OpenBooks TimeWarp archives previous versions of OpenBooks.
The previous releases are sorted by which codebase they are based on not chronologically. Copying CSS and graphics is encouraged and recommended for building your own sites, but please do not copy the text of these websites.
Please note: the content on these pages is not up to date and is likely even incorrect.
OpenBooks 9 (Present)
OpenBooks 9 Series builds on top of 8, further refining the visual style and cleaning up some of the leftover code from 2019, and rebuilds several core functions of the site while still showing similarities to 8.7.
9.5 introduced a new home page design, making the tiles from 9.0 more central to the design, and OpenBooks 9.6 introduced new page layouts like this one, made with a more universal CSS UI kit, making future page additions and modifications easier than before.
OpenBooks 9.8 switched to a new version numbering scheme, in preperation for a future release of OpenBooks. It also dropped "Series" from the title.
Notably, 9.15 was the last version to use a blue color scheme, as 9.16 will start the migration to a new visual style coming in the next major version of OpenBooks.
OpenBooks 8 Series
OpenBooks 8 Series is built on top of OpenBooks 5, however it is visually different. The original versions of OpenBooks 8 were inspired by Windows Live circa 2006/2007, and Windows Vista. 8.7 introduced the blue Media Center inspired color scheme still used today. OpenBooks 8 Series marked a return to OpenBooks being a Neocities hub and not just a personal site. Development stopped in mid 2019, and resumed in early 2021.
OpenBooks 7
7 was a short lived version of the site, based on the 2.X branch in 2017 - It was taken down and the site was dormant until OpenBooks 8 Series in 2019.
OpenBooks 6 (Classic)
OpenBooks was rebuilt in late 2016 as a purely personal site after backlash over OpenBooks 5, however it was rather short lived. Though this version had its own numbering scheme (it refers to itself as 1.3), it can be counted as the 6th major version of OpenBooks.
OpenBooks 5
OpenBooks 5 was an attempt at a fully modern website - however it was met with harsh backlash over the Neocities userbase at the time. If posted today, OpenBooks 5 probably wouldn't be received as poorly. It was a complete redesign from the ground up, and parts of it even formed the later OpenBooks 8 Series.
5's stark white and teal minimalism was taken as an affront to the Neocities community - which was entirely based on 90s throwback websites at the time.
OpenBooks Release Series 4 (NX)
OpenBooks 4 (Codenamed NX when released in preview/beta) was based in part on the previous OpenBooks codebase, but merged some parts with the cancelled OpenBooks TV project.
OpenBooks 2, XP, and 3
ChromeBooks 2.0 marked the first time the website had been re-written since the site's launch. It also marked the first time the site had a goal of being more than just a personal site, and there were plans to host other people's content as well. The site was renamed to OpenBooks in version 2.4.
OpenBooks XP (2.5) was the first of several updates that tweaked the visual design of the site, and the first time the site moved on from it's 90s retro Windows appearance. 3.0 introduced a new visual style, which would be later refined into the Vista style of OpenBooks NX.
7 was a short lived version of the site, based on the 2.X branch in 2017 - It was taken down and the site was dormant until OpenBooks 8 Series in 2019.
ChromeBooks (First Releases)
From 1.0 to 2.3, the site was known as ChromeBooks. The first version was published on September 14th, 2014. These versions represent a very early version of the site, because no one really knew what they were doing with Neocities in 2014.