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Retiring Tucows Downloads

tucows.com

171–180 of 203 posts

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#171
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same!! So many fond memories of the early web. I miss what was that "new frontier" feeling.

How do we get that feeling again? Where is the newness today? I miss that feeling so much.

We need to decentralize things a bit to get that old internet smell back.

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#173
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bunch of years before that... but wait, did hotmail really mean that?! Not sure I've ever heard that! Or at least also forgotten that. Feel like when MS acquired they didn't promote/brand it like that so the HTML connection was lost (even tho it was obviously a website/webmail etc) :)

I think canada_dry is right. They used to spell it HoTMaiL.

Yes, it briefly had this abomination of a logo before adopting a more sensible identity:

https://logodix.com/logo/715204.gif

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#174

Wow, nostalgia, it's been years since even hearing about Tucows. Tucows was a huge part of my childhood from 10 to 18 years old. Good run and great early repository for software. Thanks Tucows.

I remember downloading GetRight download manager from there. Aeons ago, truly Internet 1.0.

Oh wow, GetRight... I don't know if it's just nostalgia, but the UI of those apps was much better than today's UI. Back then everything had a standard UI and you could count on menus and elements being Alt-accessible, nowadays everything is a hodgepodge of web apps and nothing works the same way as anything else.

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#175
Here it is, for your nostalgic pleasure (try Arizona, it works):

https://web.archive.org/web/19970212181139/http://www.tucows...

I'm amazed at how many clicks you have to go through to actually see software. No "top 10" list at the start, no "popular", nothing. You have to pick a mirror, which brings you to an almost empty page, click a small "Windows 95" link hidden on the left sidebar, then pick a category, and only then you see the actual software.

Odd how much UX leeway you have when you're about the only thing on the web.

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#178
post #22

Wow, end of an era. I guess it realistically ended a while ago, but I remember downloading stuff from Tucows when I was a kid playing around on the internet with dialup. I was really surprised to learn recently that they own Ting (the cell phone provider) and big domain-related businesses like eNom and Hover. Looks like they're doing just fine.

Ahh..the sound of dial up and playing connection roulette. I got a fluttery feeling just thinking about it.

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#179

The article doesn't link to the Tucows Downloads Archive, for whatever reason it only links to the archive.org homepage. Here's the direct link: https://archive.org/details/tucows It also appears that the archive wasn't manually reviewed; some items are just screenshots, and others are unrelated to software at all. Example (mildly nsfw): https://archive.org/details/tucows_71077_Sung_Hi_Lee_2

Your example has a link to a ZIP which has a windows screensaver in it.

Re: Retiring Tucows Downloads

#180
post #10

> We’re pleased to say that much of the software and other assets that made up the Tucows Downloads library have been transferred to our friends at the Internet Archive for posterity. The usage of the word "much" makes it seem like IA crawled most of the archive, "probably". @ Elliot Noss: The real classy way to shut down something as historically important as this would be to transfer a 100% (edit: ~100%) dump to th…

Jason Scott of the Internet Archive seems to have said they were offered the data https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1352523064874053632
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