Subj : Old Software Memories
To   : nblade
From : Nightfox
Date : Mon Jan 05 2026 02:32 pm

  Re: Old Software Memories
  By: nblade to All on Mon Jan 05 2026 01:56 pm

 nb> There was something about using the early software that brought joy. I am
 nb> not saying that it didn't
 nb> have issues. Far from it. Rather, I find interesting that even with the
 nb> limitation of both the
 nb> software and hardware, I found computers fun and these days, not so much.

 nb> I guess the real question, is there something about the old days (whatever
 nb> time period that is for you), that
 nb> you might be nostalgic for? If so, what is that?

I feel the same way.  I think one reason is that back in the 80s and 90s, having a computer at home was more of a novelty because it was more of a new thing.  I think that made it fun.  Also, because computers weren't as advanced back then, upgrades were more significant and noticeable - A CPU upgrade was noticeably much faster; you could upgrade from monochrome to color graphics, add a sound card to a PC (and you'd go from simple beeps to quality audio), etc..

Also, although computers were less advanced back then, we saw their potential, and it was fun to think about all the possibilities.

These days, I feel like upgrades are less noticeable.  Also, maybe it's
because I've been using computers for so long, I'm just very much used to it now, so it doesn't feel quite as fun as it used to be.

I think another factor may be OS UI design.  Since around 2012 or so, the GUIs of the various operating systems have become more flat and mono-tone across the board (starting with Windows 8, Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Android with Material Design, and similar with iOS).  I feel like the UIs of the various operating systems today look a bit boring.  I think a computer is more fun to use when the UI looks good.  MS-DOS and other command-line operating systems were probably an exception back in the day - Each application had its own look & feel; also, I felt like it was fun that you could do pretty much anything with the computer.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.34-Linux
 * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

.