Why did Microsoft make Windows XP look like an OS for babies while Apple was pushing sleek, cutting-edge aesthetic designs? Both of these operating systems came out at the same exact time.
>>107526967Because they thought it was better.Fast forward a few decades, if you say "windows xp", everyone knows what it looks like without even having to look it up. It is that good. Windows XP look is timeless.
>>107526985Everyone knows what XP looked like because 85% of the planet was using XP
>>107526967Because fancy goofy 3D look was the trend and it was soulful. Also it had classic theme for people who preferred that.
>>107527001there's a ton of shit out there that a ton of people have used and yet they possibly couldn't draw it from memory if you asked them to do so. Windows XP is one big exception. Everyone that has seen windows XP would draw you the exact same thing. That's great design.
>>107526967Apple was a design-centric company back then. Plus it had like 3% market share. Mac needed to distinguish itself from the competition. Microsoft only needed design changes so you can tell apart an old OS from a new one. Why bother if everybody would still use Windows anyway?
Mac OS X was just sexy, I miss when it looked that good. We need to return to Aqua and having designers actually try with their icons again.
>>107526967Funny thing is, Aqua still looks modern if you strip all the gradients. XP looked old even when it was just released.
why did they make this absolutely perfect alternative available in both electric blue and glossy black, but locked them behind>the desktop mode of a Media Center Editionand>some shit to promote Zune media playersrespectively?
also, the leaked beta version of Royale Noir (pre-Zune) was about the same, but with a green start button instead of orange.Windows actually had this whole system for custom window styles and widgets built-in (no extra software required) but the .msstyle files had to be signed by Microsoft, or some shit.
>>107527132These should have been included in SP3, but a big part of the Vista marketing was the improved look. So I get it being a pain in the ass to get. I think the Zune theme was just hosted on Microsoft's website at the time and you could just download an installer for it. But you had to find "sketchy" links for the media center theme for Professional or Home. >>107527171I didn't like the orange accents so much, this was my favorite.
>>107527001Because it had a better design than your faggy mac.
>>107526967We made fun of how XP looked when it came out
>>107527227>your faggy macI've never owned a macThe only Apple product I've ever owned was an iPod mini and I ended up hating it because you couldn't just transfer MP3 files in and out like other MP3 players
>>107527178in the end i was doing a fresh install anyway, so until Windows 7 i just used XP Media Center Edition without the 'big screen' nonsense. a bit like LTS editions, the desktop mode was just as barebones as it needed to be.i think people did crack whichever DLL would allow custom msstyles, but the format was so confusing to anyone but Microsoft that people just stuck with StyleXP, WindowBlinds, etc. shame.
>>107526967Windows XP design was about creating a feeling of comfort, familiarity, and ease of control that former users still identify with to this day.When I look at the Mac version here, the one and only thing that looks cool and not ugly or awkward to me are the top borders of windows and their buttons—and I'll through the scrollbar in their too. Otherwise, it feels claustrophobic and tryhard yet primitive.
>>107527132this looks like one of those ugly GNU+Linux imitationstrying to smooth it over and thin it out just makes the experience feel offputtingly uncanny valley
>>107526967xp too cheap for cool .ico
>>107527230I distinctly remember my bro showing me XP for the first time>Dude wtf this looks like shit for kids>*He switches to the classic theme*>Oh ok then
>>107527497My dad's first reaction was "why does it look like that?"
>>107526967Companies are always looking to expand. That often means ignoring your core audience and only looking at NEW audiences. So Microsoft tried to make computing more appealing to people who didn't use computers by making it more "visually appealing". More "friendly looking". More "'approachable". Not the grey industry look of classic Windows. Experienced users would just turn the classic theme back on or they weren't autistic enough to care. Finally having an OS that combined the maturity of NT and good compatibility with classic windows software was nice.
>>107526967Meanwhile, at BeOS....
>>107526967XP is the most keyed Windows version ever made, and its still usable up to this days. If you dislike its UI, you can always switch to classic theme.
Call me a fagwaffle but Mavericks. That's where it all peaked.
>>107528374W7 > WXP
>>107528389Mavericks looked great but I still prefer Snow Leopard, Lion and afterwards got a bit too wacky with the real world materials.
>>107528374how's that 3.5GB of ram, my nigga?
>>107527115Stop making things up anon, I have eyes that prove the contrary.
>>107526967Nobody I know ever looked at it and said it looks like it's made for babies. I think it looks nice. But you and your folk will always have this cringe attitude to everything that doesn't fit your "box you've put yourself into". You have insecurities and want to look "mature" or whatever, because you are not in real life. Because you are a manchild and are ashamed of it. Thus projecting your feelings by criticizing something that doesn't look "mature".On the other hand criticizing flatshit makes sense, because it looks like cheap shit made in mspaint. Furthermore it has glaring accessibility issues, so it's deserved. But there are no technical issues like that with XP look. And it looks aesthetic.
>>107529087W7 is fine, and its actually the last usable Windows version, but honestly its when the already planted the seed of faucification, with "features" like forced driver signing or renaming certain elements of UI that refer to actual ownership (my computer -> computer). Its a great compromise but not a necessity.>>107529161I have like 2GB of DDR2 on my laptop and I am doing fine, because software back in the day was not a trannyware that required 8gb just to fire up.
>>107526967if you think left is better then the cock you were deepthroating last night went too far in and caused brain damage
>>107527132They went much further into oddball themes XP/Vista hybrid interfaces when Longhorn was still in development and, for the most part, they work on vanilla XP.One of the better Longhorn themes had Vista style widgets as far back as 2003.
>>107531119>Nobody I know ever looked at it and said it looks like it's made for babies.You weren't sentient in 2001, that was the most common complaint back then.
