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Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

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We asked about your worst software experiences…
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11183-0.html?forumID=9&threadID=196478&start=0

…now let’s talk about the best.

Name your ALL-TIME FAVORITE SOFTWARE in the title of your reply, then use the body of your post to expound upon the absolute wonder and effectiveness of the application in question.

Topic

Snag-it

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Just being able to take a single screen shot of a window that requires scrolling instead of splicing multiple shots in a photo program makes Snag-it one of the greatest utility apps that I have ever used. Over the years it has probably shaved months off something I consider an unavoidable evil – writing user documentation.

That it is fairly intuitive with a decent interface and just packed with other nifty features is icing on an already tasty cake.

Absolutely

In reply to Snag-it

Snag-it is one of the best programs I have invested money in!

Similar or better…

In reply to Absolutely

I like HyperCam (Does Video too so good for creating demos) and Gadwin Print Screen is a wonderful simple and powerful screen capture tool with some pretty sexy features.
http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

It’s a toss up between

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

3D Studio Max and Maya.

both are very similar, but have distinctly different feel to them. I like them both equally for the quality and rubustness.

I would have to pick Maya over Max for one reason only, it runs on Linux and Max doesn’t.

Possibly TuneUp Utillities

In reply to It’s a toss up between

as it saves me from wrecking the regestry on my home pc,tidying up left-over rubbish,and getting rid of fragments of data I’ve already uninstalled,via normal means.All in all,in my opinion,a useful piece of software,if you dont have the time to “play” tech repair guy if your in a hurry.

Yes, TuneUp Utilities

In reply to Possibly TuneUp Utillities

I do agree. I have found it to be very useful for maintaining so many different aspects of performance each of which has a safety net in the form of abckup and undo features.

Believe it or not, Crap Cleaner

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Registry fix-it tool. Easy to use, intuitive interface. Don’t have to worry about having to rebuild the reg because the end user did something silly (I include myself in “silly end users”. It is possible to get over confident…).

ccleaner rocks

In reply to Believe it or not, Crap Cleaner

Love it too. Only discovered it 3 months ago. I ran the registry clean up, association clean ups and all the other ones too. I ended up being able to run winamp again without it crashing (and i thought it was a RAM problem!) Just gotta watch out and not install yahoo toolbar when you initial install.

VMWare

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

It brought virtualization to the masses and continues to improve. It can be used to save on resources, testing, DR, etc…

nmap and snort are excellent programs as well

VMWare, yes!

In reply to VMWare

…and I haven’t even upgraded yet…

Quattro Pro 4.0 vs. ProComm Plus

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

For an unforgettable and diffucult project I took on in the mid-80’s that required tons of math and drawing curves based on air flow equations, Quattro Pro 4.0 for DOS was a life saving miracle, and the damn thing was gorgeous(for a spreadsheet!!). I have to give good old ProComm Plus a nod for most used program. Adding it all up, I must have used that damn thing for 18 months worth of hours from my life. Ahhh, the pleasures it brought to me!! 🙂

Might and Magic VI

In reply to Quattro Pro 4.0 vs. ProComm Plus

yes, I noticed no video games showed up on this list, but for video games this was my favorite by far.
Alternately, Outlook 03 for email,calendaring (except for the problems)
For problem free SW, it would have to be , damn, I cant think that far back

I agree

In reply to Quattro Pro 4.0 vs. ProComm Plus

Amend to both, especilly ProComm. Another is SQLyog if you use MySql.

I agree

In reply to Quattro Pro 4.0 vs. ProComm Plus

Amend to both, especially ProComm. Another is SQLyog if you use MySql.

SQLyog

In reply to I agree

John,
It pays to go back and read the older postings in My Discussions. I am just getting started with MySQL,
just paid for it 2 weeks ago. This tip is going to cut learning time in half. Thanks.

FedererFan a.k.a. Charles in NYC

Lotus Notes

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

It is a very versitle and easy to use application. Can do just about anything with it.

Lotus Domino

In reply to Lotus Notes

This is the undisputed king of information management. Nothing else comes even close.

Spybot

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

For being a free program, this is a very good tool to dis-infect PCs of spyware. Free and does a great job. what more can you ask for.

What more could I ask for?

In reply to Spybot

Well, for starters, I’d ask for an OS that doesn’t make me scan it for viruses and spyware constantly.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can simply accept the fact that programs like this need to exist in the first place, or that an OS should demand the user’s time in care and feeding, scanning and defragmenting, patching and rebooting. A computer should be a tool I use to get work done, not something I have to use tools on and work on constantly. If I tinker with it, that should be because I want to, not because I have to.

Post edited to correct redundant word word.

AMEN – eom

In reply to What more could I ask for?

Ok I must enter text

AMEN – eom

Spybot Search & Destroy IS

In reply to Spybot

an extremely good program! It’s the only one besides AdAware that I’ve consistently STUCK with over my tormented years of being economically forced into using Windoze.

Honorable mention goes to nighthawk’s answer. It WOULD be nice if we did have an OS that didn’t need constant maintenance. BUT, it would also be nice if we had automobiles that didn’t need constant maintenance, ALSO!!! 😉

Putty and Wscftp

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

They are free and they are portable with the ultimate goal of both to secure your connection to a remote machine.
I carry both on my thumb drive so that I can connect to my home machine, and also any remote machine that I may use at work.

Dan

Banyan Vines

In reply to Putty and Wscftp

We were WAN before WAN was cool!!!

Crimson Editor !!

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Syntax Highlighting
Tabbed
Fits on a floppy
FREE !!!!!!!!
(just wish they would make it open source)

thank you

In reply to Crimson Editor !!

i’ve been looking for a tool like this. i’ll be downloading and using soon.

