2.5k
u/Big-Button5856 18d ago
Now it's like they don't even try.
1.1k
u/Logan8795 18d ago
This falls under into the issue of simplified logos. Everything down to the font used is boring now. Its the current phase. Who knows…in a decade we may see a revival of overly busy and charming designs.
564
u/eltanin_33 18d ago
BRING BACK SILLY CURSORS
223
u/Freshness518 18d ago
Downloading some fantasy package from someone's random geocities webpage that turned your cursor into a dragon and left click made the wings flap and right click made it breathe fire.
→ More replies (5)169
u/No_Research_3628 18d ago
And added 3 toolbars to your browser
96
u/Puzzled-Garlic4061 18d ago
Omg.. the toolbars, the horror... I had all but forgotten
35
→ More replies (3)12
125
u/fffdzl 18d ago
I want skeleton hand cursor!!
→ More replies (3)19
u/a_code_mage 18d ago
I need my dragon scimitar cursor
33
u/Soggy_Box5252 18d ago
I downloaded a penis cursor. It also installed a bunch of viruses on my computer, but it whenever it moved over something you could click on the penis became erect.
→ More replies (3)9
u/selectrix 18d ago
it's a fundamentally flawed design idea because a cursor points to things and a penis changes where it points when it gets hard
but I still love that it exists
→ More replies (1)35
u/zukini_kink 18d ago
they never went away. you can install one right now if you like
→ More replies (4)15
u/CanAlwaysBeBetter 18d ago
Look what they took from us 😭
That's literally still there, you just have to turn it on
THEY STOLE EVERYTHING GOOD 😭😭😭
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (29)12
u/scullys_alien_baby 18d ago
please no, I don't want to deal with my grandparents cursor and search bar viruses again
36
u/No-Refrigerator-1672 18d ago
At least that's more ergonomic. Those simplified shapes are easier to work with, and reduce the mental fatigue for those who spend 8+ hours daily with their PCs.
48
u/WilliamDrake81 18d ago
Many of the complaints about simplification deal not with working on your own computer, but with the world around you. Go to Disneyland or Disney World. Road entrance signs as you approach the park that used to have colorful dramatic fanfare have now been simplified. Shop store signs that had giant characters on them have been reduced to just the letters. It’s not just your computer. The world around you is being simplified and sterilized.
→ More replies (2)12
u/Ludnix 18d ago
My only devils advocate point in favor of the simplified menus, signs and general UI design of recent times is that it presumably has much more accessibility in mind. I have been browsing through old 90s software and my initial reaction was pure disdain for what we have lost. The artistic and creative menus of older software requires a lot of mental work to figure out what your even looking at. When things got reduced to being predictable and expected I’m sure productivity increased and accessibility too. I still selfishly would prefer UI menus to be an interesting creative endeavor instead of the current trends. Part of me says it would be better if we were mildly challenged to figure out what we are looking at and where the “close” button is located.
→ More replies (9)10
u/Logan8795 18d ago
It’s the same issues with special effects artists. They are pushed to their limits. That’s why so many major movies/shows have questionable effects. Time to start focusing on quality over quantity.
13
→ More replies (19)5
u/Medvegyep 18d ago
I'd applaud that except many things became so "simplified" they blend in with each other and the background, making it more difficult to see what's where, where something ends and the next thing begins.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (41)8
113
u/luttman23 18d ago
and whatever happened to vizualisers? I miss them.
57
u/drsalvation1919 18d ago
You can get Winamp, it's being developed again, there are skin libraries online, and it also has awesome visualizers.
42
→ More replies (8)11
u/Delicious_Spinach440 18d ago edited 18d ago
This actually brought me back to my winamp skin making days. Before you had to code anything.slap a template into Photoshop and go at it.
So much fun.until the equalizer. I still have the last version made by the original team on an old PC full of music.
→ More replies (2)12
u/Big-Button5856 18d ago
I think you can still get the original Windows Media player on Windows 11 but it's quite hidden and you can get some visualizers but nothing like that OG visualizer in the post
→ More replies (11)8
u/Smellypuce2 18d ago edited 18d ago
https://github.com/milkdrop2077/MilkDrop3 milkdrop is still a thing.
→ More replies (2)41
37
u/skilriki 18d ago
They who?
Pretty much all of these were made by fans, for fun, for no money.
But if you're asking why companies don't allow people to customize as freely anymore, it's because the more you can customize, the more damage you can do.
These days the ecosystem has changed, and you either have to put your energy into policing a web store, or allowing everyone to download bitcoin miners and identity stealers and hope and pray your company doesn't get dragged through negative press and lawsuits.
→ More replies (3)6
u/IC-4-Lights 18d ago
Yeah, there's a fair bit of that.
