I see that this very bad idea is returning from the 90's.

austinthetaco 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I reckon a lot of the people clamoring for these things are gen z or younger first discovering the idea of customizable OS's and are now going through all the awful decisions that were made before. Pretty sure I've seen a version of this skeuomorphic desktop like 15 times at this point.

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chihuahua 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The children yearn for Microsoft Bob - which took this idea a bit further:

"Microsoft Bob presented screens showing a house, with rooms that the user could visit containing familiar objects corresponding to computer applications, such as a desk with pen and paper and a checkbook. Clicking on the pen and paper would open the system's word processor."

	▲	DonHopkins 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[dead]

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ChrisMarshallNY 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In the last century, there was an app for Apple's Mac OS (before MacOSX), called Kaleidoscope[0]. It allowed massive customization.

Fun, but most themes were basically unusable.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope_(software)

Some samples: https://web.archive.org/web/20110709175639fw_/http://www.kal...

(The one I used the most, was Ozymandias II).

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al_borland 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Some level of skeuomorphic design is quite nice, like what we saw from Apple during the Forstall era. It seemed to strike a good balance.

Something like Microsoft BOB takes the metaphor too far and gets weird.

I think this project leans on it a little too hard, but a balanced approach can make the systems quite charming and provide a nice juxtaposition to the very austere hardware we have these days.

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ChrisMarshallNY 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Personally, I found skeuomorphic design to be something that I really enjoyed, for a couple of days, but rapidly got sick of.

That may have more to with the skills of the implementors, as opposed to the concept, as a whole.

I do find modern "flat" design to be less "fun," but I get a lot more done with it.

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sixothree 6 hours ago | parent [-]

That might be the thing. In real life you don't use the same stationary for years. Your desk is a reflection of your mood and evolves almost daily. Maybe that's where these fail?

	▲	al_borland 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This is where themes come in.
	▲	warkdarrior 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Indeed, my mood most days is bland, monotonic, and flat, just like my desktop.

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brink 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What's so bad about it?

	▲	exe34 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		He doesn't like it.

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atoniorobbert 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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