MS Money

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I absolutely loved this. I use the word “loved” because these days I don’t track my money that much 🙂

Evolution – that is they key. I first tracked my finances on a notebook with pencil (sometimes on scrap paper). Then realized to be effective, I need to take it online, so started using Excel. Then I wanted reports. So finally started using MS Money.

The thing that I like the most was the User Interface. It is easy to use and attractive. I used to fantascize that there might be someday when some requirements would enable me to make such an interface. I think it is kind of a mix-match of Web-like + Windows interface.

I have not used the other Personal Financial software to make a comparison, Quicken might be really better, but for now I like MS Money [b]because it gets my job done easily[/b]

It has not crashed even once, it allows me to download transactions from banks, brokers and other institutions. Better than Excel or paper 🙂

Pocomail, popfile, PowerBASIC

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Pocomail – email program.

Popfile – Email classification, spam filtering.

PowerBASIC – compiler to write your own software.

Best software???

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Sure is not wondows!!!

Yes Windows 95

In reply to Best software???

Watching the Video – Good Times Bad Times – Gimme Some of That. Going from silence to sound.
Those were the days.

Northlite ~From My Computer to Yours~

knocking silents

In reply to Yes Windows 95

Some of the best films ever made are silent. See “Intolerance” Griffith; “Nosferatu”, Murnau; “Potemkin”, von Stroheim; “The Gold Rush”, Chaplin;
“Metropolis”, Lang(a best of best for me).

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with the subject, I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night and the “silence to sound” in your post started to wake me up. Still, when you have to take a break from the computer, try ’em, you might like the silence for a change.

FedererFan
Charles, NYC

This one was easy to answer

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Okay – best software is – taadaaah – Windows Solitaire! Think about it – it’s on every computer I’ve ever used – it has never once caused me any problems and it doesn’t need to be updated or firewalled or even backed up. It’s easy to use, simple to understand and yet I can use it day after day and never get tired of it (at least as long as I win once in a while). Hands down – Solitaire is the one piece of software that can’t be beat.

WP 5.1 running on DR DOS

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Enough said it just worked without a problem.

Col

I agree

In reply to WP 5.1 running on DR DOS

I do agree. WP 5.1 had almost everything you need for your daily work. Very easy to use and small enough to be used in a 32k machine.

Even on MS-DOS, WP 5.1 Rocked!

In reply to WP 5.1 running on DR DOS

…

The very first work PC I was handed had MS DOS

In reply to Even on MS-DOS, WP 5.1 Rocked!

Hardly surprising because I was working at IBM at the time but I found it so limiting that I switched to DR DOS and found it a better OS to work off. Maybe that was because I was at the time working Mainframes and used to the scripting languages of the day.

I just found MS DOS way to limiting the inability to copy Floppies to different size media with the XCOPY command used to drive me nuts. The lack of switches in MS DOS wasn’t much help either in tailoring a process to do exactly what you wanted it to do, over all I found DR DOS so much better that I’ve never used MS DOS since.

Col

MMMM DOS

In reply to The very first work PC I was handed had MS DOS

we STILL run 10 DOS machines PII and have a software package that will run on it and win98. so after 15 years the stuff gets slowly upgraded but workd GREAT

I find the biggest problem with DOS is Drive Size

In reply to MMMM DOS

Once you keep away from the Ultra Fast CPU’s the next problem is the bigger drive sizes. It’s a bit like NT4 which only wants a certain number of cylinders, you get a drive with more and you’ve got problems.

I use about 3 new copies of MS DOS per year at the moment [b]Yes they still sell it[/b] for computer controlled lathes and other machinery like that. While it’s not the friendliest thing to setup in a network situation it does the job and the control units for these things don’t have a very long life in the production floor with all the cutting lube and metal shavings that get scattered around. Some of the smaller stuff is slowly getting replaced but the 20 + foot bed lathes are going to be there for a very long time and because the newer stuff uses a different OS they are trying to keep the majority working till the lathes need replacing.

I tried to get one of the smaller lathes it’s only a 20 foot bed and they where willing to virtually give it away but I couldn’t fit it anywhere here and I didn’t have the crane available to lift it into place. While I don’t need a bed that long the swing area would be great for some of my play toys. 😀

But it was like a decommissioned mainframe that I tried to bring home it wasn’t even going to cost me the freight to get it I just wasn’t allowed to bring it home by the Wife as she refused to let me have it. 🙁

Col ]:)

MS-DOS Disclaimer

In reply to The very first work PC I was handed had MS DOS

This was at a law firm, and the object of the exercise was to file, represent and litigate the maximum number of personal bankruptcies that could be done in a month. (In the early 1990’s, that number was 100, and yes, all they had time for was seeing clients and going to court. Support staff and paralegals did everything else.)

DR-DOS very likely [b]was[/b] better on the geek side, but the attorneys and support staff coudn’t have cared less. MS-DOS came with the machines, and that is what would be used.

