Author Topic: What's the current 'killer app'? (Read 17344 times)

zridling · « **on:** March 30, 2008, 02:13 AM »

I'm curious to know what you think is the killer app on the desktop/web/whatever, as opinions change over the years. (Don't be afraid to think big or outside the box.)

psionics · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2008, 07:33 AM »

hello!

my current killer app is "process explorer" by sysinternals.. they are my 1st steps in virus elimination.

outside the box.. i am wishing to extradesktops.com to be free from evaluation.. that would be very useful to me. i can call it a killer apps.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2008, 07:41 AM »

A(ny) web browser...

surftwo · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2008, 08:27 AM »

Big subject here.......there are so many that I like. To start with I guess it would be Direct foldershttp://www.codesecto...om/directfolders.php. It add a left click menu which you can add folders to. Also let's you add program shortcuts. And there is a free version.
For the web I like http://windowseat.ca/viscosity/ It draws modern in a strange way need to see it to believe it.

oldfart · « **Reply #4 on:** March 30, 2008, 09:35 AM »

Several years ago when they talked of ''Killer Apps" it meant new software that was so desirable that you were forced to upgrade your system because you couldn't live without that software. I don't know of any program out there right now that would fit that description.
Gamers were generally the bleeding edge power users and were often forced to upgrade in order to play the newest hot game but I can't think of any game that fits the description either. Apparently Microsoft is hoping that Direct X 10 will force upgrades to Vista as it is designed so it will not work on XP.

tamasd · « **Reply #5 on:** March 30, 2008, 02:52 PM »

There are some applications (Scrivener, Textmate, Tinderbox) that keep me seriouosly considering moving from Windows to MacOS.

app103 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 30, 2008, 05:40 PM »

Several years ago when they talked of ''Killer Apps" it meant new software that was so desirable that you were forced to upgrade your system because you couldn't live without that software. I don't know of any program out there right now that would fit that description.
-oldfart (March 30, 2008, 09:35 AM)

I think being forced back to my old WinME machine has shown me what would be the 'killer apps' in my case:

Windows Live Writer (blogging without it is quite frustrating)
Post-it Software Notes (I am so lost without this, that I can't even remember my name)
AOL Explorer (nicest browser I have ever had the pleasure to use, and part of what fuels my resistance to Vista)
Surfulator (a digital packrat's best friend, when it comes to saving info)
Ad Muncher (being forced to see all the ads again, has given me a greater appreciation for this gem)
Open Pandora (I miss my fav station!)
Newzie (best RSS reader I have ever tried)

...and Pop-Up Cody!

And while I am stuck on this WinME machine, I am developing a greater appreciation for Process Explorer, which grows with each day. (the shortcut has been moved from 'system tools' up to the 'vital necessities' toolbar, right next to 'reboot')

mrainey · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2008, 06:14 PM »

Programs like Excel, Photoshop, AutoCAD, and a select group of others have been around so long that we take them for granted, but many thousands of people around the world depend on these programs for making their living, every single day. I think that qualifies them as "killer apps".

jgpaiva · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2008, 07:07 PM »

Well.. For work, it certainly is Eclipse, i still haven't seen an IDE that compares to it.
For general purpose, the 2 apps i miss the most when i don't have them are FARR(i can't launch programs if i close FARR) and Opera (my web browsing slows down by like 20x if i have to use any other browser).

zridling · « **Reply #9 on:** April 01, 2008, 01:19 PM »

cranioscopical made me think that now the killer app is not just the browser, but the apps we can get from it. Think about what the killer app is that's taken us as far as we've gone — because people don't buy operating systems, they buy applications as tamasd notes. The killer app that has driven this model is the internet itself. (Okay, so "the internet" is not an app, but the browser is right up there.)

