[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Also they didn't consider themselves to be unique and special snowflakes that needed non-standard widgets and theming.

Also the internet wasn't as big a thing so marketing hadn't taken over computing yet.

[ryandrake]

> Also they didn't consider themselves to be unique and special snowflakes that needed non-standard widgets and theming.

Ugh, this hurts my soul. I've worked with way too many designers who simply had to use their own icons and menus and scroll bars and drop-downs and on and on. Yea, let's throw out the person-centuries of interaction design research that the OS vendor put into the standard controls so that you, 3 years out of design school, can impose your "improved" version of them.

[shaan7]

Apparently designers need to do that for "brand identity" and need to "differentiate ourselves"

[mrguyorama]

Which is why they all do the exact same "minimalism" or "flat" design styling of course.

[anthk]

>Also the internet wasn't as big a thing so marketing hadn't taken over computing yet.

Java it's an exception. Every company and his granma used that.

[adamc]

Yes, and Java was justly reviled at the time for slow startups.