Fighting feeping creaturism.
August 31, 2001 12:48 PM Subscribe
Fighting feeping creaturism. Following in the wake of "abandonware" sites, here's a chance to perform that much-needed downgrade in order to escape bloat/adware/etc. What's your favourite software relic?
I use pine.
And if you use lynx to read MeFi in the office, people think you are working instead of surfing the web. Hooray!
posted by Shadowkeeper at 1:00 PM on August 31, 2001
And if you use lynx to read MeFi in the office, people think you are working instead of surfing the web. Hooray!
posted by Shadowkeeper at 1:00 PM on August 31, 2001
despite having upgraded to OS X, I still spend most of my web browsing time using Netscape 4.75 through classic
posted by rorycberger at 1:06 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by rorycberger at 1:06 PM on August 31, 2001
Nope, 5.1 was the peak of Word on the Mac. Still have it on my G4.
posted by kindall at 1:12 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by kindall at 1:12 PM on August 31, 2001
I've abandoned Word in favour of TextEdit. Come to think of it, I've abandoned Dreamweaver in favour of TextEdit, too.
I think I have a crush on TextEdit.
posted by D at 1:51 PM on August 31, 2001
I think I have a crush on TextEdit.
posted by D at 1:51 PM on August 31, 2001
Microsoft Word for Mac 5.1a was pretty much the height of word processing functionality, and I think that was 1993. I also miss Claris Emailer, also for Mac.
posted by tranquileye at 1:53 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by tranquileye at 1:53 PM on August 31, 2001
I miss RoboSport, an old Maxis game for the Mac. But I don't know if we want to go down memory lane in gametown.
posted by prodigal at 2:01 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by prodigal at 2:01 PM on August 31, 2001
I dunno, prodigal: the games that were packed into the ZX Spectrum's 48k were often more playable than today's loose, baggy monsters. There's something that comes from working in an environment that's very restricted in terms of hardware which you tend not to find in today's offerings, which essentially demand that you upgrade your graphics card (or your PC) to play.
My choices: ICQ98a, and TeX.
posted by holgate at 2:13 PM on August 31, 2001
My choices: ICQ98a, and TeX.
posted by holgate at 2:13 PM on August 31, 2001
Pine is for wimps, I use elm.
Beside making me feel like a h4x0r (which I certainly ain't), elm protects me from the majority of viruses.
posted by Octaviuz at 2:14 PM on August 31, 2001
Beside making me feel like a h4x0r (which I certainly ain't), elm protects me from the majority of viruses.
posted by Octaviuz at 2:14 PM on August 31, 2001
Word 5.1 for the Mac in the house!
I have loved ThumbsPlus for years, but it's grown to unmanageable bloatation in the past couple-few years... and um, older versions are much less apt to stop doing stuff you like them to do. I'm told.
There is also, as previously mentioned (somewhere) on MetaFilter, my evaluation version of HomeSite 4.0 which will not expire until the 22nd century.
I see ICQ's already on the oldversion.com list, and that's as it should be... no program has ever been more badly in need of some pruning back. With a chainsaw.
Lastly: for those who may not know about it, browsers.evolt.org is a gold mine. Any version of any web browser you can come up with, or very close to it. My own contribution to the list was IBM's WebExplorer for OS/2, the last version of which was released in 96 or 97, before they finally came out with Netscape for OS/2, but is still available on evolt.
posted by Sapphireblue at 2:30 PM on August 31, 2001
I have loved ThumbsPlus for years, but it's grown to unmanageable bloatation in the past couple-few years... and um, older versions are much less apt to stop doing stuff you like them to do. I'm told.
There is also, as previously mentioned (somewhere) on MetaFilter, my evaluation version of HomeSite 4.0 which will not expire until the 22nd century.
I see ICQ's already on the oldversion.com list, and that's as it should be... no program has ever been more badly in need of some pruning back. With a chainsaw.
