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

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

#451

Post by pbhjpbhj » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:54 PM UTC

IAmEveryone wrote: post #365

daveFNbuck wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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”.

The parent is providing an alternative reason for avoiding particular neighborhoods.

Also as votes are hidden here me-toos provide useful info.

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

#452

Post by hcs » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:55 PM UTC

lewiscollard wrote: post #29

WinAmp 2. I still use Audacity in "classic" mode to make it feel like WinAmp.. Old habits die hard :) Going further back, I think Symantec JustWrite was an extremely fine piece of software; I remember it being blazingly fast on the 486 monster I had at work. But my glasses may be rose-tinted :)

It is of course not the same, but webamp is kind of fun: https://webamp.org/

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

#453

Post by crazy_monkey » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:56 PM UTC

Windows 95, the only good Windows Microsoft ever made...

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

#454

Post by erikpukinskis » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:56 PM UTC

Caligari trueSpace

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

#455

Post by spitfire » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:57 PM UTC

julienmarie wrote: post #324

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.

Quantrix modeler is actually the successor to Quantrix for nextstep. Quantrix was a contemporary of Improv. Not sure I remember which came first. But Quantrix was the better of the two.

I'm collecting a pile of "good ideas"... Someday I'll do something with it.

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

#456

Post by AdamGibbins » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:57 PM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #405

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try the Amazfit BIP, it’s similar (e ink screen), cheaper ($69) but does lack a bit on software / integrations side

Does not look comparable. Appears to be basically a heart rate and step counter. One of the great things about smart watches is notifications.

As far as I can find on the internet, it does support notifications, even says so on their official site. So not sure what your comment is referring to.

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

#457

Post by nine_k » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:57 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #390

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…

Have Android’s “widgets” been removed? That’s a thing I still miss sometimes on iOS, most of my Nexus One’s homescreen was taken up by my calendar.

Widgets are alive and kicking.

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

#458

Post by beefman » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:58 PM UTC

Firefox that ran Tree Style Tab properly

Excel for Mac before it became a cartoon

Google Reader so there would still be blogs to read

Eudora so e-mail wouldn't suck

a dozen or so iOS apps that stopped working after iOS 10

a dozen or so niche Windows apps that haven't been updated

Reddit's redesign is probably the most destructive redesign of anything I've ever seen, and that is saying a lot. But kudos to them for (so far) supporting the old version with a sticky setting you can choose.

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

#459

Post by zmix » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:58 PM UTC

zmix wrote: post #308

marktangotango wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder why/how xulrunner has descended into obscurity while electron has blossomed. Anyone have input on that?

If I'd give you an honest answer, I'd be downvoted to hell ;-)

See?

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

#460

Post by zmix » Sat, Dec 08, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

sametmax wrote: post #426

marktangotango wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder why/how xulrunner has descended into obscurity while electron has blossomed. Anyone have input on that?

JS had nowhere the popularity it had today. At the time, creating a desktop app in Javascript was not regarded as serious. The reason electron became popular is because so many people from other fields (designers, integraters, students...) learn programming through copy / pasting JS and wanted JS for everything. Hence node. And now electron.

Firefox, Thunderbird (and their spin offs) were all considered serious desktop apps. They all were written with XPFE/XULRunner.