Author Topic: nostalgia hour: old software you loved (Read 32773 times)

iphigenie · « **on:** March 03, 2007, 04:33 AM »

I've just been sorting through old papers and one of the folders had old software licenses, old registration emails... It just got me thinking fondly of some old software I just liked (yes, fondly!), used a lot, lost... and some I still use...

So 3 questions

1) what are the earliest (independent) programs you "registered" - that can be paid registration, email registration, donation, postcard?

2) what are your favorite programs you no longer use?

3) what are the oldest programs you still use?
a) use a new version of / b) still use "as is"

nudone · « **Reply #1 on:** March 03, 2007, 04:49 AM »

nice questions but i personally can't think of anything old enough for it to be interesting. i look forward to seeing the other replies.

iphigenie · « **Reply #2 on:** March 03, 2007, 04:52 AM »

1) earliest software:

I'm not a 100% sure as I was using windows and OS/2 in parallel and it's hard to remember...

* squeaky mouse - navigation helper on windows 3 - moving the mouse cursor to dialog, help with scrolling, help with jumping down lists by typing a letter. Most of these features have now
* windows commander
* postroad mailer (OS/2)
* a fax software
i think i also had quarterdeck dashboard and cleansweep, but they're borderline "shrinkwrap".

The earliest software I remember spending money on was on a much earlier PC still, and it was Borland's turbo pascal. It cost and arm and a leg to me when i was in school and i saved for a long time to buy it (they didnt have academic pricing then) and a 20Mb hard drive. At 14? and I wasnt even that geeky but programming was fun... That was DOS! I'm sure I spent money on some other things too but I only remember that one cause it was so much money.

2) fondly remembered:

* squeaky mouse clearly is one of them, it was so incredibly cute as well as useful. I still have the executable. In my family we still have what we call the "squeaky mouse dance"... moving swiftly on...

* cookie pal would be another, before all browsers accumulated their own cookie management. It could still be useful if it evolved in being a tool where you can manage one blacklist, one whitelist which works in all browsers...

* webgal - a snippets management tool for developers, to store code bits etc. which the developer never moved forward. It was very useful to me, but I just might have been the only one.

I still have the executables for those 3 and everything I ever registered... although maybe not the os/2 ones.

3) oldest programs still in use:

a) I have had these through numerous versions, so the version i use is not old, but the "software relationship" is.

total commander - i'm not sure when i registered it, maybe i should ask. Somewhere around 1994 I think. And I still get upgrades for free! I'd almost feel bad about it, except I had several companies I work with buy 10-25 licenses and currently own 14 licenses on top of that one, so i think that evens it out.

object desktop - i used it under OS/2, around 1996? then when switching to windows I got it to get some of the tools I was familiar with, and I kind of have been renewing ever since. I think at the moment I use very little of it but it goes in phases...

slickedit - i love that editor. I'm stuck at version 6 cause i can't justify the upgrade costs at the moment. I remember discovering it as part of the IBM OS/2 developer connection in 96 or so

iphigenie · « **Reply #3 on:** March 03, 2007, 04:55 AM »

nice questions but i personally can't think of anything old enough for it to be interesting. i look forward to seeing the other replies.
-nudone (March 03, 2007, 04:49 AM)

yes, i guess it depends on age and all. mine aren't very old compared to some people, probably, but seem antique when i realise it has been 12 years or more!

app103 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 03, 2007, 05:26 AM »

First program I ever paid for: McAfee Virus Scan 5 (they wouldn't tell me how to update v4's dats and made me buy v5 to get the info)

Oldest program I no longer use but wish I could: Nuts & Bolts Defragger (from McAfee Office 2000, which came with that Virus Scan v4)

Oldest program I still use...

I thought it was Dupeless 1.2 (1998) but then I remembered this little gem I like to play:

Keep in mind I didn't get my first PC till 1999.

iphigenie · « **Reply #5 on:** March 03, 2007, 05:47 AM »

I remember nuts and bolts, i had that! I think i got it when i "followed" cleansweep and dashboard to McAfee

Good point, i listed software i have had forever but i use a new version. must dig up what's the oldest one as in age of the version i actually use...

