MacOS 6.0.4: https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/System_6.0.4 https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/System_6.0.4 The last version of NeXTSTEP was 4.x in 1996. Here's what it looked like compared to its competitors at the time: NeXTSTEP 4.x: https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/openstep42 https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/openstep42 Windows 95: https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win95 https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win95 MacOS wasn't quite 8 yet but we'll be nice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_8 Note that Windows 95 (and OS/2) had copied NeXTSTEP GUI elements wholesale, including the 3D styling, the design of many widgets, the close and miniaturize icons, etc. It was direct and unabashed theft. Of course NeXTSTEP had huge technological advances beyond just how its GUI looked, but that's what we're talking about. At any rate, I hope by this point that you are convinced that (1) when NeXTSTEP came out, its GUI styling was revolutionary, (2) by the time NeXT closed up shop, others were copying it rather openly, and (3) NeXTSTEP was still much better looking than they were. Fun fact: NeXTSTEP had live window dragging in version 0.8, in 1989. By the time NeXTSTEP ceased to exist as a product, Windows and MacOS still didn't have it.