6 ms·

Haiku looked amazing and beautiful in 2009 when I first learned about it. Today it looks dated like Windows 95.

mtillman 3y ago
Disagree strongly. I find its appearance 10X more visually appealing than any modern UI (win/mac/kde/etc). They’re all incredibly wasteful of space and chunky. Also, designers ruined OSX by making it flat and joyless.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  They not just waste space but at the same time break some of the UI. Recently it took me half a minute to drag a window into view on Mac OS because aside from a few pixels every single part of the window "title bar" was actually some button or widget. I wish mainstream operating systems implemented DWM's shortcuts for window dragging/resizing, those are amazing: holding the key and left mouse button makes the window draggable anywhere, and right mouse button instantly resizes the window so the bottom right corner is at the mouse cursor position. And I hate auto-hiding, narrow scrollbars so much. Scrollbars have exactly two purposes: show the scroll progress and allow faster scrolling than with the wheel/gesture. Both are effectively prevented by it going invisible. There was a time when I found the Windows 98 UI a bit "old", but honestly in the long run it aged better than almost everything that came after.
  - snvzz 3y ago
    The interface peaked in Windows 2000. XP and beyond were a mistake, UI/UX wise.
    - mtillman 3y ago
      Irix, OS 8, and perhaps Enlightenment are high water marks for me. I can see people’s affinity for 2000 though.
mepian 3y ago
I wish modern operating systems looked like Windows 95, I think this was the one time Microsoft got their user experience right, except for the things that were forced on them by backward compatibility concerns, e.g. "in-band" filename extensions that were awkwardly hidden by later versions of Windows.
- latexr 3y ago
  Haven’t tried either, but there’s https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 and https://serenityos.org/ https://serenityos.org/
  - zozbot234 3y ago
    https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-95 https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-95 has a theme for GTK+4 with classic widgets, they work quite well w/ the new "responsive" mobile-friendly apps. Unfortunately you'll need to replace your GTK+ user config outright to use it because the new version has no support for themes.
Apocryphon 3y ago
That’s to a certain advantage though. There’s a nostalgic pining for simpler cleaner OS aesthetics. See the vaporwave and Frutiger Aero trends, and the interest in SerenityOS.
- anthk 3y ago
  Aero was not simpler or cleaner. Ditto with KDE3 with Keramik. Usable and with clear widgets? Yes, but not simpler. Simpler, clean and usable were Mac OS 7-8, Windows 95-2k, or BeOS. Also, lots of vaporwave confuses the 80's and 90's, often made from people which either they weren't there or they were too young. To me the years from1996 and 2004 share lots of traits, (being Mac OSX almost the pinaccle of late 90's technologism and optimistic futurism), and early 90's were culturally almost an extension of the late 80's. Both in trends, music, movies... things began to change with Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, and so on.
  - Apocryphon 3y ago
    To me, the appeal of Frutiger Aero is more in the proto-solarpunk marketing (skyscrapers surrounded by verdant fields under sunny blue skies, dolphins leaping) than the actual UI. Though hard to hate on the Wii Shop Channel. Bluecurve from Red Hat is a nice bridge between the '90s and late '00s era, as far as design languages go.
LeoPanthera 3y ago
I could not disagree more about Windows 95 looking "dated". It's one the clearest, simplest, and easiest to parse UIs I've ever seen. Buttons look like buttons. Scroll bars are thick and clear. Draggable objects are obvious. It's a huge shame that we've gone only backwards since then, IMHO.
- paulryanrogers 3y ago
  Sometimes I wonder what kids will consider a 'button' since their first few years will be touch screens, magic corner trackpads, and no-show clickers in MightyMice. Do TV remotes even have physical buttons any more?
  - Avshalom 3y ago
    Last Christmas, one of the most popular toys we sold was Pop-Its, which is nothing more that a plastic sheet of buttons. I am not worried that the kids will grow up not understanding the concept of a button. https://www.target.com/s/pop+it+fidget+toy https://www.target.com/s/pop+it+fidget+toy
  - trealira 3y ago
    TV remotes do still have buttons. Also, there are still on/off buttons and volume buttons on phones. Video game controllers still use buttons. Car radios and car A/C and heaters still use physical buttons.
    - theandrewbailey 3y ago
      > Car radios and car A/C and heaters still use physical buttons. Depends on the car's year, make, and model. It could be touchscreen only.
      - trealira 3y ago
        That's fair. I haven't yet seen a car with only a touchscreen and nothing else, but I wouldn't be surprised by the existence of such a car. I don't actively keep up with new cars.
waddlesplash 3y ago
There's a "flat" decorator which makes things look more 'modern', if that's what you want: https://github.com/unarix/haiku_darkstyle#darkflat https://github.com/unarix/haiku_darkstyle#darkflat (Available in the Depot; install "haiku_extras" package.)

