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What's your favorite dead software?
51 comments- TAGS:desqview, legacy, legacy apps, Multiplan, sidekick, xywrite
- IT TOPICS:Desktop Applications, Operating Systems, Software, Windows & Microsoft
A recent blog of mine mentioned the little-known and long-dead Microsoft spreadsheet called MultiPlan, and a surprising number of MultiPlan fans wrote about their affection for the software. That got me thinking about my favorite dead or almost-dead software --- and wondering what yours might be.
At the top of my list is the great, stripped-down word processor XyWrite. It was a word processor that perhaps only a writer could love --- DOS-based, with absolutely no graphical interface. But it was fast, handled plain text, and was easily programmable. In fact, a cult of sorts has sprung up around it. For details, check out a site dedicated to all things XyWrite.
In my early days of DOS computer use, I was also a fan of Sidekick, from Borland. It was a simple personal information manager and had a calendar, a simple text editor, a combination address book and dialer (this was in the days when modems ruled), and more. But what made the little application most remarkable was that it was a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program, which means that you could call it up at will, even when another program was running. In the days of DOS, when you could only run one program at a time, it was revolutionary.
Another pre-Windows piece of software was DESQview, which let you run multiple DOS applications simultaneously, switch between them, run resizable, overlapping windows, and even copy and past data between programs.
There were two other pieces of software I used all the time --- but their exact names are lost in the recesses of my memory. The first was a graphical front end to MCI Mail, the first email service I used. The second automated access to CompuServe --- it would download and upload messages from CompuServe forums, and saved me a great deal of time and money. If you know the names of this mysterious software, let me know, below.
Also, if you've got a favorite piece of dead software, let me know, below.
Preston Gralla is a contributing editor for Computerworld, and the author of more than 35 books.
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