Dirhael · « **Reply #6 on:** March 03, 2007, 05:59 AM »

Norton Commander & QEMM-386 are two of the first applications that comes to mind on the PC platform. Good times

I'm not in the habbit of sticking with outdated applications though, so I can't really think of any really old ones that I still use.

nudone · « **Reply #7 on:** March 03, 2007, 06:09 AM »

i remember using quarterdeck dashboard and cleansweep - on windows 3.1 - i think. of course, not using them anymore. they seemed like essential things at the time - so obvious they should have been part of the operating system. ghost was another thing that seemed so obvious microsoft should have included it with windows - i remember using it before norton took it over.

i remember using photoshop 4 for quite a while after version 5 and even 6 came out - pretty dumb but i liked how quickly it loaded in. it's still a pretty good editor i suppose even by todays standards.

i tried to get win95 working on a laptop not long ago as i thought it might be okay for internet use - didn't go very well so used win2k instead. but that would have been the oldest thing i could possibly have been using.

iphigenie · « **Reply #8 on:** March 03, 2007, 06:18 AM »

I'm not in the habbit of sticking with outdated applications though, so I can't really think of any really old ones that I still use.
-Dirhael (March 03, 2007, 05:59 AM)

what about apps you followed through many versions and still use after many years, albeit in a new version?

Darwin · « **Reply #9 on:** March 03, 2007, 08:14 AM »

I had Windows 3.11 for Workgroups tweaked using the following (still miss that setup, though it's probably like missing high school - if I went back I'd probably hate it!):

FMStepUp
FMToolbar
ToggleMouse
PLUG-IN for Windows
Instant File Access

The only two that still run udner Win2k/XP are FMStepUp/FMTToolbar and ToggleMouse (development only stopped a year or two ago and the one-time payment that I made for a license was good right up to the end), though I no longer use either. I never made the move to Win95 because I had 3.11 setup so nicely. The little notebook saw me through a Master's degree in England, an idle nine month stretch back home in Canada (95/96 - did all my web surfing and e-mailing with it) and only gave up the ghost in South Korea in 1998 when the basement flat I lived in got flooded in the August rains and the powerconverter was immersed. I could have had it repaired (and really wish that I had) for about $45, but I gave it to a school teacher to use in class - complete with five years of work and e-mail still on the harddrive! I'd never do that now and can't think why I did it then.

Oldest software that I use now...Windows XP Pro

PS Forgot about an app that used to give me long file name support. ~~It *might* have been built into Plug-in or FMStepUp. No longer remember but it was indispensible~~. Just went digging and it was actually Instant File Access... Either PlugIn or FMStepUp was reengineered for Win95 (and 98?) but by the time I got to Win98 it had disappeared. I do rembember running a demo of it on a work machine that had Win95 on it...

dk70 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 03, 2007, 09:22 AM »

Directory Freedom or DF for Dos and short file names only http://home.comcast....bitmason/dflyer.html In late 80s, early 90s it made Philips XT computer seem responsive. Written in assembler he says - Norton Commander was bloat

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** March 03, 2007, 09:29 AM »

one word: xywrite

dcm · « **Reply #12 on:** March 03, 2007, 09:42 AM »

I started off with the CP/M operating system, and used Wordstar, Supercalc, and dBase. I upgraded to a PC clone, and copied these data files to my PC. Through the years I upgraded these DOS based programs, and I continue to use them today. I can't find better Windows programs which allow me to customize them to the same degree. (But I need to use Microsoft and Lotus products so that I can talk to people who use them.)

edbro · « **Reply #13 on:** March 03, 2007, 11:58 AM »

I started off with the CP/M operating system, and used Wordstar, Supercalc, and dBase. I upgraded to a PC clone, and copied these data files to my PC. Through the years I upgraded these DOS based programs, and I continue to use them today. I can't find better Windows programs which allow me to customize them to the same degree. (But I need to use Microsoft and Lotus products so that I can talk to people who use them.)
-dcm (March 03, 2007, 09:42 AM)

Surely you jest? I had those same CPM programs on my Kaypro II. I still remember most of the Wordstar control codes. But, I can't say that it was more customizable than Word for Windows. With Word you can customize most everything easily through the options or macros. And, for word processing, nothing beats WYSIWYG.

Josh · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2007, 03:36 PM »

I have to say, the best word processor for me in the DOS days was ENABLE. Anyone remember this one?

MerleOne · « **Reply #15 on:** March 03, 2007, 05:06 PM »

Norton Commander for DOS. Also the last version of Central Point Software PCTools for Windows 3.1, which had so many powerful features.

Nighted · « **Reply #16 on:** March 03, 2007, 06:04 PM »

I used to really love Pagemaker. It was really cool for making forms or tables that I wanted to print out. It disappeared when Windows 95 came along.

I think it's the pagemaker that Adobe bought, but Adobe's pagemaker seems nothing like the program I remember.

