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> Man, the desktop was so beautiful and refreshing. I get the same feeling when doing a fresh install+boot of both OS X 10.9 Mavericks and Windows 7. They're j

> Man, the desktop was so beautiful and refreshing. I get the same feeling when doing a fresh install+boot of both OS X 10.9 Mavericks and Windows 7. They're just so much more pleasant than what we have now. It'd be nice if modern desktop operating systems took a lesson or two from their past selves.

jcgrillo 8mo ago
I feel the same way about Unix desktops. The newer stuff just.. looks gross? And it's difficult to use. I'm very thankful for Mate, especially the Alt+F2 behavior, but also the simple menu layout vs some horrible combination of search and popups.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- cosmic_cheese 8mo ago
  GNOME 2/MATE isn't quite to my taste for my personal use, but it is cozy in a way that post-3.0 versions aren't.
  - jcgrillo 8mo ago
    For me it's the difference between "this is a computer" vs "this is a computer trying to be a cell phone". I think that's what everything from the last 15yr is trying to be--a phone. And not everything is a phone. On a computer we have a keyboard and a mouse, which are much, much more precise tools than vague gestures on a touchscreen. EDIT: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this is basically everything that's wrong with the computer(-adjacent) industry. We can appreciate the problem statement by asking "why would anyone want to make a computer be a phone?" The answer is a terminal case of a particularly defensive form of groupthink. It goes something like this: (1) "everyone is talking about the iPhone" (2) "i need to feel relevant, ergo i must make phone noises too" then they rub these two neurons together, and since it's the only two they got it isn't hard for them, and this process repeats a few generations and like a nuclear chain reaction soon enough the entire industry is trying to make everything be a fucking phone. It shouldn't be like that. EDIT2: As a species we don't play these games with other tools. Cars--some super early attempts had weird shit like tillers for steering but we quickly outgrew that idea and settled on the steering wheel, levers for the other hand, and pedals for the feet. Same with airplanes and tracked vehicles (bulldozers, tanks, etc). Same with machine tools. This stupid game people are playing with computer interfaces these days is fundamentally inhuman.
    - Keyframe 8mo ago
      It's so obvious now that you wrote it, but it never occurred to me as such. New desktops, be it macOS, Gnome, Win.. they all look like damn phones and not computers.
      - 1over137 8mo ago
        If you're under 25ish, you probably had a smartphone while still in diapers. When/if you later learn to use a desktop, it being like a smartphone makes it familiar. Sucks for us geezers that learned things the other way around though!
        DaSHacka 8mo ago
        More like ~18 and under. The post-2007 zoomers and nearly all alphites are ipad kids, but that drops off dramatically as you get to the older zoomer segment and millennials. At least, in my anecdotal experience.
        ribosometronome 8mo ago
        >If you're under 25ish, you probably had a smartphone while still in diapers Circa 2004, when 25 year olds would probably be migrated out of diapers, smartphones were palm treos and Sony Ericsson K700s. I don't think they would be great distractions for kids, there certainly wouldn't be any endless Spiderman/Elsa YouTube to lock them in.
        swiftcoder 8mo ago
        > If you're under 25ish People seem to forget that "smartphones" (in the post-iPhone sense) are barely old enough to drive. The first iPhone came out in 2007, android doesn't drop till the following year, and the first iPad doesn't come out till 2010. If you were a kid with a video-playing smartphone before about 2012, your parents were pretty damn well off, and likely early adopters too
        withinboredom 8mo ago
        Smart devices have been around a lot longer than that. I was using a palm pilot in the 90s as a teen.
  - hedora 8mo ago
