Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#21

Post by mathgorges » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:31 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #5

Ask a mainframe shop. The back-compat date for mainframes, even just-off-the-line System Z boxes, is 1964. --edit-- I also play Commodore 64 games in emulators, and they date from the 80s, but I suspect this is not the sort of answer you're looking for.

I'm doing an internship at a mainframe shop right now.

I took a look into it and the oldest macro I could find that I use semi regularly is SYS1.MACLIB(DCBD). A utility for working with data control blocks which dates back to 1977, putting it at 36 years old.

There are definitely older programs on the system, but I'm not sure how often they're used.

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#22

Post by protomyth » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:31 PM UTC

When I use Windows, I tend to use PFE as a text editor.

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#23

Post by wtvanhest » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:32 PM UTC

This isn't the oldest, but is definitely one of the oldest softwares that is used at almost every restaurant in the US and maybe other countries as well.

Aloha Restaurant POS

Watch this youtube video, then watch what servers use at your favorite restaurants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlXCfs75SkI

I used it back in 1998 at a restaurant and it felt old then. Still used at almost every bar, restaurant I go to.

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#24

Post by bdz » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:32 PM UTC

nbench from 95/96 http://www.tux.org/~mayer/linux/bmark.html

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#25

Post by eliben » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:33 PM UTC

robmcm wrote: post #14

Lotus notes!

You poor soul.

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#26

Post by vtbose » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:33 PM UTC

Do space probes count? http://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#27

Post by incision » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:34 PM UTC

The oldest stuff I've seen in use would be PDP-11s, Wangs, NetWare 3.x and assorted OS/2 Win 3.1 desktops.

I used 90s versions of Winamp and Xnews until I just stopped caring up local MP3s and USENET.

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#28

Post by kephra » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:35 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #5

Ask a mainframe shop. The back-compat date for mainframes, even just-off-the-line System Z boxes, is 1964. --edit-- I also play Commodore 64 games in emulators, and they date from the 80s, but I suspect this is not the sort of answer you're looking for.

I wrote a set of Nagios plugins for z/Linux in 2008, to monitor a DOS/VS application, running under VM/370 running under VM/ESA, running in an LPAR next to the z/Linux.

I don't know how old the application is, but DOS/VS is from 1972, and depreciated since 1980 by DOS/VSE.

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#29

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:35 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's the oldest piece of software still in use?

#30

Post by rjohnk » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 1:35 PM UTC

WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Why? Because it rocks.