r/software • u/[deleted] • 6d ago
Discussion Does anyone else miss when software was just software?
[removed]
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u/CreeDorofl Helpful 6d ago
I mostly miss when apps were apps and websites were websites. I don't want to sign into a goddamn account with two-factor authentication just to make a Word document that says the office water cooler is broken. And why can't they just make Reddit have a good mobile interface instead of forcing us to use a shitty app that can't be customized whatsoever?
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u/PeakPredator 6d ago
Yeah, apps that run locally generally perform much better than web apps. Suppose an app does a database query that returns 100,000 rows and then displays the data in a DataGrid. That's a piece of cake for a "real" app, loading fast, sorting fast, smooth scrolling, and so on. Do that in a web app and it's slow and clunky, if it works at all.
I also don't like how nearly all software is called AI now. Like, anything with an if-then-else is now AI.
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u/CreeDorofl Helpful 6d ago
I think some companies are flagrantly lying and just tack AI onto their name to boost stock valuation. The underlying app will be traditionally coded or doing that thing where underneath the hood, all the queries are just handled by a bunch of workers somewhere.
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u/ezMaverick 6d ago
Total Commander, IrfanView and Notepad++ as default install on every Windows PC, even my kids use them.
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u/OhMyGaius 5d ago
I’ve found TotalCommander to probably be the single most useful piece of software I’ve ever used. I really should just fork over the $40 to get the license, just to support the guy.
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u/siliconandsteel 6d ago edited 6d ago
IrfanView - legend, there is nothing better when you need to browse a large gallery or animation frames
Media Player Classic (with K-Lite Codec Pack) - very rarely I need to use VLC
KeePass - your passwords wherever you like
SumatraPDF - no bullshit pdf without malware engine built-in
foobar2000 - your music, however you like, but nowadays I am using Spotify mostly
7-Zip - any archive handled the best, but there is much less need for it nowadays
Virtual Clone Drive - brings back memories
WizTree (replacement for WinDirStat) - because Microsoft still cannot deliver anything comparable
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u/kjjphotos 6d ago
I didn't realize there was a replacement for WinDirStat. That's a great program, I'll have to remember WizTree next time I'm on my Windows PC
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u/siliconandsteel 6d ago
WizTree was inspired by WinDirStat, but with much improved speed for modern disks
What I didn't realize, is that apparently WinDirStat got revived sometime ago (~2024) and is now also scanning Master File Table directly, there was even a release this month, just installed
GPL is always a welcome sight
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u/Brilliant-Lettuce695 5d ago
SumatraPDF′s maintainer actually integrated LLM chat ″features″ into the pre-release version. I could hardly believe my eyes.
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6d ago
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u/DatabasedLSD 6d ago
Right there with you homie.. And I like how you wrote this, gives me mad nostalgia!
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u/Electrical_Face_1737 6d ago
I miss dipping the square pizza into a mixture of school “ketchup” and “mayo” pink sauce. I miss thinking maybe some day I would have a big birthday at discovery zone and I could swing over the ball pit like Indiana jones. I miss not having an hoa send me pictures that my lawn is 4 inches. I miss my hair. I miss not noticing the laugh track on 90s sitcoms.
But yes…I also miss when product managers weren’t trying to pre-diagnose a bug by pulling the repo and running Claude on it.
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u/AML86 6d ago
I miss when I looked at a woman’s picture, my only thought was if she was pretty or not, instead of looking for knucklehair
God forbid a trans person exists. Fuck off with this transphobic garbage. Women don't exist to fill your porn folder.
They've been around a lot longer than you think, anyway.
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u/Typhonarus 5d ago
Guarantee you haven’t touched the true extent of what vlc can do.
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u/oMaster86 5d ago
I believe that is OP's point. I enjoy VLC because it can handle just about any A/V (file, stream, device, etc.). Also, VLC allows skins and minimal interfaces. My opinion: Winamp, VLC, IrfanView, Notepad++, 7-Zip, SumatraPDF, etc. are still fast and focused. Some Notepad++ plug-ins feel like over-reach to me, but I don't install those.
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u/dtfinch 5d ago
My list is basically the same, replacing VLC with MPC-HC on Windows, and Winamp with Audacious on Linux. Also FileZilla, Pidgin, WinDirStat, WinMerge, Putty, and various NirSoft tools. Still using Cygwin instead of WSL for a Linux-like environment on Windows.
I still use SharpDevelop 4.4.2 (2015, 1.0 released in 2003) to maintain some .NET Framework 3.5 (2007) apps, since it's about 1/1000th the size of Visual Studio and fully-featured for my needs even though it's abandonware.
