←back to thread

Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

(github.com)
567 points elvis70 | 2 comments | 30 Mar 25 15:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.021s | source
Show context
metadat ◴[30 Mar 25 16:14 UTC] No.43525239[source]▶
This looks nice and easy to use.

My hypothesis is today's "modern" OS user interfaces are objectively worse from a usability perspective, obfuscating key functionality behind layers of confusing menus.

It reminds me of these "OS popularity since the 70s" time lapse views:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cTKhqtll5cQ

The dominance of Windows is crazy, even today, Mac desktops and laptops are comparatively niche

replies(16): >>43525330 #>>43525364 #>>43525525 #>>43525540 #>>43525588 #>>43525908 #>>43525913 #>>43526321 #>>43526344 #>>43526446 #>>43527011 #>>43527132 #>>43527202 #>>43528185 #>>43531771 #>>43536478 #
voidfunc ◴[30 Mar 25 16:25 UTC] No.43525330[source]▶
I got in an argument with an accessibility engineer about this recently...

The whole UI as branding thing has utterly killed usability.

replies(6): >>43525352 #>>43525504 #>>43525627 #>>43526522 #>>43526880 #>>43527069 #
1. WarOnPrivacy ◴[30 Mar 25 19:57 UTC] No.43527069[source]▶
> The whole UI as branding thing has utterly killed usability.

Imagine if Active Desktop had taken over.

I eventually came up with a not-awful use for AD but that was a few years after it went away.

replies(1): >>43528031 #
2. anthk ◴[30 Mar 25 21:55 UTC] No.43528031[source]▶
It did under several ways since w98SE and Explorer with IE merged on.