Well the worst thing about using DR DOS

In reply to MS-DOS Disclaimer

Was that whenever anyone wanted a Floppy copied to a different size Media I got the job. So while everyone was slowly moving away from 5.25 Inch Floppies I was the one with the job of copping all the 5.25 to 3.5 inch Floppies and then from the 720 K to the 1.44MB Standard.
It was either use the XCOPY with a couple of switches or use a command line interface to copy from one floppy to the HDD and then back to a floppy of the type that you required. With DR DOS I could just do a straight copy from a 5.25 to a 3.5 inch and tell it how many copies I wanted and then just feed the blanks in as required it made life so much easier back then. But to be fair I didn’t know a single professional who could actually work a computer they always handed off those jobs to the Gofers so any Word Processing and the like was never done by any of the professionals. Most of them where flat out turning on a 286 or older computer if I remember correctly. 😀

I was handed one of the first [b]Portables[/b] that IBM ever made those big plastic things that made a suitcase look small and light did you ever see one? They had the keyboard fold up in front of the screen and then a speaker from each side close over the front and clip in place. I think I originally had a 50 MEG HDD supplied with the thing but that soon changed :^0

I was supposed to carry that thing around with me at all times and at the same time carry all my tools and spare parts what a joke that was, only possible if you had 20 arms and could carry several tons of stuff. It also required a mains outlet if I remember correctly I’m pretty sure it had a monochrome CRT Monitor at least it was heavy enough to and everyone just had to play with it whenever I dragged it out. Mine had a 8.5 inch floppy a 5.25 Inch Floppy and eventually a 3.5 inch Floppy and one of the 1.4 MEG ones It was the first one that ever came into the place and I snatched it for my self or at least my personal company Carry-on computer. Really it was a piece of rubbish with all that plastic but that thing worked quite hard for me and I really shouldn’t complain, but it left a lasting impression on me and I avoided Note Books for a very long time after that. 🙂

Col ]:)

Professionals

In reply to Well the worst thing about using DR DOS

You are so right. The owner of the firm (he maybe went to court a couple hors a month) had a 386SX, I had the other, and there was a 386DX that functioned halfway as a server. Everyone else had 286’s. All you needed was for the bankruptcy program (a hideous thing programmed in Pascal) and WP 5.1 to run.

The attorney I was supervised by put me in an office with the part-time bookkeeper. Then he figured that, since the bookkeeper didn’t do client interviews, and I did, it would be ok to do them in the same room (saving the use of a conference room which could be converted to secretarial cubes).

Never knew what they exactly felt about pouring out thier financial woes in the same room as a guy going over expense reports and going “tsk tsk” every 30 seconds or so. If they ever complained to the attorney, it would have been my fault anyway. When working for a law firm, especially a family-run law firm, when you do good no one remembers, when you do bad no one forgets.

Kinda why I got out of that, and have a crappy attitude about family-run firms, as well as those who profess that “we are all like family here”.

L

WP-5.1 w/ MS-DOS

In reply to Even on MS-DOS, WP 5.1 Rocked!

I agree with WP-5.1 w/ MS-DOS. I used it with Ventura 2.0 for my first conversion from a mainframe-based (dumb-terminal) publishing office to a PC-LAN desktop publishing office. WP 5.1 was excellent.

Oh yeah, now I remember!

In reply to WP-5.1 w/ MS-DOS

I have to agree with regards to WP-5.1 on DOS. THis was the first app that I used and it got me going into what else one can do with a computer.

I remember publishing some pretty slick instruction booklets for the staff and customers with it. It really made them look professional.

Nostalgia’s for the birds

In reply to WP 5.1 running on DR DOS

Why aren’t you all still using WP 5.1?

Funnily enough I still do on any Windows 3.11 Box

In reply to Nostalgia’s for the birds

But because MS provide such great Backward Compatible Systems any DOS program fails to run on XP. Also DOS will not run on modern hardware so I’m stuck with needing to use something that works for the newer Windows versions.

Incidentally the Word Perfect Linux Version made by Corel running on Debian really runs rings around any MS system on the face of the planet. 😀

That’s why I’m now using the Word Perfect X3 distribution and no longer the great 5.1 for DOS. Every application in the Word Perfect Office range beats MS Office hands down.
More to the point why do you accept [b]Second Rate Software[/b] and think it’s OK to use?

Col

Macro Scheduler

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Allows even computer dumbies to create macros, scripts, hot keys, etc.

Very easy to use and a major time saver. Even allows scheduling.

I used to work at a data entry center and believe it or not we increased our typing speeds by over 10% by simply using hot keys.

For example, P.O. Box (8 keystrokes) now becomes say F1. The current date say 06/28/2006 (10 keystrokes) now becomes say F2. So on and so forth.

Others included Shift-Tab (awkward on a keyboard) become say F4, mouse moves become F whatever, etc.

Lately, it has become a bit bloated. We used an older copy that was extremely light weight, simple and easy to learn.

I can’t think of anything else that only costs $40 per person (it costs a bit more now I think) and increases productivity by 10%.

VNC

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

That software was a godsend when I had to grab a copy of my report from home.

Paint Shop Pro

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

A full featured image editor that uses Photoshop plugins. All the great features for casual use of the big boy yet it’s only a hundred bucks.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pid=1143842555921
Larry

yerp

In reply to Paint Shop Pro

the price makes it a winner

LaunchIt NOW! Plus

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Since I found the LaunchIt NOW! Plus program almost two years ago, I rarely (or should I say never?) use the Windows Start menu, which greatly improves my productivity and efficiency when opening whatever progam, URL, document or file I need at any given time.

Take a look at this superb tool at: http://www.gemiscorp.com/english/launchitnowplus/info.html

TotalCommander

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

The Magellan of Windows.

and also Norton Commander

In reply to TotalCommander

for DOS

Claris Works 3 for Windows

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Originally made for MAC computers.

An integrated package very similar to MS Works, but so much better. The Drawing part of the package resembled a Desktop Publishing program. You could easely place textboxes, shape them, and link them together with other textboxes. And You could place graphics inbetween, on or below the text. No layers though, we’re back in 1995. The spreadsheet part had a very good page layout, as did the database part. Printing of address labels from a database has never been as easy as with CLW. I still do not know any program that can match CLW in this respect.

