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281 points ColinWright | 8 comments | | HN request time: 1.546s | source | bottom

GitHub repo: https://github.com/twvd/snow, Announcement from creator: https://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12509, Originally-submitted source with further details: https://oldbytes.space/@smallsco/114747196289375530
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the_other ◴[] No.44386160[source]
Off-topic...

I wish Apple would bring back the white menubar background and the coloured logo.

The white menubar makes the whole computer easier to use in a small but constant way. The coloured apple icon would suggest they no longer have their heads stuck up their assess and might bring back "fun" rather than "showing off" to their design process. And then maybe, maybe... with that "suggestion" symbolised in the UI, we can hope they might bring back the more rigorous user-centric design process they used to be famous for.

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1. thm ◴[] No.44386283[source]
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/23/macos-tahoe-beta-2-menu...
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2. SkyeCA ◴[] No.44386448[source]
Are they really changing the UI up again? I am actually so done at this point. The endless UI churn drives me absolutely mad, but I suppose when there's nothing left to do, making it look different is easy.

I suppose a built in volume mixer is still too much to ask for though.

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3. the_other ◴[] No.44389370[source]
Nice, thanks. I'll use that when I upgrade.

But I'm not going to upgrade whilst the back/next buttons are floating 3m above the window as suggested in that screen shot.

4. jamwil ◴[] No.44393971[source]
Do you harbour an honest expectation that computer UIs will look the same in 2035 as they do in 2025? That would prove to be a silly thing to hope for if you were to backtest it.

It’s not churn its change, and it’s inevitable. No sense getting worked up over it.

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5. coldpie ◴[] No.44396795{3}[source]
Sure, why not? My desktop environment hasn't significantly changed since I first set it up in 2007. The screenshots here[1] span more than 20 years (XFCE 4.0 was released in 2003) and, aside from different user-selected theming choices, look substantially similar across that whole time.

[1] https://xfce.org/about/screenshots

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6. jamwil ◴[] No.44397038{4}[source]
I like XFCE but you can’t cherry pick a niche DE that is designed for minimalism and extrapolate that to computer UIs writ large, which was the subject of my comment. Gnome, KDE, Windows, macOS… all evolve regularly.
7. hadlock ◴[] No.44398600{3}[source]
Linux desktop hasn't changed appreciably since the advent of Windows 2000, perhaps even NT4. That's 1996 or 29 years ago. XP changed the color of the start button and rounded the edges, and Windows 8 had a purple theme but it's been a remarkably consistent design. I think the only reason Microsoft has made any changes to the start bar is so that the marketing department had something visually different to show consumers, since it's such a central part of the GUI. KDE and XFCE are so similar I often forget which one to install on a new computer.

The only improvement I've seen has been for mac they have the command+space launcher which is functionally like the win+type the app you want. Graphical file browsers haven't changed since the original Mac and/or Win 3.1. Mac has never had a good tree view IMO but they do have a version of it.

The only reason UIs would change at this point is to keep UI/UX folks employed and busy, and give the marketing department something new to talk about.

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8. jamwil ◴[] No.44398624{4}[source]
If your definition of “appreciably” allows for such variation then I would say this current refresh also hasn’t changed appreciably.