    I've settled on XFCE. It just works. You have to turn too many knobs to make it work on weird DPI / screen sizes, but other than that, it's fine. Recently, I fired up Win 3.11 in 1600x1200@256 mode to run SimAnt, and was pretty shocked at how much better it felt than most modern operating systems. I kind of feel like the start menu + task bar were a mistake now. It is nice having the bluetooth + network icon somewhere accessible, but maybe <ctrl>-space should just pop up a thing that lets you type program names + also temporarily hide all windows over 10% of the screen or something? That'd solve the problem of trying to find program manager to run a second program. Also, the windows in windows approach of program manager wasn't great. Still, it's better than most things out there these days. The icons are so... clean.
    - cosmic_cheese 8mo ago
      In my opinion, the versions of Mac OS with the Platinum theme (8, 8.5, 9) have aged quite gracefully. It's clearly not modern, but it also doesn't feel particularly old or kludgy or anything, and it's quite clean relative to modern desktops.
      - blackhaz 8mo ago
        Same as Windows 3.1, and Windows 95, up to 2000. After some point computers began to be optimized for a non-technical person and here we go... Ads, auto-updates, pop-ups, bright colors, all this fucking desktop circus.
        Nition 8mo ago
        The older OS's with their simple interfaces and clear buttons were easier for non-technical people as well. I'm not certain who they're really optimising for now, exactly... shareholders?
        jychang 8mo ago
        Nah, that's a cop out answer. Can't blame everything on shareholders when all the major Linux DEs do the same.
- a1o 8mo ago
  I have an older computer running Ubuntu with Unity 7 DE, I think it looks beautiful. It’s a computer that barely connects to the internet and I use for playing with electronics. I think that was the most intuitive DE on Linux.
- aryonoco 8mo ago
  There are people who believe that KDE 3 was the perfect desktop. They forked it when KDE 4 was released (initial KDE 4 releases were really rough), called it the Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE). I actually really like modern Gnome but every once in a while I try out TDE and it does give me a nice cozy feeling, like looking at old album photos. I have a friend who refuses to use anything other than CDE and still manages to compile and run it on modern Linux distros.
jama211 8mo ago
I feel the average HN user though might be a bad representation of the general population. Personally I prefer the aesthetic of windows 11 over 7, it’s about the ONLY thing I prefer about windows 11, but windows 7 looks extremely dated to me now.
- joe_mamba 8mo ago
  >but windows 7 looks extremely dated to me now. This is a highly subjective thing.
  - vinay427 8mo ago
    This can be a relevant reminder at times, but based on their phrasing, I think they’re aware: > Personally I prefer […] looks extremely dated to me now. Compare to the GP comment, for instance, where this may still be the case but is less clear from phrasing: > They're just so much more pleasant
    - jama211 8mo ago
      Indeed, I tried to not repeat their mistake of sounding like you’re speaking in objective terms.
  - jama211 8mo ago
    That’s my point. They were stating it like it was objective, so I countered with my subjective opinion.
- asimovDev 8mo ago
  i don't have a w11 supported machine, but when I see the OS in videos or screenshots, I always thought it looks surprisingly pleasant and fresh, compared to 10. Really miss Vista though, that one was amazing visually.
  - jama211 8mo ago
    You probably do, I thought I didn’t but if you just disable the warning about TPM 2.0 with a simple command it lets you install it just fine. Had no problems for years now.
user432678 8mo ago
Installed and activated Windows 7 yesterday on the laptop I was preparing to sell. Surprised to learn something my brain offloaded long time ago. We had Apple Glass in 2008 on Windows!
- hbn 8mo ago
  My PC is unfortunately on Windows 11, but I recently purchased StartAllBack which lets you replace the start menu with a Windows 7-era sensible one, and you can even change the Start icon and various chrome in the OS (the task bar, file explorer, etc) to revert back to Windows 7 style. Maybe I'm just nostalgic but it's made Windows 11 so much better.

