[CRConrad]

> win7 was aesthetically awful, but usability was almost on point

A bunch of clicks to get to the Control Panel, but once there just a few to get to the GUI configuration dialogue box, and somewhere in that one or two more to enable "Windows Classic" style, and you had the good old W95/NT4/98/2K aesthetics back -- and all the functionality of W7. (And then you could spend a day or two getting colours and fonts and GUI-element sizes juuuust... so, if you wanted to.)

[systemvoltage]

I agree, Windows 7 wasn't as good as Win95/98. Win95 I think is just second to none in UI design. Perhaps, Cinema4D UI is a contender but that's an application. If you haven't checked, totally checkout C4D :-).