Ah, the time when GPUs got fast enough that desktop compositors all became 3D and GPU-accelerated, and every mainstream OS decided to have cool effects to show off what they could do.
Windows Vista and 7 running Windows Aero, with its transparency, shiny bits, and Flip 3D (Windows + Tab).
Mac OS X Snow Leopard running Aqua, with its rounded buttons and blue scroll bars that were 'lickable globs of Crest Berrylicious Toothpaste Gel'.
And then Apple took a road-roller and flattened every UI element they could starting from OS X Lion and iOS 7; Microsoft and Google soon followed suit.
I unironically miss the late 2000s-aesthetic and human design of operating systems and UIs. But I'll concede that Web has got a lot better.
Linux was first with all these things and went way harder than anyone. Did Windows or MacOS ever got burning windows? I don’t think so, pal. :)
Late 90s Linux desktops were already crazy and included windows backgrounds with anime waifus before they were cool. (Never were imo but I don’t want to get lynched )
Sort of unrelated but I love the GNOME extension Burn My Windows, it brings that burning windows feature to modern GNOME and it has so much customizability and so many different animations
You give Apple too much credit, and Microsoft too little.
The common conception is that Microsoft created the “flat UI” thing wholly from scratch, it was seen as totally original and unique at the time, it took no obvious immediate influences from contemporary software design trends.
I think the Windows Phone was the first from Microsoft with the flat UI. While it didn't take off, I remember a friend who had a Windows phone and thinking how radical and different its UI was.
You've got it completely backwards. Microsoft went all in on flat with their Windows Phone interface circa 2010. iOS 7 was literally years later, and arguably overcorrected.
Windows Vista and 7 running Windows Aero, with its transparency, shiny bits, and Flip 3D (Windows + Tab).
Mac OS X Snow Leopard running Aqua, with its rounded buttons and blue scroll bars that were 'lickable globs of Crest Berrylicious Toothpaste Gel'.
And then Apple took a road-roller and flattened every UI element they could starting from OS X Lion and iOS 7; Microsoft and Google soon followed suit.
I unironically miss the late 2000s-aesthetic and human design of operating systems and UIs. But I'll concede that Web has got a lot better.