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Comment by Tallain | Hacker News Reader

I switched to Mint and never looked back. It's one of the easiest transitions IMO, and if you really miss Windows, you can bring the aesthetic with you: https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/themes/view/Chicago95

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I’m really curious how many people run this kind of skin unironically. Unironically here means they’d actively seek out to make their desktop OS look… 30 years old? No shade at all, just curios.

I def have all kinds of warm feelings towards the moment I first installed W ‘95 but wow I can’t imagine having that UX as my daily OS today.

A few years back I threw Mint plus this theme on my old Thinkpad T430s. My intent was to use it for one thing and one thing only: writing. The theme helped me trick myself into thinking the machine was unusable for anything else.

>I’m really curious how many people run this kind of skin unironically

Most avoid gimmick Windows/MacOS themes, as they know these tend to be unmaintainable over the long-term.

Keep in mind most Linux desktop options tend to be power-user focused, high contrast for outdoor use, and eye candy entertainment options just waste peoples time. =3

I don't run this kind of skin unironically but I do think that desktop GUIs used to be a lot more intuitive in some ways. They were still educating PC users on how to use PCs and so there was less of a temptation to hide features and smooth things out for the sake of pure aesthetics.

(The slide-to-unlock on the original iPhone OS comes to mind as an analogy on the phone: babies could figure it out, but by iOS 7 they figured enough people knew how to unlock that they could make it less obvious.)

I absolutely agree that the interfaces up until 2005s and, in case of Mac, early 2010s or so were better in terms of usability, but somehow it’s hard to imagine coming back there from the modern UIs with all their shadows and transparencies and such.

There has to be a middle ground somewhere in this.

>I don't run this kind of skin unironically

… hang on, I’m still parsing this.

bwahaha. I mean to say, I don't run it.

If I were to transition my 70yo mum from Windows to Linux, the first thing I'd do would be to add such a skin. Yes, there will be differences, but the value of re-injecting some familiarity with the fundamentals cannot be underestimated. She already hates anything post-XP and would probably be delighted to go back.

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