the app store is called n store and it is extremely grey

Nehyan · 2 Sep 2026 · 4 min · written in the wrong order

n store looks like a shop that would have existed if windows 95 had an internet that was not dial-up screaming. it is grey. the titlebar is navy. there is a floppy led that blinks while nothing magnetic is happening. you browse apps, you hit install, a progress bar lies to you for a few seconds, then an icon shows up on the desktop like you extracted a zip in 1997. that is the loop. i am not adding one-click pay.

shelf of grey. the selected one is a community app. i still get surprised when those exist.

built-in stuff is the calculator and paint and the usual suspects. community stuff is nls that people published, which means you can install a game somebody wrote in the same editor you have. the download animation is theater. the file is already there. i kept the theater because a silent install feels like a virus even when it is not, and 1995 solved this with a bar and a filename in all caps.

install chrome. estimated time remaining is a joke with a progress bar.

after it finishes you get a desktop icon, which is the whole dopamine. then you can uninstall from a context menu if you hate it, which is also windows, historically. i did not want a modern store with ratings out of five. i wanted a list and a bevel and a little bit of fear that you installed too many things, which is why task manage exists, but that is another post and i am not spoiling it.

new icon on the teal. this is the unboxing. there is no box.

if you write something in ns code you can publish it into this same grey. that still feels like a dare. the store is not steam. it is a folder with manners. browse it anyway.

two aisles. both grey. that is the branding.

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