Nowadays most developers look for the newest shiny toys they can find. I understand this - usually I visit HN hoping to find something new to learn and use on my projects.
But as I grow older as a developer, I start to appreciate the "old school" tools. Some of them have been developed and improved for decades and the fact they are still here is a proof of their quality and adequacy. Here are a few of my favourites:
PostgreSQL
Emacs
tmux
regular expressions