What's interesting to me is that we ended up with NT's Win32 personality as the default and only userland. I always wondered what an "NT-native" userland would look like, and if that would have been closer to the OS/2 personality that shipped through NT 4.0.
Perhaps it would look different, in the way that say MacOS and Windows are different, but I doubt it would be "better".
I mean, lots of choices are arbitrary. They're typically "invisible", like the pedals in a car, until you come across a different layout. [1]
visually, OSs like to reinvent themselves (Windows XP, 7, 8, 10, 11) but functionally they behave the same (maximise, minimise, close buttons in top right corner of window).
OS/2 today would look very different to OS/2 then, but probably a lot like Windows 11.
[1] I drove a truck for a bit that forced my left foot to use the brake because of the design. It took a long while to get used to pressing gently with the left foot, as I was used to trucks with a very heavy clutch pedal.
> [1] I drove a truck for a bit that forced my left foot to use the brake because of the design. It took a long while to get used to pressing gently with the left foot, as I was used to trucks with a very heavy clutch pedal.
I have never driven a "real" truck so I'm confused by this. I drive automatic so my left foot never does anything. Can you tell me a bit more about the arrangement that forces you to use your left foot for brakes?
The steering column was big, and went all the way to the floor. So basically one foot was on the left, one on the right. Think two footwells instead of 1. You couldn't cross the right-foot over to the left pedal.
Being a driver was tricky, being a passenger was worse - while learning the braking tended to be "very unsubtle".