Disagree strongly. I find its appearance 10X more visually appealing than any modern UI (win/mac/kde/etc). They’re all incredibly wasteful of space and chunky. Also, designers ruined OSX by making it flat and joyless.

alpaca128 3y ago
They not just waste space but at the same time break some of the UI. Recently it took me half a minute to drag a window into view on Mac OS because aside from a few pixels every single part of the window "title bar" was actually some button or widget. I wish mainstream operating systems implemented DWM's shortcuts for window dragging/resizing, those are amazing: holding the key and left mouse button makes the window draggable anywhere, and right mouse button instantly resizes the window so the bottom right corner is at the mouse cursor position. And I hate auto-hiding, narrow scrollbars so much. Scrollbars have exactly two purposes: show the scroll progress and allow faster scrolling than with the wheel/gesture. Both are effectively prevented by it going invisible. There was a time when I found the Windows 98 UI a bit "old", but honestly in the long run it aged better than almost everything that came after.
- snvzz 3y ago
  The interface peaked in Windows 2000. XP and beyond were a mistake, UI/UX wise.
  - mtillman 3y ago
    Irix, OS 8, and perhaps Enlightenment are high water marks for me. I can see people’s affinity for 2000 though.

mepian 3y ago

I wish modern operating systems looked like Windows 95, I think this was the one time Microsoft got their user experience right, except for the things that were forced on them by backward compatibility concerns, e.g. "in-band" filename extensions that were awkwardly hidden by later versions of Windows.

latexr 3y ago
Haven’t tried either, but there’s https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 and https://serenityos.org/ https://serenityos.org/
- zozbot234 3y ago
  https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-95 https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-95 has a theme for GTK+4 with classic widgets, they work quite well w/ the new "responsive" mobile-friendly apps. Unfortunately you'll need to replace your GTK+ user config outright to use it because the new version has no support for themes.

Apocryphon 3y ago

That’s to a certain advantage though. There’s a nostalgic pining for simpler cleaner OS aesthetics. See the vaporwave and Frutiger Aero trends, and the interest in SerenityOS.

anthk 3y ago
Aero was not simpler or cleaner. Ditto with KDE3 with Keramik. Usable and with clear widgets? Yes, but not simpler. Simpler, clean and usable were Mac OS 7-8, Windows 95-2k, or BeOS. Also, lots of vaporwave confuses the 80's and 90's, often made from people which either they weren't there or they were too young. To me the years from1996 and 2004 share lots of traits, (being Mac OSX almost the pinaccle of late 90's technologism and optimistic futurism), and early 90's were culturally almost an extension of the late 80's. Both in trends, music, movies... things began to change with Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, and so on.
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  To me, the appeal of Frutiger Aero is more in the proto-solarpunk marketing (skyscrapers surrounded by verdant fields under sunny blue skies, dolphins leaping) than the actual UI. Though hard to hate on the Wii Shop Channel. Bluecurve from Red Hat is a nice bridge between the '90s and late '00s era, as far as design languages go.

LeoPanthera 3y ago

I could not disagree more about Windows 95 looking "dated". It's one the clearest, simplest, and easiest to parse UIs I've ever seen. Buttons look like buttons. Scroll bars are thick and clear. Draggable objects are obvious. It's a huge shame that we've gone only backwards since then, IMHO.

paulryanrogers 3y ago
Sometimes I wonder what kids will consider a 'button' since their first few years will be touch screens, magic corner trackpads, and no-show clickers in MightyMice. Do TV remotes even have physical buttons any more?
- Avshalom 3y ago
  Last Christmas, one of the most popular toys we sold was Pop-Its, which is nothing more that a plastic sheet of buttons. I am not worried that the kids will grow up not understanding the concept of a button. https://www.target.com/s/pop+it+fidget+toy https://www.target.com/s/pop+it+fidget+toy
- trealira 3y ago
  TV remotes do still have buttons. Also, there are still on/off buttons and volume buttons on phones. Video game controllers still use buttons. Car radios and car A/C and heaters still use physical buttons.
  - theandrewbailey 3y ago
    > Car radios and car A/C and heaters still use physical buttons. Depends on the car's year, make, and model. It could be touchscreen only.
    - trealira 3y ago
      That's fair. I haven't yet seen a car with only a touchscreen and nothing else, but I wouldn't be surprised by the existence of such a car. I don't actively keep up with new cars.

waddlesplash 3y ago

There's a "flat" decorator which makes things look more 'modern', if that's what you want: https://github.com/unarix/haiku_darkstyle#darkflat https://github.com/unarix/haiku_darkstyle#darkflat (Available in the Depot; install "haiku_extras" package.)