Lastly: for those who may not know about it, browsers.evolt.org is a gold mine. Any version of any web browser you can come up with, or very close to it. My own contribution to the list was IBM's WebExplorer for OS/2, the last version of which was released in 96 or 97, before they finally came out with Netscape for OS/2, but is still available on evolt.
posted by Sapphireblue at 2:30 PM on August 31, 2001
Fontographer hasn't significantly been upgraded in nearly ten years. I don't think it's been upgraded at all in something like six years (Presumably I'm completely wrong on this and about to be humiliated).
Similarly, Quark XPress 3.3 lasted for years until it was replaced by 4.0. And I still know companies that refuse to use 4.x on the grounds that it's a horrible buggy mess.
posted by Grangousier at 2:44 PM on August 31, 2001
Similarly, Quark XPress 3.3 lasted for years until it was replaced by 4.0. And I still know companies that refuse to use 4.x on the grounds that it's a horrible buggy mess.
posted by Grangousier at 2:44 PM on August 31, 2001
Sapphireblue: that's what I thought about evolt, until I had to find back versions of Internet Explorer. They only have the setup files on hand there, which will not work should you pull them down. M$ has removed the files from the available download locations. Which was a pain in the a**, considering I needed to create a lab with multiple back versions.
posted by bison at 3:04 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by bison at 3:04 PM on August 31, 2001
i also use elm.
i remember when i oversaw a computer in which vi vs. emacs wars broke out amongst high school kids. i said i preferred neither. they asked me what i used: i said pico.
heck, i can pair off my parens without something holding my hand. and if i want to do a search/replace, i'll use perl. ;)
posted by meep at 3:15 PM on August 31, 2001
i remember when i oversaw a computer in which vi vs. emacs wars broke out amongst high school kids. i said i preferred neither. they asked me what i used: i said pico.
heck, i can pair off my parens without something holding my hand. and if i want to do a search/replace, i'll use perl. ;)
posted by meep at 3:15 PM on August 31, 2001
You can get most old versions of Netscape by ftp'ing to archive.netscape.com. Use username of "archive" and password of "oldies".
Don't remember where I ran across this tidbit but it's been useful.
posted by Fley Mingmasc at 3:24 PM on August 31, 2001
Don't remember where I ran across this tidbit but it's been useful.
posted by Fley Mingmasc at 3:24 PM on August 31, 2001
I used DOS Edit instead of Notepad till about 6 months ago.
posted by wackybrit at 3:25 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by wackybrit at 3:25 PM on August 31, 2001
Practically any 1990's Claris product rocks. Emailer (written by fogcity software) was way ahead of everyone in terms of managing multiple accounts, FileMaker 3 is still eminently useful, Clarisworks did everything Office does and worked on Macs that only had 8 megs of ram, and although I fear the backlash from A-List webloggers when I admit it, I still use Claris HomePage. Back when we just started to complain about software bloat, Claris was writing some damn clean code.
posted by machaus at 3:29 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by machaus at 3:29 PM on August 31, 2001
mutt's another nice mailreader. A bit like pine without all the clutter.
meep: What really disturbs me isn't the fact that you use pico, it's that you managed to say so in a way that makes me ashamed to use vi with all its cushy features, rather than just being a real man and piping my file through a perl script.
posted by moss at 3:30 PM on August 31, 2001
meep: What really disturbs me isn't the fact that you use pico, it's that you managed to say so in a way that makes me ashamed to use vi with all its cushy features, rather than just being a real man and piping my file through a perl script.
posted by moss at 3:30 PM on August 31, 2001
I don't know if this counts but most professional typeface designers still use Fontographer 3 from way back in 1992. The newer version of FOG just did not offer the precision and comfortable interface that 3 offered. This trend is so popular that the brother of the guy who created Python has built a souped up version of FOG 3 called RoboFog.
posted by DragonBoy at 3:43 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by DragonBoy at 3:43 PM on August 31, 2001
Lotus Improv was so cool. But apparently no one but me "got it." I keep hoping somebody would resurrect that idea...
posted by Tubes at 3:54 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by Tubes at 3:54 PM on August 31, 2001
Old versions of ICQ are soooooo much better then the newer ones.
posted by bytecode at 4:16 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by bytecode at 4:16 PM on August 31, 2001
lol, i can't really go old school, as i'm only 19, but my favorite non-currents are AOL 4.0 (though 2.5 was the boomsnigglesnap), normal notepad for just about everything, and that old bolo tank game for macs... u set up a network match on that, and bows be droppin!
posted by lotsofno at 4:43 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by lotsofno at 4:43 PM on August 31, 2001
Hehe... that's funny about Robosport. I was just thinking the same thing...
