But, and I say that as a brutalist hater, W2K is then one of those more humane brutalist designs. Some detailing, rounded instead of sharp edges, a concrete that is ever so slightly warmed toned than basic concrete, nooks and crannies to break up long flat surfaces.
I find flatUI far more brutalist in the way it disorients by removing and humane clues as to its structure and use.
Re:Remembering Windows 2000
by kevin_thibedeau on Monday June 15, 2020 @10:25PM
(#23535378)
You could always revert XP to classic mode. That's what I do for Win7 VMs to cut down on resource requirements.
Once Vista became stable it was a really nice OS. I installed it for a parent at some point because that's what we had a license for, and was really surprised how fast and clean it was compared to Windows 8.
Vista was too bubbly and glossy, much like early OS X.
Win7 had a fairly decent balance of shiny chrome and usability by reducing both of those, while still retaining enough visual cues to e.g. clearly highlight buttons.
This is probably a very unpopular opinion but I rather liked Windows Vista's design. It was still very compact compared with later designs, and it had a certain charm from its prevalent use of translucency. I disliked XP for the same reason you cited, and upgraded to Vista almost as soon as it came out, despite early Vista's instability.