Generally extremely easy to use. Neat!

I got my copy with a magazine CD. And I still have it installed on Win2k Pro, even though I do not use it as much as I used to, nowadays.

Mind Jet’s MIND MANAGER Pro 6

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

This program is wonderful for organising ideas and breaking down large documents or organising them before transferring to Word etc

http://www.mindjet.com

Amiga

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I have never enjoyed using any computer as much as I enjoyed the Amiga. Simple on the surface and powerful under the hood. PCs have always felt like one big kludge in comparison.

No question Lotus 123 Version 2a

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

It simply worked as advertised, period.

eclipse

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Eclipse IDE – Only used for a short while, but the basic function, alonf with plugins – plus open source – make it a great package. 2nd is Corel Photo Paint.

Agree – For BEST Java IDE

In reply to eclipse

It stacks up to all IDEs in the market as of now, it’s open source, it has an SDK, it’s independent to any platform (so long as Java is installed), portable, compatible with several version controls, etc.

Powerpro

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

This FREE utility does almost everything! Program launching button bars, Macros, hot keys, it has built ib scripting, timers, reminder messages, menus (including context menus) and you can skin it! It’s not the easiest, but it IS the most powerful I’ve seen.

Best Software

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Word Perfect. Can there be any question about it?

Copernic Search Engine Manager

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Copernic takes a query and reformats it for submission to up to 16 serch engines, (on the freebie version, $ version gives more), correlates the results and removes duplicates. Now instead of getting 800 nearly identical hits on Google, I get 50 meaningful, different links from all over. With any given search engine able to hit about 10% – 15% of the web, search abilities are farther reaching than using just a single search engine. Another good feature is that searches are archived for later reference. BTW: The list of search engines is updated every time the program starts.

R:Base was my Bodhisattva

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I was the dawn of time. The dirt was still hot. The crust on the planet’s mantle was just beginning to harden and DOS was running on the most stylish of PC’s.

PC based database programs were just beginning to cut a swath through the community of users. Their faces all aglow in the amber or green of the monitor they sat prostrate in front of.

R:Base was my Bodhisattva, a program that would walk you through the mine field of structured query language (That?s what we called SQL way back then) as if you knew the right syntax and had just had a momentary lapse of reason.

It was good. It was very good.

PCTOOLS

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I can’t list all the inovations which started here.
Drop down menus – Prune & Graft on file trees – Quick Keys – Backups from a GUI – Us oldies can still recognise pieces of it in current applications (windows explorer is a castrated version). Here in OZ whole applications (comercial and very succesfull) were built around the original skeleton.
Others I miss-
Norton Utilities (when they actually did some usefull things)
Word Perfect 5.1 (it had the best file handler I’ve seen)
And what about Software Carousel the first program to alow multi tasking by switching programs in and out of RAM. I’ve gone all nostalgic 🙂

Framework

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

In 1989 I was using an integrated office suite that tied together spreadsheets, a database, word processer and a dialup function absolutely seamlessly.

I do remember it was $800.00 at the Government price . Staggeringly expensive.

WordPerfect, Hands Down!

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Two simple words … Reveal Codes! No other word processing program has been committed to helping the user find out what really wrong with a document and also given them the tools to fix it.

WordPerfect truly is a “where would you like to go today?” experience … on the other hand, Microsoft Word is more like “where am I allowed to go today?” …

You can customize so much of WordPerfect’s interface to work the way *you* need to work. Word just isn’t as flexible. Actually … it’s a little bit evil.

Oh, and also …

In reply to WordPerfect, Hands Down!

I used to use WP DOS versions when I had no access at my company to spreadsheet or database programs. I used WP5.1 for those functions and did just fine. Did simple desktop publishing that came out looking as good or better than what the print shop came up with. Used it to make menuing systems to automate weekly generation and printing of five reports … just by telling to start the process. And I *loved* using it with WP Office.

They may force me to use Word at work nowadays (too bad Novell never did anything with it when they bought it, ’cause it lost the market edge and its place as the industry standard) … but I still use it at home … unless I have a program that just doesn’t understand WP well … like anything Microsoft based.

More’s the pity!

WP Rocked

In reply to WordPerfect, Hands Down!

I don’t think I’ve ever loved a piece of software as much as I loved WordPerfect 5.1. It did everything I needed, and wasn’t the bloatware that Word has become. Reveal Codes are the greatest thing since sliced bread. If Microsoft didn’t spend billions on hype, WordPerfect would still be the word processing program of choice. Many of us were forced to switch because higher-ups bought into the marketing campaign rather than listening to users. Not that I’m bitter about having to switch.

Adobe PhotoDeluxe

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

You could do a lot of what you can do in Photoshop, but with tools that were easier to find as well as easier to use.

aaakkk

In reply to Adobe PhotoDeluxe

next you’ll say you like photoshop’s user interface.
~collapsing..holding my throat to try to get the gagging to stop~

or, worse yet, Metacreation’s UI for the Graphics apps they developed [ Poser{ Curious Labs now }, Bryce { Daz3D now}, RayDream { now carrera by Amapi } ]

gaak!!!!!!!!! a more useless collection of user interfaces I’ve never seen.

LOL Jaqui

In reply to aaakkk

I still use Photodeluxe at home and it lets me do what I want to do. At work I’m using a Corel suite and to find the same effects or tools that I used in Photodeluxe takes a while. Maybe it’s just me?! 🙂

Yes it is Tink

In reply to LOL Jaqui

I’ve been using Corel Draw since version 3 and while it’s got much more Blot Ware in it the user interface is still similar, actually the user interface across all the Corel Products is similar and I still prefer Corel’s Web Master to Macromedia Dreamweaver though that most likely because it just looks right to my eyes when I open it.

