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Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?

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

#321

Post by jerrac »

cpcallen wrote: post #30

Aperture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(software) I would happily pay for an update that fixed outstanding bugs and ensured compatibility with future versions of macOS. It would be nice to have some new features, too, but it is basically "good enough" as it is and I dread the day I can no longer run it. I'm really not sure what I will do. The claim that Photos was going to be a meaningful replacement for Ape…

You could try Luminar 2018. Library management is coming, and it's developing tools are (IMO) better than lightroom. It's also very reasonably priced. That plus an Ubuntu vm for importing via shotwell is what I use.

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

#322

Post by karmakaze »

NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP

Everything about the operating system, application platform and tools were simultaneously rich in features and minimal in surface area without being dumbed down. It would have been great to have seen this evolve on its own rather than get rolled in with Apple. Xcode is so extra compared to the original Interface Builder.

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

#323

Post by submeta »

Netmanage's EccoPro. That was/is a Personal Information Manager (PIM), outliner, database that was abandoned in 1997 after MS gave Outlook for free. - I haven't seen a better information manager ever since (outliners like OmniOutline or task managers like OmniFocus are good, but don't even come close to EccoPro)

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

#324

Post by julienmarie »

rmprescott wrote: post #22

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Improv n-dimensional spreadsheet with a logical data model (including hierarchies) rather than rows and columns: Net Worth := Assets - Liabilities

Quantrix Modeler is a successor of Improv. I personally love it, but pricing is quite steep.

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

#325

Post by talonx »

* Windows Phone. Fantastic UI, and coupled with the Lumia, it was an awesome user experience.

* The old Winamp, with all the intricate shortcuts that I had memorized.

* Windows XP itself. I have been on Linux for years, and XP was the last Windows I used alongside it (for MSOffice). XP had reached the peak in terms of being able to control the desktop using the keyboard. And then the downslide started.

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

#326

Post by culot »

Tharkun wrote: post #314
culot wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windyws Phone's tile setup is still the best home screen setup for mobile. As I peep at my Android home with pretty wallpaper with acres of bhank space and uninformative icons, I pine for the informative, intelligent WP tiles. Ms Image Composer was unbeatable for digital and web stuff back then. Photoshop was rather clumsy in comparison. As for email clients, I do keep wondering how Thunderbird can be so slow , how i…

> I do keep wondering how Thunderbird can be so slow This is a frequently heard complaint, but I can't imagine under what circumstances this would happen. I have hundreds of thousands of mails in tbird, in various accounts and folders. It's never struck me as slow. And its search (one of the features i use most) is simply fast.

Its search is excellent, but the load time of the program itself, of emails, is very slow for me, on both Windows and Linux. Then the rendering! As I scroll an email it struggles to render the content and lags behind. Same problems on release, beta, and nightly. Hmm.

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

#327

Post by talonx »

SamWhited wrote: post #80
anon1q2w wrote: post #17

Google reader

I've been using https://www.inoreader.com and am pretty happy with it as an alternative. It has a lot of the same keyboard shortcuts, which is really all I want.

I use the same, after Google Reader shutdown. It's a tad slow compared to GR, but works fine for me.

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

#328

Post by lowercased »

Tharkun wrote: post #314
culot wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windyws Phone's tile setup is still the best home screen setup for mobile. As I peep at my Android home with pretty wallpaper with acres of bhank space and uninformative icons, I pine for the informative, intelligent WP tiles. Ms Image Composer was unbeatable for digital and web stuff back then. Photoshop was rather clumsy in comparison. As for email clients, I do keep wondering how Thunderbird can be so slow , how i…

> I do keep wondering how Thunderbird can be so slow This is a frequently heard complaint, but I can't imagine under what circumstances this would happen. I have hundreds of thousands of mails in tbird, in various accounts and folders. It's never struck me as slow. And its search (one of the features i use most) is simply fast.

perhaps put your hardware and some benchmark numbers so people can compare? if something takes 2 seconds, you might consider that "fast" and others "slow". loads of things i think are slow i realize others don't notice (or care).

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

#329

Post by tgtweak »

LMMojo wrote: post #281
krackers wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Windows Phone In a similar vein, Palm webOS. I still maintain that it was several years ahead of its time with the whole "mobile apps using javascript" Enyo framework.

If love to have PalmOS (pre-WebOS), still superior to Android or iOS in many ways.

Didn't it live on as webos (now in many smart TVs and printers)?

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

#330

Post by culot »

nicolapede wrote: post #287
culot wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windyws Phone's tile setup is still the best home screen setup for mobile. As I peep at my Android home with pretty wallpaper with acres of bhank space and uninformative icons, I pine for the informative, intelligent WP tiles. Ms Image Composer was unbeatable for digital and web stuff back then. Photoshop was rather clumsy in comparison. As for email clients, I do keep wondering how Thunderbird can be so slow , how i…

With respect to windows phone, I really miss the tiles, the consistency of the metro style gui and other little details, like automatic do not disturb mode while driving or face recognition well before it became mainstream.

Dark mode was nice as well. To toggle from light/dark and have alnost every app follow suit was luxurious. On Android it's such a hodgepodge of light and dark, an affront to the eyes at times.

Also being able to select text from most anywhere was useful.

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