No problems here on Winamped Windows 98, albeit on a Pentium 166 with MMX. Often enough it was just a systems configuration issue.

Me too. Fireworks of "We have to move on" and "We have to reach out", etc.

I have never, ever in my slightly more than forty years on this rock heard Germans refer to the 2CV as "hässliches Entlein", let alone their 2CVs, and especially not in colloquial conversion. It was always just Ente. Same goes for printed materials, e. g. magazines, books, etc.

As a matter of fact, I believe it's the opposite of what you imagined: The "ugly duckling" designation was used from time to time either by ignoramuses (e. g. in older magazine headlines), or, in an ironic fashion, by some of the machine's owners.

> Again you may be thinking of the DS, which was Citroën's flagship model and its fender skirts were the ultimate expression of cool.

No, I'm talking about the 2CV. At this point I should mention that I'm East German. Citroën cars, compared to other Western makers, were relatively common where I grew up during the 80s. The most common one before the Wende? That's right, the DS!

> The 2CV was designed from the start as one of the cheapest cars possible.

Utilitarian/economical design and beautiful styling are not mutually exclusive.

EDIT:

> The Dutch Wikipedia article explicitly calls it Lelijke Eend and the German one has some references to "das hässliche Entlein" and how Citroën tried to sway people to a more favorable nickname.

So... according to the German wiki's source the blame goes to an early impression from some random Dutch journo. Quickly shortened to Eendje, already before the car made it to the German market. Where it was virtually always just called Ente, cause nobody uses more words in colloquial speech than they have to. Especially not with a mouthful like "hässliches Entlein".

Maybe in your small bubble. The 2CV was, and is, as much of a style icon as the Käfer (Beetle), the Topolino, the R4, the Mini, the Cinquecento and other greats of its time. As a matter fact, it's undoubtedly one of the titans amongst outstanding examples of automobile design and culture. Where the heck have you lived?!

Yes, style icon. That is a well established matter of record.

> The 2CV was commonly considered ugly so much that in Germany it was only known as Ugly Duckling [...].

Utter rubbish! The Germans, I happen to be one of 'em, call(ed) the 2CV just Ente. That translates to duck.

Amen. A, in this case rather ugly, restyling of a wheeled smartphone is not something I have an interest in. That's why you need the people that work on designing and signing-off (on) the thing understand what made the original such an oustanding design in the first place.

I was talking about IBM PC and compatibles. Big things have small beginnings, and so on.

Product design centered around corporate identity/branding did the rest.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49888311

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