We need more optimism in technology, more looking forward and inspiring the next generation to leave their mark; not pining for a past that’s already been here.
Nobody younger than an older millennial who grew up learning computers via Windows 95 has any interest in “retvrning” to this ethos of computing. Hell, I just described myself and even I could care less about this project other than a passing “huh that’s kinda neat” which is a rather tepid response proportional to the work that has been invested here.
There are far more interesting projects rethinking the OS right now that are actually trying their hand at unique architectures. This is just an homage to nostalgia (a technically impressive one, but still nothing inspiring here). The saddest part to me is I’m not sure the graybeards on HN will ever really get that.
In the classic definition of .... "graybeards"... we have no nostalgia for Win95.
Back then we were fighting tooth and nail to undermine MS's monopoly, and Linux as you see it today is the product of that.
I will admit the first times I saw the Win95 interface I found it appealing. Though they actually cribbed a lot form the NeXTstep UI, and I'm much more fond of that.
I prefer the Sun OpenLook UI for nostalgia value, myself.
When I first saw screenshots of Win95 I was impressed at a certain level, from a pure look & feel POV.
But there are certain (non)usability things it introduced which I didn't think were great, actually. Window close button next to the minimize and other controls. Classic MacOS did it right by putting it on the far other side of the window where you couldn't accidentally click. The Start menu broke the whole OO metaphor by adding a deep tricky menu system. Right-clicking context menus all over the place. Task bar at the bottom dynamic depending on what is running means hard to use muscle memory and predict where a given tile will be.
Overall it was very good for the time. Though in fact I personally think the more 'flat' and minimalistic interface of Windows 3 aged better. This faux-3d bevels etc thing didn't age well. Was a novelty product of the time that NeXT kinda began and everyone followed for a bit.
The actual "operating system" (really a shell for MS-DOS) in Win95 was terrible.
As I grow more and more disillusioned with modern computing, I catch myself thinking “just give me macOS classic with a few nice-to-haves bolted on, like a modern browser.” (Yeah, I know those nice-to-haves are probably a lot more work than the rest of the OS).
Beeper is an app that unifies all the messaging protocols you mentioned (and others) into a single app. They are not introducing another protocol.
Universal in this context is referring to the ability to use a single app across protocols rather than the ability to use a single app across platforms.
They are building their "Labs" which aims to offer high quality testing. They also have purchased a professional power supply tester as well.
They noticed cell phone reviews over time have dropped signal or quality testing. Which makes sense since each reviewer is just testing in their local environment with no standards or baseline so they were pretty meaningless anyways.
Are they going to be able to test enough phones and wifi/radio equipment to make it worth while? Not too sure.
An “about face” is a term commonly called in military cadence indicating the soldier should turn around, completing a 180 degree turn. So when used colloquially it means someone or some business had a complete change of mind on some topic. In this case, Microsoft has changed their approach to repairability.
Mastodon ain’t it because the exact minute a minimum wage Geek Squad tech has to explain to a sorority group the reason they can’t follow each other is because they are using different federated instances is the exact minute mastodon fails to gain any mainstream appeal. It will likely always captivate some niche of users looking for a slice of the nostalgic, techie internet (Mastodon will remain an HN darling no doubt), but a Twitter drop in, it is not.
I wish you were right. People talk about it "failing" because it fails to meet the expectations set by capitalist platforms, and you are exactly correct - Mastodon is a throwback to the time before these beasts inundated the earth with their tidal wave enshittification.
But I just closed my account this morning cause there is a large mob now who are quite determined that this will be twitter 2.0, and they are already bullying the culture in that direction.
Screenshots are visible if you're on desktop but not on mobile yet. We need to improve the mobile version. We're a small team! That said, you can see screenshots of the mobile app by tapping through to the app store.
In my experience, the clubs cater to a niche. They’re effectively a kink in and of themselves and there’s a very explicit innuendo that sex is to be had on premise. Nude beaches on the other hand are a casual exploration of being clotheless. And while sexuality plays a part, it is not the focus of the experience and is often generally discouraged. I think nude beaches are cultural and thus more prone to the ebb and flow of said culture. Swingers clubs are a fetish and will exist regardless of culture as long as there are people with the kink.
Nobody younger than an older millennial who grew up learning computers via Windows 95 has any interest in “retvrning” to this ethos of computing. Hell, I just described myself and even I could care less about this project other than a passing “huh that’s kinda neat” which is a rather tepid response proportional to the work that has been invested here.
There are far more interesting projects rethinking the OS right now that are actually trying their hand at unique architectures. This is just an homage to nostalgia (a technically impressive one, but still nothing inspiring here). The saddest part to me is I’m not sure the graybeards on HN will ever really get that.