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Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

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Re: Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

#143

Post by jim_lawless »

mIRC, a windows .HLP authoring tool, an animated GIF HTML button generator, a graphics DLL for Windows. I think I might've licensed a QWK Mail reader for BBS use as well.

I also sold a few shareware apps in the late 90's and early 2000's. Mostly command-line email and/or command-line something-or-other utilities.

Re: Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

#144

Post by al_borland »

acheron wrote: post #66
itslennysfault wrote: post #65

I was hoping to be surprised to see WinRAR on many people's list, and as of right now I see exactly zero people purchased WinRAR as I sadly expected. I didn't purchase it either.

In the 90s? Huh, it came out in 1995. I don't think I ever saw it until a couple years into the 2000s. I think I did buy it.

In the mid-00s I was trying to get an mp3 file off an old PC with Windows 95 and no USB support (no ethernet either, only a 28.8k modem). After thinking about it for a long while, WinRAR was my solution. I was surprised it supported Windows 95, as I didn't remember hearing about it back then either. I was able to use WinRAR to split the file up across multiple floppy disks, moved all those parts to a more modern computer, and joined them back together. I'm glad there wasn't much more on there to move. I suppose if there was I would have removed the drive completely and mounted it on another system.

Re: Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

#145

Post by nathan_douglas »

Not exactly the same, but something that got me a couple weird looks at the time was paying almost $100 for RedHat Linux (6.1, Cartman) in 1999.

I'd wanted to use Linux for a couple years (I thought it looked hacker-ish and had watched _The Matrix_ in theaters not long before that). But my PC didn't have a CD writer. My 4.3GB HD didn't have enough free space to download the ISOs. And I didn't have internet access.

So I bought it at a bookstore and installed it. I didn't understand any of what was happening. Everything was hard. I didn't see "power," or "freedom," or anything like that. I just knew that suddenly my computer was a complete pain in the ass to use and I couldn't play games anymore.

I don't really know why I stuck with it, but it led to me fighting with computers for a living, which is fantastic.

Re: Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

#146

Post by D13Fd »

influx wrote: post #20

When I got a rea job, I registered Winrar. Felt good, and I still use it.

Same here! That was one of my first shareware purchases and, honestly, the only one I can remember.

There were plenty of other apps I used that had shareware versions (including Doom), but my path into the software rarely started with the shareware. I usually just bought the full package at a store back then.

Re: Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

#147

Post by bane »

I bought Doom and Quake (and several map packs) of course. But my real treasure trove was a deal on a bunch of early id Software produced Softdisk distributed games. It included some FPS games that are almost entirely unknown these days and pre-date Doom and some relatively unknown Commander Keen stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What 1980s/90s-era shareware did you purchase?

#149

Post by conradfr »

nathan_douglas wrote: post #145

Not exactly the same, but something that got me a couple weird looks at the time was paying almost $100 for RedHat Linux (6.1, Cartman) in 1999. I'd wanted to use Linux for a couple years (I thought it looked hacker-ish and had watched _The Matrix_ in theaters not long before that). But my PC didn't have a CD writer. My 4.3GB HD didn't have enough free space to download the ISOs. And I didn't have internet access. So…

Maybe you stuck with it because you had paid for it ;)
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