Hot Dog Linux, for people who really do love their vintage desktops

[beschizza]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2022/03/16/hot-dog-linux-for-people-who-really-do-love-their-vintage-desktops.html

…

[armozel]

I love the classic Mac OS UI and the Amiga workbench one. Both are just so quaint by modern standards. And to be honest, Amiga Workbench and classic Mac OS are actually better than most modern UIs in my opinion.

[MattAttac]

It wasn’t this garish, but the name reminds me of one of the first HTML WYSIWYG editors I used - HotDog Professional

[RickMycroft]

I think shading the bar of the active window was one of the things that DR had to comment out in GEM for being too Mac-like. These people will be hearing from Apple’s lawyers!

[Daveybot]

I’m just here to show my nostalgia-drenched appreciation to Beschizza for showing the Atari desktop version, there. Thank ye, sir.

[sgtcrispy]

I wonder how resource heavy this is. May have to give it a try on the ol’ netbook.

[howaboutthis]

VirtualBox and QEMU both gag on the download ISOs when they’re booted as CD/DVDs. Looks like they’re built to be written directly to a thumb drive.

ETA: Correction. My first downloads were incomplete for some reason. The re-download of the Amiga ISO seems to work fine.
Re-downloaded version of “slackware64-live-HOTDOG-20220227.iso” failed as well. (Using Brave browser). Gonna try curling it in. Ugh. Curl failed, too, with some sort of SSL read error.

[awfulhorrid]

@armozel

Amiga Workbench

There’s more than a bit of nostalgia for me there, it’s true. Unfortunately I think without Vista Pro, Deluxe Paint, and Imagine 3D it just wouldn’t be the same for me. I may have to include it as an option for our Linux box in our library’s Maker Space just for fun, of course.

@MattAttac

HotDog Professional

Oh good, I’m not the only one that remembers that!

[elliotk]

This immediately reminded me of the Hot Dog Stand Windows 3.1 theme, which does indeed appear to be where the inspiration came from

[semiotix]

There’s only one vintage Hot Dog desktop!

[howaboutthis]

Success downloading the big ISO this morning. Site must have been boinged yesterday.

[NoTouchPaw]

In the Atari ST’s defense, this theme looks more like a mockery of the GEM desktop than the one that shipped on their computers in the early 90s. There was a shortlived early version of GEM sold for the IBM PC and compatibles that looked more like the one shown here.

Those old Ataris are selling very well online by the way. If you have one socked away in your attic, the rarer models like the Falcon 030 and the TT are still used for niche purposes and go for upwards of $2000.