3 ms·

The other day I mused, "software used to look like an alien space ship. Now it looks like paperwork." I wasn't even thinking of the Xbox when I wrote that, jus

by andai 7mo ago

The other day I mused, "software used to look like an alien space ship. Now it looks like paperwork." I wasn't even thinking of the Xbox when I wrote that, just software in general in those days. Feels like everything had depth, character, texture... But reading this article, man the Xbox sounds amazing! I need to buy one now.

AlienRobot 7mo ago
For a brief, a very brief moment, between beige Windows 98 and glass-like Windows Vista, we had a "fun" Windows XP. Thinking back it's a bit ironic. For most of history the OS'es didn't look fun, but it was that colorful one I'm most fond of.
- towledev 7mo ago
  XP was dope. Long-as-hell start menu with 80 folders.
- exmadscientist 7mo ago
  And yet XP was widely mocked and hated at the time. Usually as the "Fisher-Price" OS. Personally I never cared too much, it might have been garish in places but the interface under the skin was solid enough: it got out of the way and let me do what I needed to. Likewise for the successor Aero Glass: blingy maybe, but ultimately pretty darn functional (at least by Win7, I somehow managed to skip Vista nearly entirely). Where I drew the line was Win8: it started to get really hard to actually accomplish tasks in the OS. Win10 walked that back a bit, enough to be tolerable, then Win11 went the other way. I set up a Win11 desktop last week for the first time: what an exercise in unnecessary pain. (And Windows Spotlight backgrounds, one of the few recent MS shove-down-your-throat features that I actually like, doesn't even work reliably and there's no way to find out why. Absolutely no way. Despite an OS with a comprehensive logging system!) So it's really not correlated with the skin: it's about the functional bones of the UI. A gaming machine needs a functional UI. (Just like everything else!) But the skin on top of that can, and probably should, have some visual distinctiveness and flair. A spinning cube, though... perhaps that is just a little bit too twee?
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
Ferret7446 7mo ago
Humans get used to everything, and surprisingly quickly. It'll only take a few months for even Chthulhu to become mundane

by andai 7mo ago

AlienRobot 7mo ago

For a brief, a very brief moment, between beige Windows 98 and glass-like Windows Vista, we had a "fun" Windows XP. Thinking back it's a bit ironic. For most of history the OS'es didn't look fun, but it was that colorful one I'm most fond of.

towledev 7mo ago
XP was dope. Long-as-hell start menu with 80 folders.
exmadscientist 7mo ago
And yet XP was widely mocked and hated at the time. Usually as the "Fisher-Price" OS. Personally I never cared too much, it might have been garish in places but the interface under the skin was solid enough: it got out of the way and let me do what I needed to. Likewise for the successor Aero Glass: blingy maybe, but ultimately pretty darn functional (at least by Win7, I somehow managed to skip Vista nearly entirely). Where I drew the line was Win8: it started to get really hard to actually accomplish tasks in the OS. Win10 walked that back a bit, enough to be tolerable, then Win11 went the other way. I set up a Win11 desktop last week for the first time: what an exercise in unnecessary pain. (And Windows Spotlight backgrounds, one of the few recent MS shove-down-your-throat features that I actually like, doesn't even work reliably and there's no way to find out why. Absolutely no way. Despite an OS with a comprehensive logging system!) So it's really not correlated with the skin: it's about the functional bones of the UI. A gaming machine needs a functional UI. (Just like everything else!) But the skin on top of that can, and probably should, have some visual distinctiveness and flair. A spinning cube, though... perhaps that is just a little bit too twee?

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

Ferret7446 7mo ago

Humans get used to everything, and surprisingly quickly. It'll only take a few months for even Chthulhu to become mundane