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Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#411

Post by fit2rule »

therealmarv wrote: post #410

Total Commander (yes it's still available and still great but I'm not using Windows anymore, now OS X). I even miss Windows Explorer... I will never get in love with Finder on OS X.. most horrible File Manager ever. Finder is like a punishment for everybody switching to OS X (I want copy&paste and folders first everywhere, gosh). Thunar on XFCE was also ok. At least ForkLift nowadays helps me not to be angry at my Ma…

On Linux and OSX: Midnight Commander!

(apt-get install mc) || (brew install mc)

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#412

Post by new299 »

mhw wrote: post #256

Computer Concepts Impression Publisher. Basically a desktop publishing application comparable to FrameMaker, in handwritten ARM assembly language and running in 4Mb of RAM. Word still doesn't approach it's ease of use.

Artworks was also pretty wonderful. This post has reminded me of so many awesome RiscOS applications. There were so many neat little applications. Most things seemed quite solid too. I guess in part because if they crashed the whole system would go down, so applications were written not to crash. :)

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#414

Post by clydethefrog »

eksemplar wrote: post #66
reitanqild wrote: post #54

The internet when it was all web sites and I just learned about google. Just before everyone and their dog got a "blog" and way before Facebook and Twitter.

I actually see blogs as remnants of what the Internet used to be. Especially in an age where click bait headlines, copy-paste and memes seems to be what drives most "media" outside of big dogs like the NYT. Some of the most interesting sites I visit these days are blogs, written by people with a passion for what they do.

I am slowly on that track again, visiting Kottke and Daring Fireball like I used to. Got any recommendations?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#415

Post by mixedCase »

skrebbel wrote: post #165

Jasc Paint Shop Pro. This tool had the useful half of Illustrator's features and the useful half of Photoshop's, it was blazing fast, and it combined them in a single program so you could mix vector and raster layers. This made it absolutely perfect for web-targeted graphics work. It was the first software I legally bought because it was so good and still affordable (a fraction of the price of Adobe's stuff - somethi…

What's your opinion on Krita?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#416

Post by Retric »

bitwize wrote: post #405
kome wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> E-Mail before we lost the "text should be text and not goddamn HTML" war. I am still fighting, and the war is not over.

You're pretty much the equivalent of the Japanese soldier who got stranded in the Philippines and kept fighting WWII until the 1970s. HTML mail won . If you work in an office they will use either Exchange or Google Apps; Exchange's default configuration is a fuck you to text-based mail clients.   Hope you like all your email looking like this, because the only response you’ll get from your sysadmin should…

You can just pipe your email through something that removes HTML.

Outlook seems to just ignore line breaks by default. But, there is probably a mime type to get around that.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#417

Post by _jomo »

Grue3 wrote: post #151

Google Reader. There are no replacements that a) update fast enough, and b) allow search for free. I know, I tried all of them. Firefox had an amazing plugin called "Ubiquity", which was basically like command line for your browser and you could write custom scripts for it. It was seriously better than anything that exists today. They stopped developing it for some reason. Tab Groups is another feature that's now aba…

How was Google Reader different than other feed readers such as the one built into Thunderbird? I didn't use it so I can't compare, but Thunderbird works well for me here.

Side note: I also use it to subscribe to YouTube channels without a Google account.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#419

Post by rangibaby »

clarry wrote: post #381

I miss my 19" 4:3 CRT monitor that did 1600x1200 @ 85Hz. I want to play doom with it again. No matter what you do, upscaling a low resolution game to high resolution flat display just doesn't look good. Whereas a CRT, even a high end one, could switch to a low resolution mode and look crisp without turning the pixels into huge squares. I see that "crt shaders" are popular today, but to me they all look like they're t…

Every time I miss big CRTs I remember how fat their asses were and how much fun they were to lug up stairs. No thanks.

Having said that, I rescued my wife's grandfather's early 80s Toshiba TV when we were cleaning up his house after he died. It is awesome for playing games, and TV works on it (TV > balun > digital tuner > antenna). Too bad there's nothing to watch.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#420

Post by donatj »

therealmarv wrote: post #410

Total Commander (yes it's still available and still great but I'm not using Windows anymore, now OS X). I even miss Windows Explorer... I will never get in love with Finder on OS X.. most horrible File Manager ever. Finder is like a punishment for everybody switching to OS X (I want copy&paste and folders first everywhere, gosh). Thunar on XFCE was also ok. At least ForkLift nowadays helps me not to be angry at my Ma…

In my experience most people who hate Finder aren't using it to its full potential. Are you making use of Spring Loaded Folders and have you enabled the path bar?
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