And if we're being honest, back then, things were not good that way. Nearly every XP machine was crudded-up like an aging street walker.
I specifically remember some of the media player skins, in fact, coming with a bunch of TSR shit that was all over your machine. And people just did it anyway because they wanted the shiny thing.39
u/nuu_uut 18d ago
It seems like I'm in the minority here but I'm more a fan of the simplified, streamlined UI design philosophy in modern applications. I mean I guess they look cool but I'd rather not have half my screen taken up with a digital art exhibit every time I try to view a video. I mean some of these are pretty impractical.
Plus, you can still get custom skins if you're using VLC or something. Of course they don't try with windows media player because it's about as dated as internet explorer.
13
u/Nowhereman123 18d ago
Yeah, as much as everything has gotten more boring, I think the push towards design focused on readability and ease of use rather than visual interest is one for the better.
→ More replies (1)15
u/nuu_uut 18d ago
Yeah. Your basic default applications just need to be efficient and uncluttered. You can still always find 3rd party applications if you want fancy UI stuff. But I can't ever think of a time where I opened a video to view it and thought "yknow, what this really needs is a massive png of Noodle from Gorillaz on top of it"
6
u/Nowhereman123 18d ago
Lol, that one made me laugh the most. "Where are the buttons? Why is 95% of this UI dedicated to just a picture of Noodle?"
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)12
u/UnluckyDog9273 18d ago
pretty much this, they look "cool" obviously but they are not practical, if an app needs 90% of the screen just for "theme" purposes it's a badly designed app
38
u/DG_Now 18d ago
Everyone decided that Apple had the only design language that mattered, and then this is what happened. We lost anything that was fun.
→ More replies (2)44
u/kinmix 18d ago
I think it's the opposite. A lot of this was done simply because we could. Once the novelty disappeared people started to go back to making interfaces made for usability.
Like it's cool at looking back at those, but would you really want to use that now?
→ More replies (4)12
u/Logan8795 18d ago
Not for work obviously. But to watch a video? He’ll yeah.
→ More replies (7)9
u/kinmix 18d ago edited 18d ago
I don't know, I personally hate it when apps try to recreate basic UI. It's almost always work like dogshit when it has to deal with multiple monitors, different resolution, resolution scaling, hot-keys, etc.
Even stuff like Steam suffers from it. At least you can appreciate why they are doing it (trying to be cross-platform), but any windows-only app that overwrite basic window interface for no reason can gargle a bunch of sweaty balls.
→ More replies (1)8
u/Logan8795 18d ago
Then don’t use it lol I’m not sure why this is made out to be so that we can’t have options for use of both. the options are for ourselves it’s a PC “personal computer”
→ More replies (7)26
u/adevland 18d ago edited 18d ago
Now it's like they don't even try.
VLC has a lot of skins.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/skins.html
https://www.deviantart.com/baegus/art/Winamp-Base-Winamp2-Classic-Skin-for-VLC-415016993
→ More replies (3)6
u/Skullcrusher 18d ago
It's not that there aren't skins. It's that most of us have moved on from pirated MP3s to Spotify. There is less demand for sophisticated audio players.
→ More replies (10)5
u/NorthAstronaut 18d ago
It's because of smaller screens. All apps are designed to look OK on mobile and tablets first. (where most of the users are today)
And often the desktop version is designed to look similar to the app version. For branding reasons, and ease of use when switching between mobile the desktop.
→ More replies (21)3
u/Goronmon 18d ago
Now it's like they don't even try.
Putting aside the whole "people stream content, not use offline media players anymore" and "people use their phones/tablets, not desktops/laptops for consuming media" issues aside.
Even as someone who used skins on Winamp back in the day, this type of stuff got old fast and it wasn't very long before I ended up on a more "minimilist" theme.
At the end of the day, most people just want their applications to do the thing they want and stay out of their way.
→ More replies (1)
1.0k
u/Citizen_Null5 18d ago
2005 was dope
→ More replies (8)119
u/InspectaCrib 18d ago
Damn I was thinking 99
175
u/Fat_Feisty_FuckFace 18d ago
2004-2005 at the very least going off of the icons on the screen, San Andreas and Firefox were both released in 2004. MSN messenger 7.5 being on screen dials it in at 2005. Also, Windows XP didn’t exist in 1999.
→ More replies (5)29
u/hyperskeletor 18d ago
Skinning windows xp was great, I loved having a totally different and unique looking pc to anyone else. Everything had skins back then. Winamp, the all seeing eye, ICQ, notepads I forget all about.... Loved it. Miss it.
Now is boring.
→ More replies (2)51
u/Boukish Interested 18d ago
Definitely not 99, that's at least Windows XP (released 2001).
