Ignoring the security implications, I miss kb large old raw html websites that loaded instantly on DSL internet. Nowadays shit is too fancy because hardware allows that, but I feel we’re just constantly running into more bugs first and then worry about them later.
Edit: I’ve thought more about it, and I think I just missed the simplicity of the internet back then. There’s just too much bloat these days with ad trackers and misinformation. I kinda forgot just how bright and eye jarring most old UIs were lol.
You know what I miss? When information was condensed instead of spread out to insert more ads. When software willingly gave you all the options you could ever need instead of removing most of them because “people might get confused”. When website took up the entire screen instead of a mobile wide strip in the middle because “it can be scary for people”.
Fuck everyone who keeps lowering the bar of tech literacy just to appeal to the general public.
I literally have a vertical monitor to avoid the middle strip of text problem. It especially sucks for higher resolution monitors, it just feels like so much wasted space on the left and right side of the article.
The most used e-commerce platform on my country does this for the map for in store pick ups when selecting where the package is sent. The map is basically a long vertical strip and the actual map area occupies maybe 10-5% of a 1440p monitor.
Drives me nuts every time I have to use it
This is very true on anything above say 1080p and 100% scaling. I have 2x 1440p monitors and the strip of text in the middle is… way too prevent. That said, I have no idea how you would fill my monitor with useful information and have it scale. I’ve embraced running four columns of windows most of the time. Sometimes it’s two columns on one monitor and a full screen something on my other.
If I’m doing documents, it’s basically columns so I can read it like papers. But then one day I just decided to turn a monitor into one big column. Turns out finding wallpapers for it is pretty easy too because mobile wallpapers work.
Yep, this is all a matter of window management. Having a 2000px wide column of text is terrible for readability.
I run a 4k tv as the equivalent of four monitors. Normally I have four windows, but sometimes I use a whole half of the screen for an IDE. Some apps like Spotify I run at one eighth of the screen.
Click next after each paragraph of the story so I can load more ads! And by paragraph, I mean one <p> tag per sentence.</p>
I miss the time when UI was utilitarian. None of that rounded corners and fancy themes nonsense. Function over form.