[bleachedsleet]

We need more optimism in technology, more looking forward and inspiring the next generation to leave their mark; not pining for a past that’s already been here.

Nobody younger than an older millennial who grew up learning computers via Windows 95 has any interest in “retvrning” to this ethos of computing. Hell, I just described myself and even I could care less about this project other than a passing “huh that’s kinda neat” which is a rather tepid response proportional to the work that has been invested here.

There are far more interesting projects rethinking the OS right now that are actually trying their hand at unique architectures. This is just an homage to nostalgia (a technically impressive one, but still nothing inspiring here). The saddest part to me is I’m not sure the graybeards on HN will ever really get that.

[cmrdporcupine]

In the classic definition of .... "graybeards"... we have no nostalgia for Win95.

Back then we were fighting tooth and nail to undermine MS's monopoly, and Linux as you see it today is the product of that.

I will admit the first times I saw the Win95 interface I found it appealing. Though they actually cribbed a lot form the NeXTstep UI, and I'm much more fond of that.

I prefer the Sun OpenLook UI for nostalgia value, myself.

[KerrAvon]

The nostalgia for Win95 is sick, honestly. If you want to use a really good unstable mid-90's OS, classic Mac OS is right there.

[cmrdporcupine]

When I first saw screenshots of Win95 I was impressed at a certain level, from a pure look & feel POV.

But there are certain (non)usability things it introduced which I didn't think were great, actually. Window close button next to the minimize and other controls. Classic MacOS did it right by putting it on the far other side of the window where you couldn't accidentally click. The Start menu broke the whole OO metaphor by adding a deep tricky menu system. Right-clicking context menus all over the place. Task bar at the bottom dynamic depending on what is running means hard to use muscle memory and predict where a given tile will be.

Overall it was very good for the time. Though in fact I personally think the more 'flat' and minimalistic interface of Windows 3 aged better. This faux-3d bevels etc thing didn't age well. Was a novelty product of the time that NeXT kinda began and everyone followed for a bit.

The actual "operating system" (really a shell for MS-DOS) in Win95 was terrible.

[PlunderBunny]

As I grow more and more disillusioned with modern computing, I catch myself thinking “just give me macOS classic with a few nice-to-haves bolted on, like a modern browser.” (Yeah, I know those nice-to-haves are probably a lot more work than the rest of the OS).

[cmrdporcupine]

Yes, well, not crashing all over the place because of lack of memory protection would be nice.

I still don't think Apple made the right UI choices in their transition to OS X.

Something that looks more like the early Rhapsody copies would be nicer.

[pjmlp]

Only for people growing up in US, as 70's kid, the first time I managed to see Macs on person, instead of American computing magazines, was in 1995.

[pjmlp]

As someone that grew up with 8 bit, Amigas and PCs, I have plenty of nostalgia for Windows 95.

[cmrdporcupine]

The classic definition of "greybeards" is Unix hacker-type.

https://gist.github.com/lenards/3739917

[pjmlp]

UNIX isn't the only OS people grew up with, and classicals are not what they used to be.