I get the nostalgia, but boy are computers so much better than back then. MacOS 7-8 (not sure about 9, never used it) would crash constantly. There was no protected memory, so as soon as one app started misbehaving, you'd have to reboot the computer and it would take forever and you'd lose your work. My recollection was that this would typically happen 3-4 times a day. Apple's project to make a new MacOS that didn't do this failed and so they had to buy NeXT, and the rest is history.
There’s something about the Platinum UI that makes it timeless. I have been running XFCE with a Platinum theme on several of my machines/VMs for a while (<a href="https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/04/12/2330" rel="nofollow">https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/04/12/2330</a>) and I’m a bit sad that the XFCE top-level app menu plugin seems to have been deprecated in recent releases, since it really adds to the experience.
The big loss for me was when many apps took over the windows 3.0 MDI interface style. (Specifically thinking of code here). I was doing some hacking in codwarrior on Mac OS 9 a few weeks ago and it was such a joy to have 5 source code windows open any once - and a separate window with build or find results that weren’t wrapped in a miserable column. There’s actually a lot about Xcode I do like - but treating content panels like the old Puzzle desk accessory was never an improvement.
Always been rather partial to the Windows 9x look myself, but Mac OS 9 is a solid runner-up to me in terms of looks. Enjoyed seeing some of the reimaginings of modern apps, quite gorgeous.
Such great work. I'm amazed by the video. I wondered for a moment if they managed to tweak these apps (I'm a bit naive I guess).
Never had a Mac but I remember as a kid when I went to a friend who had one. It was so fascinating to me.
So weird to be nostalgic of something I never owned or used.
I kind of like how the retro Zoom has separate windows for each participant. It’s pretty frustrating how little control Zoom (not to mention Meet or Teams) gives you over the layout.
Honestly, I sometimes feel like I got work done more efficiently on my 1024x768 displays in that era than I do with my 4K+ monitors now. Modern UIs are bewildering at times. I miss the days where Photoshop and Office had toolbars separate from the open document windows. Things just seemed so much more discoverable and made more efficient use of space.