[tombert]

Computers have kind of "converged on boring". This isn't a bad thing, obviously; a computer is a tool and you generally want your tools to work as expected without surprises. Basically any computer with any operating system you would use in the last fifteen or so years works basically "as-expected", more or less. The security models work alright, they don't really crash, and do their job.

This is boring though! I remember when I had an early Windows 95 machine, I genuinely kind of had fun figuring how to break things. I mean, hell, when I discovered you could click "cancel" on the login screen and get a default user so I didn't need to get my parents to unlock it, it felt like I was accessing forbidden knowledge. I think even at the time I knew that was a bit janky. That was kind of the 90's computing experience though; everything was kind of held together with ducktape and prayers, and it kind of worked.

It's probably weird to have nostalgia for a time when everything was a little broken, but what can I say?

[theamk]

It's still there, it's just Windows that became boring.

Take the most plain Ubuntu system and looking for "window manager" - there are dozens of hits! Install "wmaker" for that classical look and spend a few hours picking up the set of dockapps you like. Try a dynamic tiling manager and a static one.