November 3, 2008 4:23 PM PST
The Real Deal 135: Retro software
Tom and Rafe take a trip down memory lane, describing older, defunct software they used to love...and hate.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
Rafe & Tom, Here's my list of my Top 5 retrosoftware selections: 1. Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS This was a great word processor. I was a master of the Function Keys. I knew what every hotkey combination it had to offer. Then I found Microsoft Office and loved the idea using the mouse instead of hotkeys.
2. Lotus 1-2-3
This spreadsheet was more powerful than anything that Microsoft has every offered. The formula function was a lot easier to work with than what Excel offers.
3. dBase 4
I loved this database. I miss the days of using this program. Access made me scared of databases. I miss this old friend.
4. MS-DOS 6.22
The last true version of DOS. This is when users were POWER USERS! This version had it all: FDISK, DEFRAG, and anything you could imagine. Here's where you had control of your computer and the files on it. With every version of Windows releases, it makes us forget how good we had it then.
5. Logo
Who could forget this programming language with the "turtle". First time I used this was back in the early 80's on my Commodore 64. Really could do anything worthwhile with it, but it was fun to mess around with it to see what shapes and designs I could make.
Thanks for reading my list,
Mr. Corey Charette, Mine Hill, NJ
This might be somewhat relevant for the next episode on old software! Commodore BASIC is open source and can run on modern computers. http://www.pagetable.com/?p=48 and http://lifehacker.com/5070289/re+run-your-first-program-with-commodore-basic Regards, Waleed
Tom and Rafe, This week you are talking about RetroSoftware?. What are your stances on abadonware? Is there a way to determine if software has truly been abandoned? Thanks, Mr. Corey Charette, Mine Hill, NJ
VOICEMAIL Jason in Nashville Memories of software - Raptor - Gotto - Wizardry - Word 2.0 (DOS) Wordprefect 5.1 - Lotus 1-2-3, DBase, Wing Commander Tony Disposed my electronics using Google Maps COMMENTS In E133, you talked about disposal of used tech. One of the ways you mentioned was to sell it. Due to a house fire of my ex wife's house, I'm in a position that I need to replace all my 6 kids tech. Due to cost I'm mostly going the used route. However I'm concerned with scams and other intentional or unintentional problems this raises. Do you have suggestions for websites that would help me locate quality used tech. Thanks. Trucker Tim Sent from my BlackBerry? Smartphone provided by Alltel
Next episode - Good afternoon gentlemen. I hope that this message finds you both doing well. Thanks to the efforts of the good people at CNET, Leo Laporte, NPR, Revision 3, Pixel Corps, Hulu, and I few others, I have have been television/cable free for well over a year now. Would you please be so kind as to do a segment on the Netcasts that the two of you listen to or provide me with additional resources for finding new shows? Thanks in advance, Adrian Arlington, TX realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com 877-600-CNET
Listen now: Download today's podcast
- Operating systems
- Apple DOS
- DosShell
- DesqView
- SpinRite
- Xtree
- Programming languages
- Productivity
- WordStar
- Sidekick
- Echo
- GrandView
- WordPerfect
- ASAP
- Vizio
- Dbase 2 and 3
- Visicalc
- SoundBlaster
- Voice recognition
- (speed)
- Games
- SimEarth
- Rogue
- NetHack
- Zork
- Deadline
- FlightSim
- Railroad Tycoon
- Civ
- SimCity
- DosShell
- MicroLeague
- Baseball
- Trumpet/WinSock
- Vizio
- VisiCalc
- Entertainment
- WinAmp
- Software you don't miss
- RealPlayer
- Windows 3.1
- CompuServ
- Autoexec.bat
Rafe & Tom, Here's my list of my Top 5 retrosoftware selections: 1. Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS This was a great word processor. I was a master of the Function Keys. I knew what every hotkey combination it had to offer. Then I found Microsoft Office and loved the idea using the mouse instead of hotkeys.
2. Lotus 1-2-3
This spreadsheet was more powerful than anything that Microsoft has every offered. The formula function was a lot easier to work with than what Excel offers.
3. dBase 4
I loved this database. I miss the days of using this program. Access made me scared of databases. I miss this old friend.
4. MS-DOS 6.22
The last true version of DOS. This is when users were POWER USERS! This version had it all: FDISK, DEFRAG, and anything you could imagine. Here's where you had control of your computer and the files on it. With every version of Windows releases, it makes us forget how good we had it then.
5. Logo
Who could forget this programming language with the "turtle". First time I used this was back in the early 80's on my Commodore 64. Really could do anything worthwhile with it, but it was fun to mess around with it to see what shapes and designs I could make.
Thanks for reading my list,
Mr. Corey Charette, Mine Hill, NJ
This might be somewhat relevant for the next episode on old software! Commodore BASIC is open source and can run on modern computers. http://www.pagetable.com/?p=48 and http://lifehacker.com/5070289/re+run-your-first-program-with-commodore-basic Regards, Waleed
Tom and Rafe, This week you are talking about RetroSoftware?. What are your stances on abadonware? Is there a way to determine if software has truly been abandoned? Thanks, Mr. Corey Charette, Mine Hill, NJ
VOICEMAIL Jason in Nashville Memories of software - Raptor - Gotto - Wizardry - Word 2.0 (DOS) Wordprefect 5.1 - Lotus 1-2-3, DBase, Wing Commander Tony Disposed my electronics using Google Maps COMMENTS In E133, you talked about disposal of used tech. One of the ways you mentioned was to sell it. Due to a house fire of my ex wife's house, I'm in a position that I need to replace all my 6 kids tech. Due to cost I'm mostly going the used route. However I'm concerned with scams and other intentional or unintentional problems this raises. Do you have suggestions for websites that would help me locate quality used tech. Thanks. Trucker Tim Sent from my BlackBerry? Smartphone provided by Alltel
Next episode - Good afternoon gentlemen. I hope that this message finds you both doing well. Thanks to the efforts of the good people at CNET, Leo Laporte, NPR, Revision 3, Pixel Corps, Hulu, and I few others, I have have been television/cable free for well over a year now. Would you please be so kind as to do a segment on the Netcasts that the two of you listen to or provide me with additional resources for finding new shows? Thanks in advance, Adrian Arlington, TX realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com 877-600-CNET
Tom Merritt appears on CNET TV and loves to dive into technology and help consumers fight fear, uncertainty, and doubt with technology.
Rafe Needleman is editor of Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications. He lives to discover great new online apps – and to rip apart bad ones.
Had to manually download as well as it isn't showing up on iTunes as of 1 pm Eastern
It is hardly "retro" software!
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by similler
November 18, 2008 8:05 AM PST
- Tom mentioned that he used WordPerfect from Corel and Rafe commented that Corel WordPerfect was before WordPerfect as an independent company. He's got that backwards. WordPerfect sold out to Corel many years after the company WordPerfect Corp. was founded. I was a long time user of WordPerfect and really liked it. Their problem was that they didn't think Windows would go anywere and waited too long to jump on the Windows bandwagon. The DOS version of WordPerfect was far superior to any of the other DOS word processing software packages. I have also used SpinRite from version 1 until the current version 6. It is still a great piece of software.
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