
Iβm a sucker for old-school operating system aesthetics β especially when theyβve been repurposed to run modern web services. This is why Poolside.FM β a gorgeous music and video feed disguised as a retro Mac OS β immediately piqued my curiosity.
The summer-styled website comes with its own music player, a video player with a selection of 80s and 90s footage to accompany the tunes, and an Instagram launcher that lets your browse through Poolside.FMβs feed. It also lets you choose between five different color themes for its PoolOS layout.
Currently, PoolOS supports three separate playlists β the default Poolside.FM, the Hangover Club, and the Tokyo Disco β to fit your mood. The cool thing is that you can create a PoolOS account to favorite tracks, submit new joints to the playlist, and write in the siteβs guestbook.
The design was inspired by some of the most influential OS aesthetics from the 80s and the 90s.
βThe main inspiration was Mac OS 9 (which has so many lovely details), but we looked at early Windows and Xerox OS as well,β Poolside.FM designer Niek Dekker told TNW. βWe put in extra effort to get the typography and pixel rendering true to that form.β
βIβve always loved 80s and 90s design, and I knew that nostalgic interface would perfectly match the retro positivity of the tracks and videos,β founder Marty Bell told TNW. βWeβve tried to stitch together as many good-vibes things together as possible to create the ultimate serotonin-inducing, mood-lifting website possible. A virtual getaway in your browser.β
For the record, Poolside.FM has been around for years now, but it just launched its PoolOS redesign today. Hereβs what it used to look like in the past:

Check out Poolside.FMβs new look and turn it up like they used to in the 90s by clicking here.
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