In this installment of Linker, we link to topics about GUIs, OS/2, Swift on Windows, email that will never die, and floppy disks. There is a heavy emphasis on retro computing this time.
GUI Gallery. This is an excellent collection of screenshots from a wide variety of operating systems that go all the way back to the beginnings of GUIs as Xerox. It is interesting to see how GUIs have progressed over the decades. The website is HTTP-only, however, so your browser may warn you that is can’t connect securely.
OS/2 Museum. The OS/2 Museum is an online museum dedicated to the history of OS/2 and the preservation and restoration of old hardware that it ran on. It’s an interesting blog for those who are interested in retro computing.
Introducing Swift on Windows. We all know Swift as Apple’s new programming language used to develop applications for their various OSes. Some of you may have even known that there is a runtime and compiler for Linux, but I bet most people didn’t know that there is also one for Windows.
Five reasons why email will never die. There are a lot of advocates for a post-email computing experience, but I happen to agree with the author of this article in that I don’t think email will ever truly die. I also wouldn’t want it to. Email is essentially just a database of our communication with a (some more and some less) pretty interface that is always readily available to search and sort through.
Obsolete, but not gone: The people who won’t give up floppy disks. The BBC recently published this interesting article about people who still use floppy disks for their every-day storage needs. While I haven’t used one in well over a decade, I do fondly remember having to bring one to school with me to save my work in the computer lab.