Col

yup Col,

In reply to Yes it is Tink

the User Interface is far more important than people realise.

Corel Draw! is as good for Vector Graphics work as is Adobe Illustrator, yet I would pick Corel over Adobe because of the UI.
though I wouldn’t go above version 9, since they started making the suite ui look and feel more like adobe’s ui with version 10.

yup, but then

In reply to LOL Jaqui

you probably have not made use of Corel Darw! Suite’s ui customisation abilities, where you can place the tools you want where you want. [ far better than Adobe allows ]

XTREE under ms-dos one of the best oldies

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

It was the first file manager really useful. Well designed and very fast.

today’s zTree

In reply to XTREE under ms-dos one of the best oldies

A capable modern substitute. Go Kim Henkel!

Dameware NT utilities

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

for remote administration, nothing comes close. This software makes my job so much easier and dramatically decreases the disruption to the end user.

Power Point 2003

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I use this a lot for presentations, running announcements at church, wedding video intros. I think it is the best program that MS has. I even use it to take screen shots off the internet and then pasting them to PPT and saving it as a jpeg.

Renegade BBS

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

… dunno why. I just liked it alot back in the day.

CoolEdit Pro

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

It’s the most intuitive, featurepacked and usefull (audioediting) program I’ve ever used. It has everything I can think of and then some. Adobe has bought the code and copyright now, so it’s uncertain if and how it will develop. But concidering how well it already performs, improvements may not even be necessary.

PC Tools for DOS

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

indispensable in those days

KEdit

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Funny, in this age of everything GUI, as an admin, there always seems to be text files that need to be delt with… log files, HTML files, script files, code, etc…
And, for years now, I have found that the #1 text editor has been KEdit (DOS and Windows).
You can do so much with it, have it find and filter out so much data, allow you to easily format files, automatically highlight text. I find that I end up using it every day…

If you need REAL power, REAL fast …

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

There’s nothing like a database and there’s nothing as fast, flexible and elegantly designed and implemented as Microsoft Access; especially if you’re not committed to writing every piece of code yourself. Forms, reports, query builder, remote database access, links to other Office applications. A monkey can make this software fly. Ok, if you have millions of users and millions of tables and rows, it’s not what you need, but for the other 98% of the world, it can’t be beat. Maybe Smalltalk or other high-level pure OOP could compete but who ever heard other those tools? Love to hear about other competing developent environments you think meet or exceed what you can do in an evening with Access.

A real Paradox

In reply to If you need REAL power, REAL fast …

I’ve never before posted in this forum but I could not resist this opportunity to say thank you to all the capable people who put together the first version of Paradox for Windows. Thanks to documentation of a quality I’ve never seen since, I got an unforgettable introduction to desktop database development. Hmm.. Access was in the womb of Microsoft back then but by the time Paradox for Windows v.3 came along, Access was still in diapers and smelled like it too. OK, I use Access too, but the quality of that original version of Paradox for Windows will always be remembered fondly. Thanks Borland! (You may not believe this but I read those manuals during the winter of 1992 by the light of a propane lamp in a little log home without power or telephone. Simply unforgettable!)

What’s even scarier

In reply to A real Paradox

Is I not only have to original Manuals for Paradox I also have the Advanced ones that you got when you paid for training.

I’ve also got the same for Word Perfect which I still use today and as Access is so bad in comparison to what Paradox was I find that I no longer need a D Base application after all if it doesn’t work properly it’s not worth using is it?

Col

If you need REAL power, REAL fast …

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

There’s nothing like a database and there’s nothing as fast, flexible and elegantly designed and implemented as Microsoft Access; especially if you’re not committed to writing every piece of code yourself. Forms, reports, query builder, remote database access, links to other Office applications. A monkey can make this software fly. Ok, if you have millions of users and millions of tables and rows, it’s not what you need, but for the other 98% of the world, it can’t be beat. Maybe Smalltalk or other high-level pure OOP could compete but who ever heard of those tools? Love to hear fro you about other competing developent environments you think meet or exceed what you can do in an evening with Access.

Firefox!

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

It’s very flexible, has plenty of extensions and it’s free (OOS).
And let’s you browse safely from viruses et all.

Netware 3.12

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

This was THE yardstick by which all others are measured.

Rock solid file and print services that stayed up for years without a reboot.
Ran on a 386 with as little as 4 megs of memory.

I miss the set and forget days.

Now everything (including NW) requires at least 512 to even load.

Netware 3.12 was stable

In reply to Netware 3.12

I had a NW 3.12 box that was up for over 3.5 years before I had to take it down for a drive replacement. Too bad the drive went, It probably would still be up and running. (this was 4 years ago.)

Why did we abandon it ?

In reply to Netware 3.12 was stable

I have often asked the question: Why on earth did we abandon rock-stable systems like NW 3.12 and OS/2 Warp Server for a flimsy thing called Windows NT? In the mid-90’s the NDS was where the AD is today. We waited patiently for 10 years for MS to make a copy of what we already had.

Even after experiencing that NT is an acronym for ‘Neanderthal Technology’, ‘Nice Try’, or ‘Not There’, we acted like blind sheep buying the next verson which was claimed to be much better and maybe even working. We still apply fixpacks by the bucket, and buy loads of 3’rd party software in a never ending battle for making it safe and manageable.

The IBM iSeries, and Unix – and a steadily increasing number of Linux servers placed next to our Windows ‘servers’, hums away efficiently with very little effort and no stops, viruses or breakdowns.

Are we incapable of learning, or incapable of making decisions based on our learning ?

The Answer Is Easy

In reply to Why did we abandon it ?

1)Businesses and IT Shops were demanding more than just print and file services. Even during the mid 90s, application servers demand was ever increasing. Novell did very little to go after this growing market. They didn’t realize that many IT Mgrs didn’t want to run multiple NOSs.

2)For better or for worse, MS was the only major vendor that offered a suite of products that tied the desktop, Network Apps, and Server enviorment together. On top of that Novell never really did marketing well. MS cleaned thier clock in this regard. Come to think of it, they cleaned Suns Clock too.

3)Then came Linux.

Netware 3.12 was probably the best NOS ever engineered- but just the same the M-1 Garand was probably the infantry finest assault rifle ever engineered- niether of them are in much use today.

COBOL program editor on Wang system

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Which I believe was writen by Microsoft… That probably explains why WORD was such a success… Editing a text of a program is quite the same as editing a text and WORD was probably developt using this editor technique, (plus, they probably took some hints from competition -WordFerfect or some other-). But that editor was very powerfull.

I miss CO0BOL

In reply to COBOL program editor on Wang system

Running on a mainframe that you know wouldn’t crash, unbelievable speed of processing large quantities of transactions. Having the ability to decipher business logic along with program logic just because of the nature coding language.
Shoot, there is one of my favorite programs. The COBOL coding language.
Lol, lets see how bad I get trashed for this post.

Dan

Don’t look at me….

In reply to I miss CO0BOL

My first computer job was at a company that wrote tools for COBOL development- automated programming tools. This was in 1985.

I took a Fortran course in university because at the end of the course they taught us how to use SPSS, and that was something I needed for a stats course the next year. I also worked at a survey research firm and used spss to create charts for publication.

So Cobol was new to me. We used the WANG platform for development but the code could be cross compiled for CICS or PC or DEC Vax.

The systems were pretty stable. If my PC was half as stable I would be a much more productive individual.

James

Well as I originally started in IT using

In reply to I miss CO0BOL

FORTRAN, Pascal and COBOL I’m not going to say a single word against you here. I liked them all and they did work well on the monsters that we ran them on at the time.

Now if only my current workstation which is much more powerful that a floor of Mainframe’s was, was any where near as reliable as those old monsters with very little RAM slow Clock Speeds and small storage media I would currently have my new workstation built and running instead of just having had the time to mount the M’Board and do some basic connections 3 weeks ago.

But the Heat Sinks on those 2 Xeon’s look so nice with their 2 X 80 MM Fans each I just can’t bring myself to finish off the build. Actually I just can’t bring myself to finish it off when I dog tired. 😀

Col

Yes, but SPF let you

In reply to I miss CO0BOL

SPF let you do that Cobol and much more and it was on both the mainframe and PC.

Ecco

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Even though Net Manage abandoned this fantastic organizer program in 1996, I still use it — ten years later — to organize my projects, work calendar, appointments, and notes. No silly notebook metaphors, simple to use, with layers of complexity.

Yes, second that!

In reply to Ecco

Still use for organization and outlining. Never seen Ecco’s organization and outlining capability in anything else. Even if one day never use again, will keep Ecco forever.

Webster’s Australiana series

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

This is an Australian company. Their series on various subjects relating to Australia — history, general encyclopedia, fauna, national parks and many more is not only of outstanding quality, but can be run directly from the CD-ROM.

PINE (Program for Internet News & Email) – since 1992

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

This simple, but very effective email client has been my single most-used application. Period. I actually wish more people used it so there wouldn’t be this proliferation of HTML email crap that I get.

I have also never been infected with an email virus because of pine. =)

I hear that!!

In reply to PINE (Program for Internet News & Email) – since 1992

while I don’t use pine, I actually reject html email as spam.

I specify that all email MUST be in plain text format.

GEOWORKS Ensemble for the PC

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I know I’m showing my age here , but GEOWORKS Ensemble was everything Windows 3.0 was supposed to be without crashing every time you turned around. It was rock stable, fast, compact and would do true preemptive multitasking on a 4 mhz XT. With a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get Word Processor, an object oriented drawing program (think powerpoint), Calander, Planner, Address book, Terminal emulator (Hyperterm before there was one) it ran Great in 640k (that’s right, less than 1 meg) of ram and had the nicest GUI going. When Windows was struggling with the idea of previewing what your printed document would look like as a seperate task, GeoWorks had true WYSWYG. You knew the document comming out of your printer looked exactly like it did on the screen while you were editing it. And with the GeoWorks print drivers it came with you got 240 dpi (near laser quality)out of your standard 9 pin dot matrix printer. All the things we take for granted now (Drag-&-Drop, Copy-&-Paste, printing in the background while continuing to work) were new and exciting then. I can look back fondly and remember this while watching my 3200mhz PC with 256000k of ram slows to a crawl because I’m printing a DOC file from word while writing this post and dream of what could have been.

OH Geoworks

In reply to GEOWORKS Ensemble for the PC

It was truly great wasn’t it. Now you’ve added another thing to my [b]Must Do[/b] list install Geoworks on my DOS box and have another play with it when I get the time.

But first I’ll have to find the install media.

Col

2 thumbs up for GeoWorks

In reply to GEOWORKS Ensemble for the PC

I to fondly remember GeoWorks. I often wonder where it went. Was it a M$ victim? Oh the simplier life.

Richard G.

GLQuake 0.95

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Nothing better to stress a shiny new 3DFX graphics accelerator, and in a simpler time with piles of total conversions being produced for commercial games. Navy Seals Quake, Future vs Fantasy Quake, all patched up to revolutionary 3-d rendered graphics. I hope the Ageia cards give the same kid on Christmas giddiness when the new games start using it.

DVD Profiler

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Excellent utility for keeping track of DVD library, free, user community supported and full of features and bells and whistles you can’t find in commercial applications.

Quattro Pro

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

a much better spreadsheet than Excel will ever hope to be

VMWARE, Knoppix

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

VMWARE Workstation and Virtual Infrastructure are incredible! They’ve made testing trivial, server cheap. and VI3 looks even better.

Knoppix, the most “It just works” version of Linux I have used. This handy little CD has rescued data of NTFS partitions that Windows wouldn’t acknowledge existed. IT has also allowed me to keep my working computer cookie, spyware,and junkware free.

ChiWriter

In reply to VMWARE, Knoppix

This has been defunct since 1995 or so, but this was a far better word processor than anything available for years afterwards.

It had WYSIWYG in 1988.

It had unbelievable ability to format equations (still better than Word with MathType).

Everyone else used WP, Word, Wordstar and Ami Pro during the years I used ChiWriter and I never met anyone who could do with them what I did in half the time.

Arachnophilia

In reply to ChiWriter

I forgot about this one.

A great editor (now in Java) with a huge amount of customizability. And it’s free!

http://www.arachnoid.com/

Anything that is self-contained, no installation

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

One of my favorite places is TinyApps.org Few things bring me more joy than being able to run an app right away, no installation.

I have a folder with about 30 of these apps, a great geeky “utility belt”. I can put all of them on a USB stick and feel right at home on any PC.

-thinker-

ActiveFax

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

2 years age we were forced to upgrade our fax software because the old release was no longer supported, and the new release was just plain cr@p. To cut a (very) long story short, after several disappointing trials and demos of products such as Winfax, FACSys and the like, I found this product called ActiveFax (www.actfax.com).

IMHO this really blows the competition away. From an admin point of view it is a breeze to install and has more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at. And from the user’s point of view it has a very intuitive UI which even the most computer-illiterate can use confidently after only a few minutes basic training.

This is my ideal of what all software should be like, but unfortunately this is the real world…

Quicken 2.0 (for DOS)

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

The very first GUI for the common user–in DOS.

Write your checks on a screen that looked just like a check.
Balance your checkbook on a screen that looked just like a check register.
Print your checks, accurately, from a PC printerv (This was a first!).
Print out all your transactions at year-end, neatly categorized, and complete your taxes (and the IRS, in record time, began to accept Quicken records)
An accurate, concise and well written user manual.
Oh, and it was accurate.

Good Old Fashioned Quicken used to save me 2 1/2 to 4 hours a month. No longer! I can barely find the checking register amongst the jiggleware.

Quicken 4 for Windows

In reply to Quicken 2.0 (for DOS)

Right on, but for some reason which I can’t remember I switched to the Windows 3.1 Quicken V4.0 circa 1992 – same deal and still using it. My entries go back to 1990 – I just hope the pgm doesn’t have an # of entries limit.

Oh dear, can’t decide!

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Take your pick:
1. Snagit.
2. Info Select version 1. All subsequent versions are full of all sorts of superfluous bells and whistles which detract from its fantastic ability as a random information depository. Stick to the knitting MicroLogic.

Dameware NT Utilities

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Saw this elsewhere in the list, but have to say this is THE de facto software for any support staff.

It’s very cheap, powerful, complete and intuitive, scaleable, yadda yadda yadda… It is quite simply the best network (LAN/WAN/) admin tool I have ever had the pleasure to use and would heartily reccomend it to any techie out there !!!

The BEST software I ever used was

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

UltraEdit by IDMCOMP.COM. This editor has eliminated the need to log in to my AIX/UNIX servers and use that wonderful (sarcasm meant) vi editor. It is the best coding editor I have ever seen on the market. For someone who is constantly writing scripts to be executed on AIX, Linux, Windows, or Mainframe Z/OS this is the ONE TOOL that is essential.

The upgrades are frequent, the product is naturally intuitive to use, and the pricing is unbelieveably cheap for what it accomplishes.

Turley K. Hayes

BootIt NG (aka BING)

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Definiately the best Partition / Boot Manager I’ve every used. Been using it for years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Enables you to have literally 100’s of partitions on a single hard drive, each which can be bootable / hidden from the others.
Really powerful and also contains several partitioning options that only come with expensive rivals. (No, I’m not a affiliated whatsoever with http://www.terabyteunlimited.com)

Adobe/Macromedia products

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

all of them, especially photoshop and dreamweaver.

What is the meaning of the BEST in the software arena?

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Before we select the BEST software ? Lotus Notes, WordPerfect, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop? – we have to agree about the meaning of the BEST in software for us. Maybe for you, ?best? implies easy to use, a lot of features, powerful functions?For me, the BEST is the right ?tool? in the right ?moment?, perhaps only a program with not more than 10 instructions?

ALL-TIME FAVORITE SOFTWARE

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Groove Virtual Office is the best!! We have been using it for 6 years when it first came out as a beta. You can work on and offline and all your files between computers are synchronized.
All communications and files are also encryped in the background.

Groove Virtual Office

In reply to ALL-TIME FAVORITE SOFTWARE

Groove Virtual Office is the best!! We have been using it for 6 years when it first came out as a beta. You can work on and offline and all your files between computers are synchronized.
All communications and files are also encryped in the background.

