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- Hacker News
- Impressie that this is pure CSS with no JavaScript. The border and box-shadow tricks to recreate the beveled Win98 look are really well done!by sshworld
- Very authentic almost down to the pixel. I love it!
Btw default buttons like OK should have a thick black outline.
Also windows UIs loved group boxes and radio buttons and checkboxes. I notice those are missing.
Also it seems that the dropdown is missing.
by bhouston - You may not have scrolled up. Much of that is included.by codazoda
- I love this UI, so here is my attempt to re-create this using ImGUIby hilti
- With every new version of the OS, the UI desigenrs were forced to show some change and call it improvement, even though those changes functionally unnecessary, more resource consuming, less faster, and less reliable.by zkmon
- > less faster
I suspect those UI designers have been working on your comment, too
- Nitpick: tabs in the multirow tabs example do not change position randomly as they should when clickedby pxtail
- I used this to build my personal site: https://ka.ge . It's a pixel-perfect (and functional) recreation of the windows 98 desktop environment in under a MB.by pkage
- unjokingly I think the fact that we removed grayed out buttons for "the button just doesn't appear" is one of the more confusing UI trends of our day and the sight of a grayed out button warms my heartby zemo
- I think the button shouldn't appear if the user doesn't have the access to do it (eg. not an admin, has view rights only, etc).
However, if the user can and they expect to do it, but is in a mode/state which doesn't allow them to do it, greyed out buttons absolutely.
In some cases, greyed out buttons should be clickable (eg. forms) and that should tell the user what is wrong. Looking at you, billion dollar airline, where I couldn't complete my checkin due to this annoyance.
Also, what happened to hover messages and little (?) marks? Every software behaves like it expects me to know what to do from Day 1.
by nitin7 - Microsoft had some excellent guidance[1] on this:
> Reconsider disabled controls. Disabled controls can be hard to use because users literally have to deduce why they are disabled. Disable a control when users expect it to apply and they can easily deduce why the control is disabled. Remove the control when there is no way for users to enable it or they don't expect it to apply, or leave it enabled, but provide an error message when it is used incorrectly.
> Tip: If you aren't sure whether you should disable a control or provide an error message, start by composing the error message that you might provide. If the error message contains helpful information that target users aren't likely to quickly deduce, leave the control enabled and provide the error. Otherwise, disable the control.
Unfortunately, that nuance has been lost in the modern version of the guidelines with no mention of disabled buttons at all [2]
[1]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/top-...
[2]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/develop/ui/co...
by cube00 - I really want to make one of my websites use this.. I just can't think of one that would fit.
Also shout out XFCE-winxp-tc, which makes your Linux look like Windows XP. Lots of people know about Chicago95, but this project is excellent for that 2004 vibe
by OsrsNeedsf2P - My gripe has always been that none of these xfce/gtk/etc. themes are ever actually pixel-perfect, even when they claim to be. Not sure if there is a legal concern there or not.
- man, it's the internet. you don't need a fit. you just need to want to.by dylan604
- Popular in
2024 (471 points, 93 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42056918
2022 (606 points, 182 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33310554
2020 (838 points, 211 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22940564
by gnabgib - see you again in 2028by mysterydip
- last time this came up people appreciated my collection
https://alexbsoft.github.io/win95.css/ windows 95
https://bootstra386.com/ 1980's websites
https://botoxparty.github.io/XP.css/ windows xp
https://code.divshot.com/geo-bootstrap/ geocities
https://cs16.samke.me/ counter strike 1.6
https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/ edward tufte
https://jdan.github.io/98.css/ windows 98
https://khang-nd.github.io/7.css/ windows 7
https://micah5.github.io/PSone.css/ playstation one
https://nostalgic-css.github.io/NES.css/ nes
https://sakofchit.github.io/system.css/ apple system
https://snes-css.sadlative.com/ snes
https://thesimscss.inbn.dev/ the sims
by culi - Something that always irked me about 98.css and its friends was the ever-so-slightly-incorrect version of MS Sans Serif.
Finally decided to do something about it: https://github.com/jdan/98.css/pull/230
by akx - Flat design is so ridiculous. Made someone a bunch of money. Now everyone follows like sheep. Sorry for the doomer comment but, like, really. I'd love to say that I'm surprised that we haven't gotten over this, but given it's been... 20 years (?)... I'm not surprised.
Also, the way multi-row tabs Just Work in the UIs of yesteryear *chef's kiss*
by sodapopcan - Most people crave change and novelty and flat design provided just that. I'm now anti-flat design but I remember vividly thinking Windows Vista looked awesome and then some years after that thinking Windows 8 was pretty cool.
Now I long for skeuomorphism, but if that becomes the norm for 10 years... after that who knows?
by dysoco - Not only flat design but also using less color. We have monitors and graphics cards that can display millions of colors now and we refuse to use it... Not that it has to look like a coloring book but sheez Windows 10 and 11 make me feel depressed.by RedShift1
- Multi-row tabs are the primary thing I dislike about old UIs. You never seem to see them anymore, for which I am immensely grateful. Not only do they take up valuable vertical space, but they way the rows jump around always confused more than it really should have - a button shouldn't move after I click it, especially if it is representing state.
- We've been getting flatter over time. Win9x (and even 3.x) styles have subtle 3D cues, like the edges of buttons, window borders, tabs, and text boxes. There were gradients. Apparently, these are technologies that we've lost.
- If it takes longer to find stuff on a page, one of the most prized metrics goes up: time on page.
And here we are.
by acchow - > Flat design is so ridiculous.
Flat, or quasi-flat (minimalistic/brutalist), design is fantastic if one makes use of appropriate visual discriminators, e. g. shadows, outlines, contrasts etc. Less is more here. Which makes this design philosophy clash with Apple's, Google's, or their imitators, oversaturated Fisher-Price playdough-UIs.
by spankibalt - Author here! This was my burnout recovery project and holds a place near and dear to my heart. https://notes.jordanscales.com/98-css-reflectionsby jordanscales
- I wrapped many projects in 98.css. And some in Aero and even XP. Thank you!by timnetworks
- Wow SimGolf was something I spent so much time on as a kid and haven't thought about in years! Thanks for the nostalgia trip.by maxquinn
- It’s a job well done. I personally liked 2000’s colour choices, but 98 managed to look modern enough a couple Unix window managers decided to copy it.
As my GUI look of choice, I’d be between IRIX and OpenWindows. Motif always looked a bit unfinished and CDE was a child of its time - who sets up printers?
by rbanffy - > I no longer work on 98.css and I haven’t in a really long time. My only contribution to the project is monitoring the repo for high-quality pull requests. If I get one, I briefly scan through the author’s profile to make sure they’re not going to mine cryptocurrency on my user’s machines, and then I give them full commit access. “Looks good, go ahead and merge this yourself.”
Very nice!
by M95D