When you get a collaborative application — which is the internet where that collaboration is essential to the value of the network — then in order for all the players on that network to play fair with each other it has to be open source technology, the kind that jgpaiva uses with the Eclipse IDE. The key is preventing any company from owning a protocol on the internet, because if that were to happen, then the internet will fail. It would be all over in a flash. The bulk of its value will disappear by virtue of corporate restriction and fees for various types of controlled access beyond what we suffer now.
________________________________________________
Otherwise, I'm choosing the XYplorer File Manager as my killer/can't-start-the-day-without app.

superboyac · « **Reply #10 on:** April 01, 2008, 01:53 PM »

hate to say it...but as far as impact and widespread use, any of the major historical file-sharing apps.

iphigenie · « **Reply #11 on:** April 01, 2008, 01:56 PM »

to me the killer app would be a great email client - i spend more time in my email client than my browser, and i think there probably is a better way that people havent thought of first.

Merge outlook with onenote for a start, with a better way to search/organise by more than 1 category at a time... and maybe some small bit of webby openid integration... and a bit of semantic search (i.e. less need to organise)

nontroppo · « **Reply #12 on:** April 02, 2008, 04:31 AM »

Scrivener is the app I've known people buying a Mac for. It is the app I longed for for a long time, and most clearly guarantees I wont leave my current OS platform.

As a camera lover I was also going to say Adobe Lightroom (I use the old *king* of Killer apps Photoshop a lot less

), but Apple's Aperture 2.1 has just implemented a non-destructive plugin system so my killer app may have just been killed (dodge-and-burn *within* the RAW workflow is seriously sexy)...

I think Final Cut Pro was and still is a (domain specific) killer app (it won a hefty chunk of the indie film/documentary market), but i have a soft spot for Sony's Vegas still.

iphigenie · « **Reply #13 on:** April 02, 2008, 06:30 AM »

non destructive photo editing is a killer app in that field - although they all do it nowadays

nontroppo · « **Reply #14 on:** April 02, 2008, 06:35 AM »

The key is preventing any company from owning a protocol on the internet, because if that were to happen, then the internet will fail. It would be all over in a flash. The bulk of its value will disappear by virtue of corporate restriction and fees for various types of controlled access beyond what we suffer now.
-zridling (April 01, 2008, 01:19 PM)

This is why I've been consistently anti-IE since its rise to dominance; my dislike of it is much more political (fear of losing the holy grail of free open HTML interoperability) than it is technical (though IEs technical aspects also deserves large heaps of disdain too)...

----
iphigenie: yes, though some do it *far* more elegantly than others

iphigenie · « **Reply #15 on:** April 02, 2008, 06:51 AM »

iphigenie: yes, though some do it *far* more elegantly than others
-nontroppo (April 02, 2008, 06:35 AM)

Oh, I smell a new thread $:-\$ - I am testing a few, I only have acdsee in that department (and a dozen normal image editing tools) but I have read so much about some of the other tools I am planning to check them out (all expensive though).

Jimdoria · « **Reply #16 on:** April 02, 2008, 03:39 PM »

My killer app: OneNote 2007.

It's so good that I'm seriously considering upgrading several of my older Win2K machines to XP so they can run it.

Tiddlywiki comes in a close 2nd. It'd probably be first if I didn't have OneNote.

nontroppo · « **Reply #17 on:** April 02, 2008, 11:27 PM »

Yipeee! My killer app in doubt is in doubt no more. Lightroom have just introduced V2.0 public beta with in-situ dodge-burn, and apparently full 64-bit app support. I'll post a seperate thread about it I'm so excited!!!!

zridling · « **Reply #18 on:** April 03, 2008, 09:28 AM »

Jimdoria — any idea why OneNote doesn't get more widespread attention? It's truly incredible in so many ways. I loved this app, but could not trust my data to its proprietary format. I decided two years ago that I'm not going to spend the rest of my life paying Microsoft to read my own documents; 20 years of doing so was enough and I just can't afford to keep up.

zridling · « **Reply #19 on:** April 03, 2008, 09:30 AM »

Surprised no one has mentioned AutoHotkey!