Re:SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces
by Suppafly on Tuesday April 22, 2025 @01:09PM
(#43764266)
>NeXTSTEP was widely regarded as visually striking and innovative for its time
Widely? You seem like the only one carrying the water for nextstep. I'm sure they had some advances but overall it's a very ugly UI.
Re:SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces
by breadwinner on Tuesday April 22, 2025 @02:37PM
(#43764994)
It inspired Win95. It inspired the original Netscape browser's UI (toolbar etc is very NeXTSTEP-inspired, not surprising because it was developed on a NeXT box). It inspired the Mac OS X and the iPhone, although both have degraded since then. As things exist today, NeXTSTEP from 40 years ago (!) looks much nicer - and way more usable - than today's flat UIs.
3D chiseled widgets: Beveled buttons and controls with subtle shading created a dimensional, tactile appearance.
Full-color icons: Large, detailed icons (uncommon in late 1980s GUIs) enhanced visual clarity.
Consistent typography: System-wide use of Display PostScript enabled professional-quality fonts and anti-aliasing.
Transparency and compositing: Advanced graphics handling allowed overlapping windows and semi-transparent elements.
Current discussions still praise NeXTSTEP's design as better looking and more usable than Windows 11 and macOS.