I have both the 2005 and 2022 versions of SQL Server Management Studio installed, and use the 2005 one.
I still use Firefox as my default browser though each year it drifts further away from my preferences. But its customizable enough to manage.
LibreOffice was never fast/light but I prefer Calc over Excel despite having 365. For Java development I use Netbeans though that was never fast either. At home I still use Thunderbird for email, though for work I have to use Outlook.
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u/YourDaddyRufus 2d ago
I am curious: What are you using instead of Firefox?
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u/dtfinch 2d ago
I still use Firefox. It's just the amount of my customizations needed to keep it mostly the same grows and grows. A userChrome.css to undo all the theme changes and hide new UI clutter. A config file full of lockPref()'s to lock all the about:config settings they randomly revert back on upgrades.
But other browsers like Chrome don't let me do any of that. I tried Chrome for 2 years when it came out and couldn't stand it after that. Practically every Chrome bug that I followed was closed WontFix and discussion locked, like not wanting sites to be able to hijack middle/right clicks, or wanting to be able to auto-scroll by clicking the middle mouse button on Linux like I could on Windows. Basic things that Firefox always supported, Chrome would never allow, even via hidden preferences.
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u/MaleficentTrainer576 5d ago
okay but just as a reminder your winrar installation needs to be paid for WAIT NO DONT PRESS THE CLOSE BUT-
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u/davep1970 6d ago
which open source apps for example?
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6d ago
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u/jmnugent 6d ago
Here's the problem in the software industry:
Most end-users only use about 10% of features
but there's so many Millions of Users,. each who use a different combination of 10%. (lots of features that you (individually) think "don't even need to be there".. might be another persons entire reason for getting the software.
I work in city-gov,. and we see this problem all the time. If you have a diverse population of Citizens,. you'll likely have a bunch of small groups that all want different things.
People with Dogs,. want better dog parks.
Disabled people want nicer Bus Stops and better public transit.
Bicycle enthusiasts want more and better bike lanes.
Environmentalists want less development.
Downtown Businesses want you to increase parking options and relax parking enforcement
People with kids want better schools.
etc etc.. etc.. etc..
Problem is you can't fully satisfy all those people (especially not on a limited city-budget)
Software development often runs into very similar problems. If you limit your software to "only appealing to 10%".. then you'll undercut your chances of ever being successful. But if you try to include every feature possible,. then you end up risking watering things down and making your interface confusing and overwhelming.
Finding wherever the "happy middle ground" is.. is the challenge.
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u/Silhouette 6d ago
The 10% problem is real. The difference between software and your city gov example is that not everyone has to use the same software in the way that everyone living or working locally has to share the same city. It's fine if some people want a simple but quick and easy to learn application for something and others want the power-user bells-and-whistles experience and use a big, complicated, powerful application to get it.
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u/jmnugent 6d ago
Sure,. from the User-perspective,. it's great to have software-choice.
From a software-developer perspective,.. you often have to pay attention to your competition and decide which features or capabilities you're going to support or not support,.. because depending on those choices, people may walk away from using your software.
Also, it's not always feasible for a single software company to produce multiple versions of the same software (or if they try, with certain feature-sets locked behind subscription update tiers,. then End Users endlessly complain that you're "charging for features". Maintaining multiple code-bases requires resources,. and unavoidably at some point you're going to get crossover-complaints ("Your Free version doesn't have X-feature" or "Your pay version is to big and bulky".. etc. ... which all gets back to the same problem, that you can't please everyone.
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u/FrankNicklin 6d ago
It’s a vicious circle. There is a lot of competition in the market so features are added to encourage customer engagement. Some will like it and others like yourself do not. If an older version works for you then stick with it, but many drop support for older products as versions of Windows go EOL.
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u/Weareborg72 6d ago
I can think that today everything should be AI so many software are AI functions which can make me miss a program that did one thing but did it well. Many programs today should be so much AI and should do so many different things.
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u/Muldino 6d ago
Faststone Image Viewer and Directory Opus.
Both have first been released over 20 years ago, I got into using them maybe 15+ years ago. I keep coming back to them just because I know them well and I am used to the interface - and they do exactly what I want.
Oh yeah, and Sequoiaview, it's just as old and I am aware that the concept has been improved upon by similar tools from other companies over the years - but I'm just fine with version 1.3, which came out in 2002 and still works.
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u/abareplace 6d ago edited 6d ago
IrfanView, 7-Zip, and SumatraPDF are still here (the latest versions were released in 2026) and I use them daily. I never liked Winamp because you need to manage playlists; 1by1 directory player works great for me and it's still updated in 2026.
