I know what you are saying on the time frame.
IT developed an applet interface. The ugly side is that when opened you get a login screen. Once logged in it pops an applet window for the main menu. Once the main menu selection is made it pops an applet window for the sub menu. Once that selection is made it pops a window for the sub sub menu. Once that selection is made it pops the gui window. The ugly part is they are all tied together so even though you never use the first login window after logging in you can't close it or it will kill the whole process. So to use one window you have to have 5 open. It is also specifically written to not work with tabbed browsing. Makes for a messy desktop.