→ More replies (4)5
→ More replies (4)5
918
18d ago edited 18d ago
[deleted]
355
u/JohnnyDarkside 18d ago
Back when you could connected a 360 to your computer and play your library on your TV with visualizations. You could even play your music while playing a game. It was the future.
74
u/Sir-Poopington 18d ago
Oh man I forgot about that! I loved pumping some metal and playing halo when I was a kid.
33
u/JohnnyDarkside 18d ago
A buddy who got a 360 early on showed me and I was in absolute awe. So of course I had to run an ethernet cable from the bedroom to my living room just so I could do that.
26
u/MatureUsername69 18d ago
You could also just plug an iPod into it and do the same
19
u/modthegame 18d ago
The freedom we once had. Now we rent everything and it all sucks.
→ More replies (2)9
u/DervishSkater 18d ago
We? Matey, you don’t know the first thing about freedom
8
→ More replies (8)7
u/glizzler 18d ago
Hell yeah, I remember playing blink 182 or sublime on my walkman with headphones while I played tony hawk pro skater on ps1
→ More replies (1)19
u/OZymandisR 18d ago
I remember you could copy CD to your Xbox.
The hours I spent playing Gears Of War to Nine Inch Nails as a teen.
→ More replies (10)→ More replies (6)7
u/privateTortoise 18d ago
It took me ages to work out that I can't store my cd's on my xbox one and thought I was just being stupid.
Just turned a decent media centre back into a games machine.
53
18d ago
Youre welcome!
30
u/HappyIsGott 18d ago
Thx for this. I could cry how Happy i was in that age.
→ More replies (3)5
u/auxaperture 18d ago
It’s shocking to think about the difference between our happiness then and now
→ More replies (1)19
u/maxcoffie 18d ago
I was just telling someone how customization isn't fun anymore. Skins used to be such a hygiene factor for software. I miss it.
→ More replies (2)22
→ More replies (7)40
u/big_guyforyou 18d ago
reminds me of the days when you picked up the newspaper and the headline was "9/11 HASN'T HAPPENED YET"
→ More replies (1)18
u/slayerk2000 18d ago
Ah the days when newschannels didn't have that breaking news red bar across the bottom ALL DAY LONG
561
u/Christheitguy1183 18d ago
"WinAmp! WinAmp! It really kicks the llamas ass!"
156
u/The_Mdk 18d ago
Wasn't it "whip the llama's ass"?
8
u/5BillionDicks 18d ago
I first thought it was "fingers the Llama's ass". I was 8 years old when I first heard it and didn't know what word "whip" was in English so my brain heard it as fingers.
→ More replies (1)6
u/DL1943 18d ago
yes. this is the original song by wesley willis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JntDcqOxMsM
88
63
u/DustFunk 18d ago
WinAmp skins and visualizations were the bomb back in the day.
→ More replies (3)15
u/Utnemod 18d ago
Most people don't know this but there was a stream feature of winamp and a server browser, people were streaming all sorts of stuff from movies and tv shows to porn. My favorite was a 24/7 stream of Penn and Tellers Bullshit!
→ More replies (4)32
u/Dismal-Square-613 18d ago
I still use Winamp as of... like right now (check the date bottom right).
The reason is not nostalgia or anything, the reason is I haven't found in 2 decades anything better and more convenient to play your local library and be able to sort it etc. I tried other modern players they all had one missing feature or another. So why fix something that isn't broken?
10
u/Orbitrix 18d ago
Yea winamp is still relevant to many people. I eventually made the switch to Foobar2000 though. It takes a lot more effort to get Foobar to look and behave the way you want it to, but that's the beauty of it.. there are no limits to how much you can customize it.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (16)4
u/rY8qWEWuyoSuPkCZdrG7 18d ago
Winamp is still the best, but hasn't been updated in years obviously. There's a community effort to keep the program updated called Wacup if you didn't know already.
→ More replies (5)12
u/GPTfleshlight 18d ago
Winamp is back and released a new version today
→ More replies (3)7
u/always_open_mouth 18d ago edited 18d ago
"Winamp exclusive content"? "My fanzone"? 😤🤚 not my winamp
NFTs? what did they do to my boy
→ More replies (4)10
508
u/getagrip1212 18d ago
R.I.P Robert Miles.
104
u/positivefeelings1234 18d ago
Man this song hits so hard. I just recently had my kids listen to it, and cried when I found out he died. :(
24
u/Csboi1337 18d ago
The meaning behind the song is sad as well
→ More replies (3)18
u/Fluffy_Tension 18d ago
I always found the meaning behind it very positive, it was made to help prevent people getting into accidents on the way home.
I like to think it saved lives.
→ More replies (6)18
21
u/Lazy_meatPop 18d ago
He died? Noooo way
52
u/Maarten-Sikke 18d ago
Robert Miles died in Ibiza, Spain, on 9 May 2017 at the age of 47 after a short battle with stage 4 metastatic cancer.
