SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Perceived “peak usability” and nostalgia

  • Several commenters see 90s/early‑2010s desktop UIs (Win7, Snow Leopard, early iOS, Windows Phone) as peak usability: dense, predictable, space‑efficient.
  • Modern Windows is criticized as visually directionless and cluttered with nonessential text and controls.
  • Others push back, arguing that modern interfaces are “simpler” for non‑technical users and that nostalgia/familiarity plays a big role.

Windows Phone as exemplar UX

  • Multiple people single out Windows Phone as the best mobile UX they’ve used:
    • Very snappy even on low‑end hardware.
    • Highly consistent UI; clear affordances for buttons and actions.
    • Live tiles on the home screen are still seen as superior to iOS widgets.
    • Integrated messaging (SMS + Facebook, etc.) and a great camera experience.
  • The platform’s downfall is attributed to lack of apps and a buggy, slower Windows 10 Mobile.

Simplicity, menus, and discoverability

  • Debate over whether old-style menus vs ribbons vs tablet UIs are “simpler”:
    • One side: ribbons and modern tabbed toolbars reduce hunting through deep menus.
    • Other side: ribbons add visual noise and hidden controls; simple, well‑structured menus often make features easier to find.
  • Mouse‑driven window menus are argued to scale better to complex functionality than touch‑only paradigms.
  • Double‑click vs single‑click is highlighted as a recurring discoverability problem.

Visual style: flat vs skeuomorphic, icons, fonts

  • Some praise clearly layered, beveled 3D controls for making states obvious (pressed, active, on top).
  • Others prefer modern flat/peripheral elements with only interactive controls emphasized.
  • Icon style is contentious: photorealistic icons are seen as more recognizable by some; others find them noisy.
  • Aliased 90s fonts are nostalgic to some but criticized as inaccessible; scaling and “large fonts” existed but depended on low‑res CRTs.

Consistency, customization, and toolkits

  • Many dislike today’s inconsistency: custom title bars, non‑native scrollbars, Electron/web apps, varying iconography.
  • There’s recognition this is hard to prevent unless OSes strictly lock down custom rendering, which would exclude some app types.
  • Historically, even 90s Windows had lots of custom UIs (media players, installers, AOL/CompuServe, Office toolbars), though some recall that era as more consistent than today.

Animations, latency, and responsiveness

  • Slow, ubiquitous animations on phones and desktops are widely hated; people routinely disable or speed them up.
  • Others note animations can usefully:
    • Hide latency (“loading screens in disguise”) and make systems feel smoother.
    • Explain where windows go (e.g., minimize animations).
  • There’s frustration that some platforms, especially iOS and macOS spaces, don’t let users fully disable or speed up transitions.

Scrollbars, menubars, and mobile patterns

  • Hidden/ultra‑thin scrollbars cause anxiety and difficulty navigating long content; some apps only show them on hover, making discovery hard.
  • Menubars are defended as predictable, keyboard‑friendly, and a potential axis of cross‑app consistency.
  • Hamburger menus are criticized for deep, meandering navigation; defenders argue they fit horizontally constrained screens better.
  • GNOME’s move toward mobile‑style patterns (hamburgers, click‑to-open submenus) is seen by some as a regression in desktop usability.

SerenityOS, 90s clones, and alternatives

  • SerenityOS is described as relaxing, charming, and an impressive art/engineering project, strongly echoing Windows 95/98 and CDE.
  • Some feel a true “love letter” would modernize the ideas (vector scaling, contemporary UX improvements) rather than closely copy.
  • Others note it omits interesting 90s ideas from NeXT, BeOS, Mac window‑shading, etc.
  • Practical “daily driver” analogues suggested include Blue95, Chicago95 themes, B00merang Windows‑95 themes, MATE, Trinity, fvwm95, and various “Chicago/Redmond” window manager themes.
  • There’s some concern about how closely its icons track old Windows artwork; others argue they’re different enough.

Desire for modern, high‑density UI design

  • One strand of the discussion laments that current design splits between:
    • Ultra‑flat, low‑information “minimal” UIs, and
    • Nostalgic recreations of 90s environments.
  • Commenters wish for serious exploration of dense, highly functional interfaces that exploit today’s GPUs, high‑DPI displays, and large screens, rather than merely imitating the past or simplifying for phones.