You know, I actually found a patch somewhere that allowed me to run it with a more recent system... but now it doesn't work anymore :(
posted by ph00dz at 4:59 PM on August 31, 2001
You know, I actually found a patch somewhere that allowed me to run it with a more recent system... but now it doesn't work anymore :(
posted by ph00dz at 4:59 PM on August 31, 2001
Lotus Agenda. The coolest organizer software ever done, by anybody.
posted by ebarker at 5:25 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by ebarker at 5:25 PM on August 31, 2001
1) Lemmings (DOS)
2) Oh No, More Lemmings (DOS)
3) QEdit (DOS)
(I carry this around at work and leave it on every Windows machine I may ever have to visit again. There is a 32bit version, now going by the handle "The Semware Editor Jr." which edits any-size files and preserves long filenames, but it costs a hundred bucks. Too dam' bad...)
3) Reader Rabbit (Apple II)
posted by jfuller at 6:04 PM on August 31, 2001
2) Oh No, More Lemmings (DOS)
3) QEdit (DOS)
(I carry this around at work and leave it on every Windows machine I may ever have to visit again. There is a 32bit version, now going by the handle "The Semware Editor Jr." which edits any-size files and preserves long filenames, but it costs a hundred bucks. Too dam' bad...)
3) Reader Rabbit (Apple II)
posted by jfuller at 6:04 PM on August 31, 2001
The less CRAP ICQ does, the better. Older _is_ better!
As far as windows based text editors... my favorite for all times is editpad!!! It's small, quick and easy, but has plenty of features. Pretty rare in this day and age.
It's got line and column numbers -- I used to use it to edit Cobol programs for class.
posted by campy at 7:41 PM on August 31, 2001
As far as windows based text editors... my favorite for all times is editpad!!! It's small, quick and easy, but has plenty of features. Pretty rare in this day and age.
It's got line and column numbers -- I used to use it to edit Cobol programs for class.
posted by campy at 7:41 PM on August 31, 2001
Normy, you might want to have a look at Metapad (freeware). It has line numbers and a boatload of other features, in a 76K no-install executable.
posted by nikzhowz at 9:32 PM on August 31, 2001
posted by nikzhowz at 9:32 PM on August 31, 2001
I joined ICQ in the 99a days. I tried out 2000a, which acted more like AIM, but went back to 99a. I backed up my copy of AIM 2 in a CD. That was the last version that let you share files but without the bloat. I also use AOL 4.0 and now treasure my only remaining CD of 4.0 like a family heirloom. Versions 5 and 6 take up way too much space for the benefits of being able to sort emails or recover mails deleted in the past 24 hours.
[If you want to trim the AOL fat from your system, you can delete the AOLBACK.EXE file from the WINDOWS folder. The AOLBACK.EXE file for AOL 4.0 is under 10 MB, while it is nearly 20 MB+ for versions 5.0 and 6.0.]
posted by tamim at 1:27 AM on September 1, 2001
[If you want to trim the AOL fat from your system, you can delete the AOLBACK.EXE file from the WINDOWS folder. The AOLBACK.EXE file for AOL 4.0 is under 10 MB, while it is nearly 20 MB+ for versions 5.0 and 6.0.]
posted by tamim at 1:27 AM on September 1, 2001
Lemonade Stand? Thanks a lot, fusinski. Now I'll have that crappy "music" in my head all day. I'll admit that it was a good game, though. But it was no Oregon Trail.
posted by Samsonov14 at 11:06 AM on September 4, 2001
posted by Samsonov14 at 11:06 AM on September 4, 2001
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posted by mathowie at 12:52 PM on August 31, 2001