Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#111

Post by Noumenon72 » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:33 PM UTC

Microsoft Money. I didn't have to give access to all my accounts to some website, or pay an annual subscription for upgrades. I got keyboard shortcuts and reports and I could search for things to find out how old my computer is or when I went to Vegas.

It seems like in the physical economy, if you create something of value and you aren't making money off it, you will sell it and someone else can make money off it. With software like Picasa, it's just gone. Some programs release a sunset version, but you never know how long it will work and you can't promote it because they might take it down.

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#112

Post by marmot777 » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:33 PM UTC

Archie.

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#113

Post by fredsanford » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:33 PM UTC

linuxlizard wrote: post #78

Brief, the text editor, from Underware. It's still the best code editor I've ever used. Super fast, underpins written in a Lisp-y dialect (later C-ish). The ^G feature would pop up a list box listing all functions in the file and I could select where I wanted to jump to. It's still a feature I wish I had in any modern editor.

Brief was also on my mind. I met David Intersimone a few times and asked him about un-retiring it or open sourcing it. Obviously a no-go. :(

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#114

Post by stblack » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:34 PM UTC

Tornado Notes. A TSR program that I once used to organize my life. It got me through university and the first few years of my career.

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#115

Post by trollian » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:34 PM UTC

macOS

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#116

Post by djhaskin987 » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

InGodsName wrote: post #75

I want an app which let's me design webscrapping workflows visually. Then once workflow is completed, upload it to cloud and run N instances of this workflow. There was a software called SpiderClimber for this. Unfortunately, the author disappeared and software too. Edit: i want to extract ad banners from websites, think Google ads or any other ad network ads. Pop ads etc... Including redirect sequence and page's scr…

Mozenda does this: mozenda.com

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#117

Post by bloopernova » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

brightball wrote: post #84

Privateer. It’s an older game that I always thought could be a great MMO game these days.

Which one, the bitmap-based-ships version, or the later 3D-based-ships with the Clive Owen acted videos?

I know what you mean, though. Elite: Dangerous is good, gorgeous looking, and utterly massive, but very light on RPG elements. EVE is/was too full of people whose enjoyment of the game was predicated on spoiling yours. I haven't played Star Citizen, really not sure if I ever will.

(Elite is something I will be going back to when I can afford a good VR headset. That game screams out for VR, and by all accounts looks and feels sublime with a headset.)

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#118

Post by mtarnovan » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

bdz wrote: post #90

strayamaaate wrote: post #77

Norton Commander. https://bit.ly/2SBnriS Nothing since has ever made me feel so in control of my file system. There have been a few clones, but never quite hit the spot.

I think Total Commander is pretty nice and much better than NC ever was. Obviously that comes from the different platforms https://www.ghisler.com/

I second this. Total Commander is excellent.

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#119

Post by zentiggr » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #108

ioman wrote: post #46

Microsoft MapPoint. This was a phenomenal piece of mapping software and had features I haven’t been able to find in any of the online map replacements. When getting directions, you could designate a number of areas on the map as “avoid area”. You could map all sorts of census data. Want to colorize the map based on crime rate divided by median home price? No problem. You could import lots of data from a spreadsheet a…

> When getting directions, you could designate a number of areas on the map as “avoid area”. It's noteworthy, because I've only seen this feature in Rolls-Royce navigation in recent times.

OSMAnd and Navigator on Android allow you to "disable" road sections. Not an area feature, but for things like the I-74 Bridge project where construction blockages change sometimes almost weekly, it's a big help to toggle individual blocks/intersections individually.

Re: Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

#120

Post by bsenftner » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

Shake: the first accelerated graphics compositing software; Fuck the Apple Shake travesty, the PC & Linux versions rocked. Cool factor 12: your compositing node "scripts" were C disguised by macros, and gcc would hot compile them into so/dlls and hot link them in. Meeting the developer of this software was a major inspiration to my software to follow.