This. If you want old school, go with 10px Verdana, and pad sparingly. I want information, not negative space dammit! With pine, my email editor in 1995, I could read 40 subject lines on a 640x480 screen. With Gmail (in compact mode) on an MBP retina, I get 36. Progress, indeed. Designers 1, Users 0.
The amount of padding in modern websites drives up the wall. The idea that I bought a 24" monitor just so I can read text in fullscreen is ridiculous.
One trick I often use is to have the window take half (or less) of the screen and spoof my browser to be Chrome on Android Kit Kat. I just wish there was a change to have a different browser spoofed per tab, or maybe a "whitelist" of websites that are designed well enough that I won't pretend I'm on a phone.
This. If you want old school, go with 10px Verdana, and pad sparingly. I want information, not negative space dammit! With pine, my email editor in 1995, I could read 40 subject lines on a 640x480 screen. With Gmail (in compact mode) on an MBP retina, I get 36. Progress, indeed. Designers 1, Users 0.