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Comment by m4houk | Hacker News Reader

I love this. As a former XP user, here are some pedantic inaccuracies you've got:

- The taskbar tabs are slightly off from how they looked in the real XP (must be the borders? It's the same issue with the windows as well).

- The close/maximize/minimize buttons never had hover transitions

- By default, desktop icons didn't have any hover effects in the real XP

- I'm surprised you didn't recreate the XP mouse cursor!

- IE6:

    - The address bar didn't show progress
    - The buttons in the toolbar at the top never had any transition effect on hover

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I think of this as a homage or appropriation, a gentle upgrade of classic Windows XP aesthetic into a form that merges a few contemporary affordances and new polish. It's a classic way of keeping art and styles fresh and how aesthetics evolve while retaining a clear lineage that respects their roots.

Whilst that's true... Using "faithful" is inviting criticism where it doesn't align - intended or not.

always tension between the traditionalists and the nouveau

this ^ while also completely disregarding portfolio conventions. some have even said "If i was a recruiter I would instantly click off because it takes too long to load" hahah

If you're still working on this, you can add a "Pedantry mode" ou "Really faithful" switch that turns some of the suggestions on. It could work as a way to show that you're really aware of the shortcomings of the first implementation without messing too much with what you've got already done. And it can also work as a way to show some kind of "appreciation" for the feedback you're getting here..

Personally, I've used XP a lot back in the day, but don't remember much of the details like most users are reporting here, so I really liked to play with your website, and would definitely hire you if I was in such position.

Good luck!

"Pedantry mode" slightly brings down the elegance of the project.

Maybe they could have a fake "patch note" file within the virtual OS which frames it as a hypothetical service path upgrade (which showcases that OP does realize the slight variations in their design, while also showcasing that they can do technical writing)

But if he’s not a pendant, why would he add the mode? One should never have to bow to the pendants. However, should a pendant wish to implement its pedantic paradise by its pendant self it should be possible.

Nothings off the table so maybe I’ll look into that eventually! Before that id probably go the other way and allow the viewing of a basic single page basic portfolio haha

Maybe styled like a word doc or something

Go hardcore and render the word doc in HTML jspdf style

I guess it functions as a filter to exclude companies that won’t be best for you anyway. I think good portfolio/cv should do this!

taskbar tabs - correct and I spent a crazy amount of time trying to figure out why they look off, admittedly I accepted defeat at where we landed but I think its pretty damn close!

the rest, are all aesthetic decisions haha but I was aware of some of them - I'm surprised you missed the biggest one of them all though.. also that nobody else has mentioned it yet - maybe its because nobody has tried it

the drag selection over desktop icons highlights the icons in a way much closer to windows 11 than XP... i really just thought it deserved an upgrade

edit: did i miss it or did you just add the thing about selection? you're right though

The command prompt?

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