• 10 Nov, 2025 *

i’ve been pretty disciplined about not using images in my bearblog posts because i want stuff to load as quickly as possible when i reread my nonsensical writings. so this is me breaking my own rule, because this was actually a lot of fun.

certainly this wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but 1995 is my birth year and it’s what i use for my bearblog url (and title) because i think it’s a lot more vague than my birth date. i won’t go around acting like a 1995 connoisseur because i don’t know what it was like back then. what do you want from me? i was a baby. literally.

apparently, though, a lot of cool things happened in 1995, including windows 95 becoming the second most installed software on computers (after DOOM).

like i said, i remember close to nothing about what life was like in 1995. i probably had a lot less problems, but that’s about it. what i do remember is that our home computer was always a few windows generations behind, because i remember being in school years later and feeling disoriented trying to navigate windows vista when our home computer was still on windows xp.

so while i may not have had much screen time on windows 95, i probably had a go when my dad finally installed the sims or counter-strike. i can’t be sure, but look, the interface is familiar!

anyway, i found out about a way to run windows 95 as an app on my pc, much thanks to developer felix rieseberg. you can access the internet on it (though most modern sites would look wonky) and there are games. like DOOM!

i don’t think there’s much functional, important use for me to run win95 on my windows 11 pc aside from nostalgia (for a time that i can’t even remember? talk about pretentious!), but i decided it would be fun to see what my bearblog would’ve looked like in the prime of this windows generation.

as you can see, it pretty much looks the same, save for some noticeable changes in font family and link colors, which is understandable. it also was kind of my goal to make my bearblog as accessible as possible, so much so that a time traveler from 1995 could access it on their win95 pc, so i’d say that’s a success.

i also noticed the bearblog toast/upvote button doesn’t display, but again, understandable. that was a time before engagement became the currency to own.

anyway, this was a fun exploration for me. i’m happy to report that the installed software in rieseberg’s win95 pretty much work. microsoft word, excel, the beloved ms paint. even the screensaver works! otherwise, i’ve yet to try the games, and i might spend a couple hours browsing old websites on this thing.

if i feel like it, i might start typing my posts on notepad in there, just for immersion’s sake. or something.

sorry this wasn’t a profound or insightful post about how software design in 1995 was like and what influences we can see of it thirty years later. i’d have to do a lot more reading to write about that, which i’m definitely interested in and might look into for future postings.

i was just bored, i think, and a little curious.

ps, if anyone is interested in seeing their bearblog through the win95 lens, the app (linked above) was only about 400mb to download and you don’t have to do anything complicated at all. if not, well, i will most likely be checking out my favorite bearblog sites on the ol’ internet explorer anyway.

[#i am simultaneously narcissistic and self-degrading as a result of main character self awareness](https://1995.bearblog.dev/blog/?q=i am simultaneously narcissistic and self-degrading as a result of main character self awareness) #tech