Darwin · « **Reply #17 on:** March 04, 2007, 08:47 AM »

I completely forgot about Norton Utiliites. I used them on a 286 machine running only Dos on a 40MB harddrive (that harddrive was such a huge leap from having to load all my software up on floppies) in about 1990. Used that setup for three or four years. I can't remember what version of DOS (4 or 5) and I can't remember the version of Norton Utilities. Just remember that I loved it and really missed it when I accidentally wiped my the program disks.

iphigenie · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2007, 09:13 AM »

I had all the floppies for quite a few tools and games until recently. Including some 5" ones - ability office, turbo pascal... threw them all away last summer, together with the zx spectrum and tapes. They live in memory

rjbull · « **Reply #19 on:** March 04, 2007, 11:18 AM »

Oldest ones are all DOS:

Newkey - best shareware keyboard macro program for DOS, about 1990.

Early Bird - reminder program for DOS, also about 1990. Still use it a bit (Y2K-compliant from the start).

QEMM/DESQview - commercial - plus NDOS, best system I ever had.

Blue Wave OLR

GoldED message editor for Fidonet

Visual Display Editor (VDE) - Wordstar-style editor/word processor, still updated, still use it

PC-Write word processor, still use it

XTree Pro, long since abandoned in favour of a succession of Norton Commander clones.

Interesting point. Newkey, which I registered in 1990, was the first program I registered. I used it because I wanted to automate things, help certain programs talk to each other, put my own acceptable user interface on the results, and generally put sticking plaster (Band Aids?) over a poor OS that didn't want to be as automated as I wanted, and application programs that didn't work like I wanted either. Times changed, computers got bigger, programs got more sophisticated. Multitasking arrived courtesty of DESQview, and Newkey and DV wouldn't play nicely together. After a bit of searching I found new ways of working, abandoning Newkey with respect and regret. Later still, Windows arrived and spoiled everything. The first Windows program I registered, in 2000, was Macro Express. I used it because I wanted to automate things, help certain programs talk to each other, put my own acceptable user interface on the results, and generally put sticking plaster (Band Aids?) over a poor OS that didn't want to be as automated as I wanted, and application programs that didn't work like I wanted either. Ten years between registering my first DOS program and my first Windows program, and Microsoft made sooo much progress...

iphigenie · « **Reply #20 on:** March 04, 2007, 01:24 PM »

That's so true - most of the programs I have registered were utilities of some sort, more than applications that actually do something - and things which i believe should be in the OS.

But in a way MS are doomed if they do, doomed if they don't

If they take some tool or function that many people see as so necessary that they buy/install third party software, and put that in a tool that's part of the OS, they get screaming mobs accusing them of killing an industry etc. It happened when they announced they would add defrag, a firewall, skins... and quite a few other things.

Sometimes they tip toe the line and put a primitively simple version of the tool, sometimes they just leave it be.

mrainey · « **Reply #21 on:** March 04, 2007, 05:44 PM »

One program I really loved in my earlier computing years (~1985) was AutoCAD v1.xx. It ran from two floppies on a Tandy 2000, and came with a great manual that taught me all I needed to know. AutoCAD helped me earn a living for a number of years.

The Tandy wasn't too shabby either.

AndyM · « **Reply #22 on:** March 04, 2007, 08:55 PM »

HotLine (phonebook, dialer, call log). Ran it on our 8088 PCs and Compaq Portable, ran it for years under OS/2, and still run it under XP. It's got to be pushing 20 years now.

And I still run SuperKey in the command window I use for HotLine. Works better than AutoHotkey in this one situation. Pretty sure I bought and registered SuperKey a bit before Hotline, so I guess that's my oldest still in use.

dcm · « **Reply #23 on:** March 05, 2007, 09:22 AM »

edbro, I would like to be able to use macros in MS Word, but I haven't had much luck in replacing my DOS Wordstar macros, which allow me to search a database and merge based on user defined selections. Maybe I need to learn VBA...

Ruffnekk · « **Reply #24 on:** March 05, 2007, 09:48 AM »

The programs that come to my mind are:

DOS:
- Norton Commander
- BlueWave (BBS Message Reader)
- ARJ Compression
- NE (No Edlin Ever)
- LXPix Image Viewer
- VGA Paint (Image Editor)
- DOSStart
- Directory Freedom
- QuickBasic
- IBM DOS

WIN 3.x:
- Netscape Navigator
- mIRC
- Paint Shop Pro
- Visual Basic 1 & 2
- PC Tools (my absolute favourite software at the time)

I don't have any of these anymore, so I can't tell you any version numbers. I must've used many more apps, but these I remember now...