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I never got over Windows 2000. That old grey theme was ugly, but an extremely clear and efficient design language. In wanting to keep on with the good and trust

by j1elo 3y ago

I never got over Windows 2000. That old grey theme was ugly, but an extremely clear and efficient design language. In wanting to keep on with the good and trusted, I would always disable all theming on Windows 7, which gave you basically the same style.

wharvle 3y ago
I forgot Win7 had a theme other than the "classic" one, so was briefly taken aback when I clicked the link and saw the screenshots. Classic theme Win7 is peak Windows, aside from the installation footprint being incredibly bloated compared to WinXP.
toasteros 3y ago
Try Reactionary[0] for a W2K-ish like thing for KDE. The same author has other themes like Expose[1] which I'm actually using for my daily theme. [0]: https://store.kde.org/p/1252411 https://store.kde.org/p/1252411 [1]: https://store.kde.org/p/1479063/ https://store.kde.org/p/1479063/
- andai 3y ago
  Reactionary looks cool, especially some of the icons being flat. (Not entirely kosher, but it sort of works!) But when I saw Expose I just laughed with delight. It warms my heart that people are still enjoying XP's aesthetic.
smusamashah 3y ago
https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar replicates all old taskbar and I have been using it for a long time now. Works perfectly on Windows 10.
runjake 3y ago
Circa Win95 - Win2000 windows always reminded me of NeXTSTEP windows, and I wonder if that's where Microsoft got it's inspiration. Edit: Here's a mirror of a document that purports to be from a Windows 95 design team member: https://socket3.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/designing-windows-95s-user-interface/ https://socket3.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/designing-windows-9... Edit2: And a Hanselman podcast episode with Kent Sullivan and Derek Hoiem: https://hanselminutes.com/628/a-history-of-the-windows-95-start-button-and-user-research-at-microsoft-with-kent-sullivan https://hanselminutes.com/628/a-history-of-the-windows-95-st...
- Ckirby 3y ago
  [dead]
- wkat4242 3y ago
  And NextSTEP was very similar again to the motif widget kit which powered fvwm, VUE and CDE and a few others.
BLKNSLVR 3y ago
I did the same, but more for performance reasons than the aesthetic or clarity.
Gud 3y ago
I use XFCE, hasn’t changed a bit for as long as I can remember, and is just as ugly.
zozbot234 3y ago
You can use Chicago95 or the B00merang Win-classic theme to achieve a similar look on GTK+-based Linux desktops. It even works seamlessly with responsive/mobile-friendly GTK+4 apps, they show the same clear and simple widget design.

by j1elo 3y ago

wharvle 3y ago

I forgot Win7 had a theme other than the "classic" one, so was briefly taken aback when I clicked the link and saw the screenshots. Classic theme Win7 is peak Windows, aside from the installation footprint being incredibly bloated compared to WinXP.

toasteros 3y ago

Try Reactionary[0] for a W2K-ish like thing for KDE. The same author has other themes like Expose[1] which I'm actually using for my daily theme. [0]: https://store.kde.org/p/1252411 https://store.kde.org/p/1252411 [1]: https://store.kde.org/p/1479063/ https://store.kde.org/p/1479063/

andai 3y ago
Reactionary looks cool, especially some of the icons being flat. (Not entirely kosher, but it sort of works!) But when I saw Expose I just laughed with delight. It warms my heart that people are still enjoying XP's aesthetic.

smusamashah 3y ago

https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar replicates all old taskbar and I have been using it for a long time now. Works perfectly on Windows 10.

runjake 3y ago

Circa Win95 - Win2000 windows always reminded me of NeXTSTEP windows, and I wonder if that's where Microsoft got it's inspiration. Edit: Here's a mirror of a document that purports to be from a Windows 95 design team member: https://socket3.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/designing-windows-95s-user-interface/ https://socket3.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/designing-windows-9... Edit2: And a Hanselman podcast episode with Kent Sullivan and Derek Hoiem: https://hanselminutes.com/628/a-history-of-the-windows-95-start-button-and-user-research-at-microsoft-with-kent-sullivan https://hanselminutes.com/628/a-history-of-the-windows-95-st...

Ckirby 3y ago
[dead]
wkat4242 3y ago
And NextSTEP was very similar again to the motif widget kit which powered fvwm, VUE and CDE and a few others.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

I did the same, but more for performance reasons than the aesthetic or clarity.

Gud 3y ago

I use XFCE, hasn’t changed a bit for as long as I can remember, and is just as ugly.

zozbot234 3y ago

You can use Chicago95 or the B00merang Win-classic theme to achieve a similar look on GTK+-based Linux desktops. It even works seamlessly with responsive/mobile-friendly GTK+4 apps, they show the same clear and simple widget design.