Cozy, human scaled user interfaces.
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This is Microsoft BOB
Here’s a good demo video without any talking or people mugging for the camera, just the interface: https://youtu.be/VrsIsf8PQJY
Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product intended to provide a more user-friendly interface for the Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, supplanting the Windows Program Manager. The program was released on March 10, 1995, and discontinued in early 1996.
Oh my god, it’s like Clippy but for an entire operating system
Don’t know whether I remember right, but I think the product manager for Bob was the future Melinda Gates. She married Bill when Bob was close to completion.
Not knowing what ms Bob is makes this read hilarious
For reference, this is Microsoft Bob running inside a virtual machine. For an interactive online thingy (not the whole application), see
Here’s a Bob inspirited 3D online version: https://pangalactic.github.io/bob3js/
You can find more on YouTube or whatever. Here a link to virtualbox settings and downloads if you want to run it yourself.
pets dog
god damn, Windows 7 was so damn cool. It looked real nice and worked quite well, at least for me
bursts in tears
I want my good old life back !
People yearning for 7 makes me feel about as old as mummy dust.
I miss XP service pack 3, how do you think I feel?
That was truly peak.
You guys had windows?
Well we were normal people so yeah. I actually got the family into macs a couple decades ago, had tried Linux in early 00s but i wasnt ready for that much tinkering. Now im trying to get them off apple and onto Linux ha
I think you misunderstand. I remember when Windows 1.0 came out.
Ohh I see now ha!
Personally I’m looking forward to the maturation of the OpenXP project. Since the XP source code got leaked a couple years ago, a small community of elder nerds are busy giving it security patches and releasing it back into the wild.
I don’t think it’s quite ready for use at the moment, but I’m sure one day it might be.
I miss 2k
But from XP I miss being able to search ALL video/music formats at once, I have mpg/avi/mkv/and 1 or 2 others
I think a Bob window manager for Linux would be hilarious.
As a UX designer, I, by no means, miss skumorphism as a design ideology. I was very glad to see it go.
well, it is coming back, fast fashion UI churning as always
.So youre one of those responsible for the horrible shininess of web 3.0? Lol. You probably hated fmv too!
No. I’m not a web designer.
What do you design
Apps. Mostly mobile. Some desktop.
But UX design is more about how they work, not what they look like necessarily. That’s UI design.
Sure I gotcha
BOB was an abomination. I hope they took it to hell.
It was like someone in Redmond was trying to make the most condescending desktop environment possible. “I want it to shove Saturday Evening Post in between the user and Windows 3.1.”
Bob is what Satan uses.
At the time they were going with the idea that computer were too complicated for “regular people” and that they needed a very dumbed down interface to reach the masses. It was released at the same time as Windows 95, but it really feels like it was made for Windows 3.1, which it also supported. It was just such an insultingly bad product.
It is my understanding that Microsoft BOB’s code was present in every copy of Windows XP.
I’m badly remembering this, something about the product key encryption needed a sizeable chunk of arbitrary data to function, and they had BOB laying around.
That is the first I have heard of that. Seems unlikely, but you never know. They did still keep the dog and Clippy around, and it isn’t like BOB was very big to begin with.
Well here’s Dave Plummer, the retired Microsoft developer telling the story first hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHu9OmLd8Y
Interesting, thanks!
Absolutely hilarious.
Great calendar date
Virtual machines?
Jk,
Theres actually tons of point and click stuff in the Indie world and its awesome. Or you can emulate and run all the old games like I do.
