13 comments

  • torh 11 minutes ago
    My favorite was the blue in Windows 2000. Never cared much for the green in Windows 95/98. When installing Windows 98 later (because games) I would try to set up the same blue. Instead of getting it correct, I guessed, and ended up with #336699 which was easy to remember and "close enough". I see now that it's closer to Haiku (almost perfect, #336698) than Windows 2000.
  • danirod 54 minutes ago
    One nerdy detail about old operating systems and graphics cards: due to the way the VGA color palette works, the teal background used in Windows 98 and earlier versions of Windows was actually lighter than #008080 if the computer was configured to use 16 colors (not 256 colors):

    https://twitter.com/bakertechsrvcs/status/162629846037367193...

    https://xcancel.com/bakertechsrvcs/status/162629846037367193...

    Another nerdy detail: the default background color on Windows XP was different depending on whether the theme was Luna or Classic. On Classic it is the same one as Windows 2000, but for Luna it is more blueish. I understand the denial, but it will be the 25st anniversary of the XP release in a few months, so it probably qualifies as classic by now.

  • tuzemec 8 minutes ago
    For the past 20+ years I'm using the same desktop color across various OSes: #000000 This is one of the first things that I modify on a fresh install.
  • _joel 28 minutes ago
    It's strange how seeing the default NT4 and 2k colours take me straight back to a fresh install 25+ years ago. First job was doing desktop rollouts so I'd see it a lot!
  • flowercalled 50 minutes ago
    I can understand using an llm to build your website. But I can't understand using it to write copy, especially when it's so unnecessary here.
    • vlowrian 30 minutes ago
      Agreed. A bit of context on that: I wanted to add some fun facts or relevant information to some of the colors, OSs, etc. and I wrote this in German and let the LLM do the translation. However,it looked pretty weird when navigating through the page and most colors and roughly half of the OSs did show up with an empty label. So it was a visual decision to let the LLM fill in the gaps.

      But you're right. It's damaging to the actual facts and research I added myself. It might be better to remove the text where it's just an LLM placeholder.

      Larger copies (like about and privacy) are written by me and then LLM translated.

    • rideontime 41 minutes ago
      Seconded. The "personality" it tries to add is trite and tiresome and everybody immediately sees it for what it is, especially for a case like this where there's only so many ways to say "this is the default desktop color of an operating system." Not only that, but it's confusing - is "Windows Classic blue" a real thing, or just an attempt at a cute phrase? Just label the colors and be done with it.
  • lucideer 35 minutes ago
    Windows 2008 is the teal desktop I remember fondly - they brought it back after going blue in Windows 2003. I'm presuming it was the same #008080 shade as '95 & '98.
  • zebproj 37 minutes ago
    There's no "Hot Dog Stand", so the collection is incomplete.
  • newsomix9xl 40 minutes ago
    Where's plan9?
  • rcarmo 37 minutes ago
    Delightful, even if I don’t recall Solaris
  • vivid242 1 hour ago
    I sometimes catch myself recreating the Win95 color on my Mac. Thanks for this!
  • iAMkenough 32 minutes ago
    OS X Aqua Blue!
  • wewewedxfgdf 1 hour ago
    I still love the Amiga colors.
    • vlowrian 1 hour ago
      Me too! The Workbench Blue is actually my current desktop background :)
  • imfemambocus 10 minutes ago
    [flagged]