jcgrillo 8mo ago

I feel the same way about Unix desktops. The newer stuff just.. looks gross? And it's difficult to use. I'm very thankful for Mate, especially the Alt+F2 behavior, but also the simple menu layout vs some horrible combination of search and popups.

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
cosmic_cheese 8mo ago
GNOME 2/MATE isn't quite to my taste for my personal use, but it is cozy in a way that post-3.0 versions aren't.
- jcgrillo 8mo ago
  For me it's the difference between "this is a computer" vs "this is a computer trying to be a cell phone". I think that's what everything from the last 15yr is trying to be--a phone. And not everything is a phone. On a computer we have a keyboard and a mouse, which are much, much more precise tools than vague gestures on a touchscreen. EDIT: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this is basically everything that's wrong with the computer(-adjacent) industry. We can appreciate the problem statement by asking "why would anyone want to make a computer be a phone?" The answer is a terminal case of a particularly defensive form of groupthink. It goes something like this: (1) "everyone is talking about the iPhone" (2) "i need to feel relevant, ergo i must make phone noises too" then they rub these two neurons together, and since it's the only two they got it isn't hard for them, and this process repeats a few generations and like a nuclear chain reaction soon enough the entire industry is trying to make everything be a fucking phone. It shouldn't be like that. EDIT2: As a species we don't play these games with other tools. Cars--some super early attempts had weird shit like tillers for steering but we quickly outgrew that idea and settled on the steering wheel, levers for the other hand, and pedals for the feet. Same with airplanes and tracked vehicles (bulldozers, tanks, etc). Same with machine tools. This stupid game people are playing with computer interfaces these days is fundamentally inhuman.
  - Keyframe 8mo ago
    It's so obvious now that you wrote it, but it never occurred to me as such. New desktops, be it macOS, Gnome, Win.. they all look like damn phones and not computers.
    - 1over137 8mo ago
      If you're under 25ish, you probably had a smartphone while still in diapers. When/if you later learn to use a desktop, it being like a smartphone makes it familiar. Sucks for us geezers that learned things the other way around though!
      - DaSHacka 8mo ago
        More like ~18 and under. The post-2007 zoomers and nearly all alphites are ipad kids, but that drops off dramatically as you get to the older zoomer segment and millennials. At least, in my anecdotal experience.
      - ribosometronome 8mo ago
        >If you're under 25ish, you probably had a smartphone while still in diapers Circa 2004, when 25 year olds would probably be migrated out of diapers, smartphones were palm treos and Sony Ericsson K700s. I don't think they would be great distractions for kids, there certainly wouldn't be any endless Spiderman/Elsa YouTube to lock them in.
      - swiftcoder 8mo ago
        > If you're under 25ish People seem to forget that "smartphones" (in the post-iPhone sense) are barely old enough to drive. The first iPhone came out in 2007, android doesn't drop till the following year, and the first iPad doesn't come out till 2010. If you were a kid with a video-playing smartphone before about 2012, your parents were pretty damn well off, and likely early adopters too
        withinboredom 8mo ago
        Smart devices have been around a lot longer than that. I was using a palm pilot in the 90s as a teen.
- hedora 8mo ago
  I've settled on XFCE. It just works. You have to turn too many knobs to make it work on weird DPI / screen sizes, but other than that, it's fine. Recently, I fired up Win 3.11 in 1600x1200@256 mode to run SimAnt, and was pretty shocked at how much better it felt than most modern operating systems. I kind of feel like the start menu + task bar were a mistake now. It is nice having the bluetooth + network icon somewhere accessible, but maybe <ctrl>-space should just pop up a thing that lets you type program names + also temporarily hide all windows over 10% of the screen or something? That'd solve the problem of trying to find program manager to run a second program. Also, the windows in windows approach of program manager wasn't great. Still, it's better than most things out there these days. The icons are so... clean.
  - cosmic_cheese 8mo ago
    In my opinion, the versions of Mac OS with the Platinum theme (8, 8.5, 9) have aged quite gracefully. It's clearly not modern, but it also doesn't feel particularly old or kludgy or anything, and it's quite clean relative to modern desktops.
    - blackhaz 8mo ago
      Same as Windows 3.1, and Windows 95, up to 2000. After some point computers began to be optimized for a non-technical person and here we go... Ads, auto-updates, pop-ups, bright colors, all this fucking desktop circus.
      - Nition 8mo ago
        The older OS's with their simple interfaces and clear buttons were easier for non-technical people as well. I'm not certain who they're really optimising for now, exactly... shareholders?
        jychang 8mo ago
        Nah, that's a cop out answer. Can't blame everything on shareholders when all the major Linux DEs do the same.
a1o 8mo ago
I have an older computer running Ubuntu with Unity 7 DE, I think it looks beautiful. It’s a computer that barely connects to the internet and I use for playing with electronics. I think that was the most intuitive DE on Linux.
aryonoco 8mo ago
There are people who believe that KDE 3 was the perfect desktop. They forked it when KDE 4 was released (initial KDE 4 releases were really rough), called it the Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE). I actually really like modern Gnome but every once in a while I try out TDE and it does give me a nice cozy feeling, like looking at old album photos. I have a friend who refuses to use anything other than CDE and still manages to compile and run it on modern Linux distros.

jama211 8mo ago

I feel the average HN user though might be a bad representation of the general population. Personally I prefer the aesthetic of windows 11 over 7, it’s about the ONLY thing I prefer about windows 11, but windows 7 looks extremely dated to me now.

joe_mamba 8mo ago
>but windows 7 looks extremely dated to me now. This is a highly subjective thing.
- vinay427 8mo ago
  This can be a relevant reminder at times, but based on their phrasing, I think they’re aware: > Personally I prefer […] looks extremely dated to me now. Compare to the GP comment, for instance, where this may still be the case but is less clear from phrasing: > They're just so much more pleasant
  - jama211 8mo ago
    Indeed, I tried to not repeat their mistake of sounding like you’re speaking in objective terms.
- jama211 8mo ago
  That’s my point. They were stating it like it was objective, so I countered with my subjective opinion.
asimovDev 8mo ago
i don't have a w11 supported machine, but when I see the OS in videos or screenshots, I always thought it looks surprisingly pleasant and fresh, compared to 10. Really miss Vista though, that one was amazing visually.
- jama211 8mo ago
  You probably do, I thought I didn’t but if you just disable the warning about TPM 2.0 with a simple command it lets you install it just fine. Had no problems for years now.

user432678 8mo ago

Installed and activated Windows 7 yesterday on the laptop I was preparing to sell. Surprised to learn something my brain offloaded long time ago. We had Apple Glass in 2008 on Windows!

hbn 8mo ago
My PC is unfortunately on Windows 11, but I recently purchased StartAllBack which lets you replace the start menu with a Windows 7-era sensible one, and you can even change the Start icon and various chrome in the OS (the task bar, file explorer, etc) to revert back to Windows 7 style. Maybe I'm just nostalgic but it's made Windows 11 so much better.