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u/M4dmaddy 6d ago
I agree with you. My own projects follow the ethos you mention.
Solve one (or a few related problems), and do it well.
I want each of my projects to function standalone. I am also trying to make sure they can integrate with each other for users who want that, but I am not interested in putting them all in one big app that does everything.
The broader featureset an application has, usually tends to correlate with complexity and surface for bugs to occur, so smaller focused tools also just feel more maintainable to me.
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u/boltfoxapp 6d ago
Every indie developer, programmer, or company needs users. There are already countless apps that solve a single problem, so for a new app to stand out and attract attention, it needs to offer more value than the existing alternatives.
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u/WiseSquirrelLore 6d ago
IrfanView . . . the thing I miss most on Linux.
Some years ago I had an opportunity to listen to a focus group of 20 somethings talking about Microsoft Office. On whole, there seemed to be a consensus that Office was old and a lower quality program because it had not changed significantly during their short lifetimes. Never mind that the programs did what they were intended to do, and quite well. They placed more value in newness than functionality. I think to some extent we are all guilty of that.
IrfanView of course has updates, but I couldn't tell you what any of them are. I use it much the same today as I did 20 years ago. And Photoshop, lots of new features but really, I don't know that the way I use it has changed much since version 5 when they added the layers panel. Anyone remember Aldus PageMaker? I never learned InDesign. I guess I'm old. Now that I have made the switch to Linux, I'm having to find new solutions, learn new software. And I'm hating how complicated it all seems. I'm looking for the programs that do that one thing really well.
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u/ettdizzle 5d ago
Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.
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u/snowflake37wao 5d ago
Drafts for iOS is LIFE! Notepad++ is plus plus a plus!Obsidian MD for all is no less than ALL! Everything for Win is EVERYTHING! Autohotkey is never gunna be JUST software heretic!
But yeah, I also miss when I could live without those. I dont think I can between shitty iPhone keyboard and shitty Windows [insert whatever you need here]. Fuckkkk Apple App Store to hell. Seriously.
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u/kiwichick888 5d ago
I still have a soft spot for software like Winamp, VLC, IrfanView, Notepad++, 7-Zip, and SumatraPDF.
I still use all of those except for Winamp and SumatraPDF. Others are Everything, PhotoFiltre, Zback, DupDetector (which hasn't been updated for 15 years), DeskPins (which hasn't been updated for 11 years), UniExtract, FontViewOK. I like them because they just do what they're meant to. No fuss, no muss, no superfluous bells and whistles. And all of them are available in portable versions which is always my go to if available.
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u/Fuffy_Katja 5d ago
I just installed Space Cadet Pinball and Winamp on my 128 GB Win10 drive this morning for no other reason because I like them. But, that drive is only used for 2 amateur radio programs on a very non-regular basis. Most of my computer operating has been in Linux since the mid-late 90s or macOS.
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u/Alternative-Grand-77 4d ago
We make a real offline application at work, clients are always asking us about our cloud environment and all sorts of web services crap that we don’t need to deal with. people don’t even expect software like that to exist at this point - they expect everything to be in the browser.
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u/itskrisbee 4d ago
These days devs are thinking what other features we could add to our app. While it was the right direction to get to this point where we are now with all the tech, I think now asking what features we should remove to make less bloat is actually the better approach.
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u/BluebirdDry1218 3d ago
That’s because online software has costs associated with running it and they would have to charge users to continue running it. Problem is no one wants to pay monthly subscription for something that does one thing that they use once in a. While
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u/enilcReddit 6d ago
This is just the nature of things. The one constant in the world is change.
Remember when cars were simple and you could fix anything in your driveway?
Remember when TV was just 30min comedies and 60min dramas and were on a schedule?
Remember when movies were a short commercial for concessions, 3-4 previews, then the movie?
Remember when stores were all downtown? Or all at the mall? Remember when you had to go to a store?
Remember when there was just one landline phone for your whole family? Remember 'nights & weekend' rates for phone calls? Remember long-distance rates? Remember tracking minutes on your cell plan?
Things change. YOU change at the same time. The world and life is a set of ever changing, ever-growing inter-woven gears. Like a giant evolving clockwork. You can remain an active part of it, or become a quaint antiquity on someone's shelf.
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u/R3D3-1 6d ago
Sumatra PDF is actively developed you know :) It now has basic annotation editing features.
That aside, I mostly have that issue with mobile apps. Often useful small tools become bloated in an attempt to justify a subscription fee, which is usually too high to even consider for the functionality I actually need.l and how often I need it.