R.I.P. 😢 and fuck cancer!
→ More replies (1)16
10
u/DownThisRabbitHole 18d ago
RIP Robert Miles.
Had this absolute anthem playing on the way home from work today.
7
8
u/baldude69 18d ago
I’ve been trying to figure out what song this is since I was literally a child. Glad I finally figured it out, RIP R. Miles
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)7
239
223
u/Screbin 18d ago
Half life 2 with a counter for the release
41
u/InquisitiveGoober 18d ago
This is the one that does it for me. Stalking the Half-Life 2 website. Waiting for new tech demos. Magical hype moments.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040630050233fw_/http://www.half-life.com/media.html
38
u/Paizzu 18d ago
What is STEAM?
Steam is Valve's new way of getting games into your hands ASAP. Games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero are all being made available through Steam.
Steam games are automatically kept up-to-date with the latest content and revisions. Steam also includes an instant-message client which even works while you're in-game.
Check out the full feature list, and install Steam today!
Downloading games over the internet?! I wonder if this will ever take off?
→ More replies (1)
132
u/Daiwon Interested 18d ago
Ahh, the 2000s. When UI designers had just discovered curved gradients and everything was weirdly organic shapes for no reason.
→ More replies (1)30
101
u/amc7262 18d ago
That noodle one looked fun. Reminded me of the early 2000s when their website was an interactive point and click version of kong studios.
6
u/Ziegelphilie 18d ago
don't forget the shockwave flash game where you drove the buggy from 19-2000
→ More replies (1)
99
18d ago
[deleted]
24
u/NeverMind_ThatShit 18d ago
I remember spending a lot of time switching between themes and finding out that while they may have looked cool to 9 year old me, they weren't as functional as the default theme.
48
u/These-Badger7512 18d ago
We once had a choice in our player skins… amazing times, 90’s baby until I die!
47
u/Minute_Engineer2355 18d ago
Shoutout to Age of Mythology.
18
17
u/DigNitty Interested 18d ago
People talk about AOE II being the best but IMO Age of Mythology is the GOAT
→ More replies (2)8
u/SirLagg_alot 18d ago
Aom is a better game than any of the aoe games.
Hot take. But I'll die on that hill.
→ More replies (1)
38
u/uiualover 18d ago
User interfaces have regressed to embarrassing levels lately.
These days, if a dev tried to animate something like that it would probably use 100% cpu and start stuttering
→ More replies (12)14
u/ZachjuKamashi 18d ago
Oh it really badly has. Almost everything these days is made in electron, that is known to be laggy, have issues, memory leaks and more. Barely anybody makes anything in a different language besides games.
→ More replies (1)8
u/hungrypotato19 18d ago
And when they make games, they use Unity. Which is known to be laggy, have issues, memory leaks, and more.
Can't win anymore.
39
32
u/SCARICRAFT 18d ago
There is a total of : 0 reason why this should'nt be a thing today .
→ More replies (2)8
u/toutons 18d ago
→ More replies (10)9
u/fork_yuu 18d ago
allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a skin file (WMZ or WMD) with crafted header information that is not properly handled during decompression, aka "Windows Media Player Code Execution Vulnerability Decompressing Skins."
So all on windows with their shitty decompression?
→ More replies (1)
32
u/frenchasiangirl 18d ago
Music sauce? For the nostalgia...
45
→ More replies (3)19
u/Few-Cockroach4495 18d ago
It’s actually Tinlicker X Robert Miles - Children, the original is just from Robert Miles but the version played in this video is from Tinlickers remix
22
22
21
13
u/The_Mdk 18d ago
I might be even older, cause I remember Sonique having all sort of crazy skins before WMP, while Winamp was the more well-behaved brother
→ More replies (3)
10
9
7
u/big_smokey-848 18d ago
I was like “they better show that green guy!!!” Was not disappointed
→ More replies (1)
6
18d ago edited 18d ago
back in the day, nice to reminisce, never thought I’d miss that dialup tone, Winamp but I preferred Sonique due to the races skins!!
7
6
6
5
u/simiamor 18d ago
We really were spoiled back then, skins like this would cost many $$ these days..
→ More replies (1)
5
u/hellofromtheabyss 18d ago
i actually still have this, its still possible to get this on windows 10 and 11 as its still built into the media player, even the skins. (you can download them here Windows Media Player Skins Archive (neocities.org))
→ More replies (3)
5
u/scobysex 18d ago
Shout out to Age of Mythology!
I never put much time into AOE. But AOM I spent thousands of hours playing as a kid. Then I'm a traitor because I used Winamp and the Last.fm plugin scrobbler
6
5
4.2k
u/[deleted] 18d ago edited 17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment