New-to-me, from Get Info: Macintosh Magazine Media: 1 million files. “I am proud to announce that my Macintosh Magazine Media project has surpassed my self-imposed goal of 1 million files, an achievement that fills me with both immense satisfaction and slight bewilderment. If you’ve never heard of it before: it’s an archive of vintage media containing mostly Macintosh files sourced from […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/31/macintosh-magazine-media-1-million-files-get-info/
Ah, the '80s, when downloading games was basically a mixtape from a radio DJ with a side gig in software distribution. Yes, kids, grandpa rocked the airwaves to load Pac-Man at a leisurely 10 bytes per century. 
https://newslttrs.com/yes-in-the-1980s-we-downloaded-games-from-the-radio/ #80sGaming #RetroTech #SoftwareHistory #Nostalgia #RadioDJ #HackerNews #ngated
Ah, the utopian dream of "buy once, use forever" software—a relic from a bygone era when developers weren't fueled by monthly subscriptions and avocado toast. 
Enjoy this quaint list, because much like your last avocado, it's past its expiration date. 
https://buyoncesoftware.com/ #buyonceuseforever #softwarehistory #subscriptionmodel #nostalgia #techhumor #HackerNews #ngated
The article reads like an ancient scroll of forgotten software relics nobody asked for. X11 tools? More like X-Why-Bother tools. 
Go ahead, impress your friends with your knowledge of XEarth and XMascot at the next party—oh wait, it'll still be empty. 
https://cyber.dabamos.de/unix/x11/ #ancientsoftware #forgottenrelics #X11tools #techhumor #softwarehistory #HackerNews #ngated
In 2001, Steve Ballmer famously referred to Linux as a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches," claiming it posed a direct threat to Microsoft’s business model and market share. He saw Linux as a parasitic force, undermining the proprietary software model that Microsoft had built its empire on. Fast forward two decades, and the landscape looks drastically different. Microsoft not only runs Linux on Azure, but also contributes regularly to the Linux kernel, has embraced Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to allow Windows users to run Linux natively, and even acquired GitHub, the largest open-source hosting platform. This about-face underscores an undeniable truth: open-source is a force that is impossible to ignore. It doesn’t always win immediately, but its collaborative and transparent development model has proven resilient, and in the long term, it has reshaped the very fabric of the tech world. Open-source wins, not by force, but by virtue of its ability to adapt and thrive in the face of competition.
Reviving the Past: A Deep Dive into CP/M's Interactive File Managers
In the realm of early computing, CP/M's interactive file managers revolutionized user experience by simplifying file operations. From the humble beginnings of CLEANUP to the robust capabilities of NSW...
https://news.lavx.hu/article/reviving-the-past-a-deep-dive-into-cp-m-s-interactive-file-managers
Reviving the Past: A Deep Dive into CP/M's Interactive File Managers
In the realm of early computing, CP/M's interactive file managers revolutionized user experience by simplifying file operations. From the humble beginnings of CLEANUP to the robust capabilities of NSW...
https://news.lavx.hu/article/reviving-the-past-a-deep-dive-into-cp-m-s-interactive-file-managers
Oh, *that's* what "TUCOWS" meant!
#SoftwareHistory
https://muffin.industries/@wayback_exe/113659636412404823
wayback_exe@muffin.industries - The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software
Oct 1996
https://web.archive.org/web/19961023235110/http://www.tucows.com/
http://oldweb.today/random/19961023235110/http://www.tucows.com/
Latest Interfaces article! (Sept '24) UPenn History & Sociology of Sci ABD Sam Franz's insightful article on the UMich Computer Center in the 80s & debate on students playing computer games--useful to their education or a drain on computing resources? #computergameshistory #videogameshistory #softwarehistory #gameculture
P.S. If you want to know more about how it _actually_ all works, then there's a website just for that, no need to waste two years re-inventing it yourself in your head 
Web Design Museum https://www.webdesignmuseum.org exhibits thousands of screens and videos of old websites, mobile apps and software from 1990s to mid-00s.
#WebDesignMuseum #OldWebsites #DigitalHistory #WebDesign #RetroApps #SoftwareHistory #InternetHeritage #VintageWeb #WebDesignExhibition #TechNostalgia
NEW on We 
Open Source
Before open source, the software world was a dystopian nightmare of vendor lock-in and limited options. Read Dave Stokes' take on the importance of keeping software free and open.
During the early to mid 2000's a lot of fanvids seem to have been created with Sony Vegas (pro) software
Does anyone have any idea why that software in particular ?
In April Microsoft open sourced the source code for MS-DOS 4.0, making it available on GitHub under the MIT license. https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/opensource/2024/04/25/open-sourcing-ms-dos-4-0/ #MicrosoftOpenSource #MSDOS4.0 #SoftwareHistory #softcorpremium
As good as the Internet Archive's Wayback machine is, it doesn't have everything.
This piece from Stefan Tilkov (RIP) mentions "the oldest discussions of the SOAP vs. HTTP" debate dating back to 2000. However, try as I might, those discussions seem to have been lost to the bit-rotted ether.
Where do I see the file/format/disc header found in https://ia800200.us.archive.org/26/items/BMUG-TVRToo-Update/TVR%20Too%20Update.iso (https://archive.org/details/BMUG-TVRToo-Update)
It's not ISO9660 but I don't know the right keywords to search for much older CD formats.
#FileFormats #SoftwareHistory #SoftwareArchaeology #ReverseEngineering #RetroComputing
Previously this asked: Does anyone recognise a file header of 42 44 AA 25? But I don't think this is the actual file header.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of #PCPaintbrush... a program that has left an important and lasting legacy that continues today with Microsoft Paint.
From humble beginnings to one of the most popular paint programs on the PC (although it was outsold by Mouse Systems' PC Paint until the later part of the '80s).
