I feel like I remember seeing something like this get posted and celebrated in this or some other techie community, and I’m interested in screwing around with other OSes but I can’t remember which one it might be. What’s your favorite 90s-flavored Linux desktop environment / distribution?
I think it might be LXQT?
You need to theme it but depending on how you theme it you can get it looking like Win95. In fact I distinctly remember seeing Win95 themes for LXQT
Chicago95 XFCE on Debian is my daily driver. Having been a Windows 2000 fanboy, it makes me feel right at home.
The Raleigh GTK theme ported to GTK 3 on XFCE is also a quick and dirty way to get a 90s-esque look: https://github.com/thesquash/gtk-theme-raleigh
For an entire distro, there’s Hot Dog Linux: https://github.com/arthurchoung/HOTDOG
It’s worth checking out Blue95, which was originally made as a novelty but has all the power of uBlue behind it, as an opinionated, batteries-included Linux based on Fedora.
Vanilla? XFCE was looked a bit like Win 95/98 the last time I used it, say 5 to 10 years ago. I’ve been using KDE which reminds me more of XP or Vista in default configuration. Probably why I like KDE so much.
What your probably looking for though is a theme.
Are you thinking of Plan 9?
You’re confusing themes with entire distros.
This is what you want: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95
To add to this, a ‘distro’ -if you will- that was launched recently with this theme would be the aptly-named Blue95.
I’ve been using Debian MATE. It’s mostly ok.
I think you’re thinking of SerenityOS (although it isn’t actually a Linux):
Also are the Rolling Stones involved? Asking for a friend.
This is one that was shared recently:
I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for but what your post reminds me of is ReactOS, though that’s more of a rewrite of actual Windows than a Linux distro.
There’s also Free95
Oh, that’s pretty sick.
q40s is a debian based distro. It comes with trinity desktop and has some very retro looking themes.
I tried it on an old laptop a while ago and it worked fine. But you could probably do the same thing with regular debian
[Trinity Desktop Environment] (https://www.trinitydesktop.org/) is really cool - a bit more XP-era, mid-2000s style, though.
I haven’t used the Chicago theme, but if you’re in KDE, the Reactionary Plus theme is spot on and works great.
https://www.pling.com/p/2138468/
Or
Atomic desktops are the (current) future, so: https://blues.win/95/
