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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?

#361

Post by armitron »

mietek wrote: post #210
linguae wrote: post #87

I have a few software packages in mind: 1. The Genera operating system for Symbolics Lisp machines. Ever since I've gotten bitten by the Smalltalk and Lisp machine bugs, I've been wanting to use Genera, but I was born at the beginning of the last AI winter, and unfortunately the operating system is still proprietary, with no word about whether or not it will become open sourced. It's regrettable that the proverbial b…

I share your sentiments. With regards to Genera, have you seen this? https://static.loomcom.com/genera/genera-install.html

This runs off of an unofficial emulator that is a monstrous hack. There are lots of gotchas, bugs and so on.

On the other hand, an official emulator is in the works and should be released at some point.

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

#363

Post by eldavido »

bhauer wrote: post #156

* Windows Phone. We need a third viable option in the mobile space. This week we are concerned about the loss of a browser engine, recognizing this is unhealthy for the market. Windows Phone was terrific in many ways and recent concepts by fans such as @boxnwhisker (Harry Dohyun Kim) [1] show how beautiful the Metro design could be today. * Microsoft Image Composer. A little known sprite-oriented graphic arts program…

> As a broader concept, a return to prevailing use of on-device processing and computation

I don't think anyone ever liked developing for the web. It solved three problems pretty well:

- Data portability: log in from anywhere, have your data at your fingertips.

- App model: no broken installations of programs into desktop environments, dependency problems, DLL hell

- No concern about the mostly broken Windows desktop: viruses, etc.

(1) is mostly a solved problem even on desktop, the web just got there first. We have everything from Dropbox to various data APIs.

(2) is largely solved in mobile app development. It's instructive to consider how: very locked-down app APIs to the operating systems (e.g. no dumping files all over the place), standard packaging formats and distribution channels (.apk, .msi), etc

(3) is also mostly solved on mobile.

I would go as far as to say that in 2018, software should be native-first. And indeed it is, in mobile. The major shift is desktop->mobile. Mobile development has much more in common with native desktop development than web development. The reason desktop isn't likely to come back is because it's a niche market. Everyone has a phone but if you aren't in tech circles, it's surprising to see how many people barely use computers at all, especially those who don't work in offices, older folks, and the less well-off. A mobile device does about 99% of what they need -- most people aren't "creators", they don't author websites, write code, edit videos, design buildings, etc.

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

#364

Post by freehunter »

mcv wrote: post #221

Choo Choo Steam Trains, for iOS ( http://www.apptism.com/lifestyle/chillingo-ltd/choo-choo-ste... ) This was a brilliant train game that vanished from the Earth. We used to have the paid version on an iPad, but I think it vanished after an iOS update. My dad has the limited free version on his old iPad that he doesn't update to preserve this game. I think it's a shame that this game disappeared (also because I paid f…

Speaking of railroad simulation games, Sid Meier's Railroads! is still one of my favorite games of all time, even though it doesn't work on any system with more than 2GB of RAM. Everything about that game was perfect. Nothing has matched it since.

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

#365

Post by IAmEveryone »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #289
IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem somewhat paranoid. Might be useful to exclude certain routes with an easy interface, but tremendously harmful by seemingly legitimizing the myth of “no-go” areas that has recently become a favorite talking point of the alt-right in my (perfectly safe) country.

There's a neighborhood along my drive home that Waze will often try to navigate through to save a few minutes of driving. This rarely actually saves the time it claims, and is disruptive enough to people living in the neighborhood that entrances to the neighborhood now have signs excluding non-local traffic from entering. Waze still tries to navigate me through this neighborhood all the time. It makes the app nearly…

I believe the entire use case you present was already acknowledged in the comment you are replying to, I. e. the “easy interface” to “exclude certain routes”.

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

#366

Post by VLM »

davidgould wrote: post #58

Battlezone. This was a great game on Windows 9x, but never got updated to work on the NT based Windows. Of course, a Linux port would be even better.

My advice is the PS4VR "Battlezone" game is more of a re-imagining of "Arctic Fox" than a faithful remake of battlezone.

Luckily I really enjoyed both games the first time around.

I find it hilarious that the main difference in experience over 30 years apart is the resolution is a bit higher and the game is un-necessarily over complicated.

Un-necessary overcomplication "because its possible" is a likely outcome of every suggestion in this entire discussion, unfortunately. "Lets do a cool new CP/M" turns into "Windows 11", unfortunately.

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

#367

Post by freehunter »

valeg wrote: post #341

Final Cut Express and Color IBM Lotus Symphony (pleasant and convenient GUI) and ofc Google Reader

I never used Google Reader, but iGoogle was my homepage for more than 5 years before it was ripped from me. I still miss it.

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

#368

Post by eldavido »

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.

I completely agree and I used to work at Microsoft.

Microsoft lost because they didn't have the users or the apps. It's an instructive story of how an inferior product can win. I'm not saying that happens all the time or that it's inevitable, but I think it's safe to say that's sort of what happened here.

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

#369

Post by Myrmornis »

mg794613 wrote: post #232
hackerman12345 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't happen. Apps with those features get accused of being racist. https://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145337346/this-app-was-made-f...

Please keep the whole "we are being surpressed" bs out of HN.

Well we're definitely being suppressed by you it would seem!
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