SuperKey

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Borland SuperKey was a great TSR based macro application which ran on machines running MS-DOS 2.1 and higher. You could record keystrokes and play them back in and across all applications. You could make it pause for input. There was even some branching, as I remember it. Oh, and WordPerfect is my other favorite, starting with WP 4.1. Nice macros, reveal codes, easy to use line draw, and even the file format was documented so that I could write my own utilities that read and wrote files following the WordPerfect file format. I still use WordPerfect. Can’t live without the reveal codes, and search functions that include searching for hard and soft returns, underlines, footnotes, etc… It’s still a really nice piece of software.

The “Make It Fit option”

In reply to SuperKey

In the newer versions is great as well isn’t it?

Col

who has a copy of superkey

In reply to SuperKey

im looking to pay someone for a copy of the old superkey.

combined with word perfect i can take procomm captured data from all sorts of sources and convert it in a format that excel will upload and format perfectly.

stefanog65@aol.com please let me know

Super key

In reply to SuperKey

I totally agree with you, that was a great tool, Do you know of a similar product for Windows XP and I would also like to have copy of Superkey programme, any idea where can i locate it? Thanks again.

Rajesh

Internet Explorer

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

NO ONE can deny that since the internet revolution and still until today, the most widely used software on all of Microsoft operating systems, the most widely used, is Internet Explorer. Everybody can talk about all other types of software, not realizing that all of them somehow, the majority being for windows platforms, depend on or have some association with internet connections, making Internet Explorer the most widely used software EVER!!

Not correct

In reply to Internet Explorer

Microsoft totally missed the boat when the internet became known to everybody. MS promoted the Microsoft Network but failed, which we all today must be deeply thankful for.

Internet Explorer a.k.a “Infernal Exploder” became dominant after Microsoft misused their monopoly in the OS market to leverage a monopoly in the browser market.

Internet Explorer is the most widely used. The question is about the BEST SW, and here Internet Explorer falls flatly on it’s face. Apart from Outlook, no other piece of SW has been so bug-ridden, unsafe and poorly designed as IE.

Strange when Windows 95 became available

In reply to Internet Explorer

I can remember using and loading Netscape on every computer. I can’t remember if IE was even available as a default install on the early versions of 95 it certainly wasn’t available for 3.11 which only used Netscape for all Internet Browsing.

Sometime latter MS released a Problem on the face of all computing called Internet Explorer and threatened all the OEM’s with withdrawing any agreements if they even so much as displayed anything related to Netscape let alone install it on any Windows Computer. A couple of years latter this was found to be an Illegal Action by the courts on the part of MS it wasn’t the first time and certainly not the last it was just one of the many times that MS has used its position to do the wrong thing.

But even when MS had used the [b]Big Stick with the OEM’s[/b] people where still rushing out and installing Netscape in droves and both Netscape and MS where in the [b]Browser Wars[/b] for dominance on one side you had a already installed buggy piece of software that left a gapping hole into your system and on the other side you had a piece of software that came on every computer Mag CD that was nice tight code and minimal exposure to the nasties on the Net.

Col

It’s even worse

In reply to Strange when Windows 95 became available

Microsoft missed the boat, and there was no browser in the first version of W/95. I have it and it’s 10 diskettes.

Microsoft first tried to license the Netscape Navigator browser, one of many attempts to eat a competitor, but Marc Andreesen said no. Probably he knew what would happen if he said yes, and he thought mayby that fair trade existed even if one of the parties involved were Microsoft. Microsoft then licences Mosaic from Spyglass in 1995 as the basis of Internet Explorer 1.0, which was available in the Microsoft 95 Plus package.

Spyglass should recieve a fixed quarterly fee, plus a royalty based on Microsofts revenues from selling Internet Explorer.

Microsoft then bundled Internet Explorer with Windows, and Spyglass only got the small quarterly fee. IE was given away, so no revenues and no royalties. Naturally Spyglass felt pissed off, and shouted loudly about suing, but was paid off with 8 million dollars. So browser market dominance was acquired for a mere 8 million.

FoxPro

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Starting as a high performance Xbase product, Foxpro has kept pace with modern software developments. It works great as an interactive environment or as a software development tool. I use it for a variety of utility functions.
As an interactive front end to many of Microsoft COM accessible operating system objects. It is a great front end tool for SQL Server. I use it to automate processes in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Access, …). A great place to store and maintain data for Word mail merge. Foxpro is a one stop replacement for
1 Various utility software products
2 Access
3 Visual Basic
4 Reporing tools like Crystal Reports
5 SQL Server when your data storage needs are not to demanding. Foxpro is between Access and SQL Server as a database product. The Foxpro database engine is the basis for ADO.

Many times I have read comments about Foxpro from people who do not use it. Their misconceptions are often humorous. The remarks usually categorize this marvelously multifunctional tool into a narrow category. The comparisons are usually apples to oranges. Foxpro is compared to SQL Server because it has it own database persistance functionality. SQL server concentrates on one narrow aspect of what Foxpro is capable of. Foxpro is not a replacement for SQL Server and neither is SQL Server a replacement for Foxpro. As database product, Foxpro is better described as Access on Steroids.

As a software development tool, Foxpro is better than Visual Basic for most projects. It implements a more complete object oriented software development environment, has its own native data environment and more interactive user interface. One of the most amazing things is many people may use Foxpro and never even realize it is a great software development tool.

Foxpro can store and manipulate data in a variety of ways. It provides both a record by record functionality as well as a complete SQL set based data manipulation capability. Anything Foxpro can do interactively, you can use it to do programatically.

Viewing Foxpro only as a database product is a disservice to it and its potential uses. But if you have any sort of process that involves data, Foxpro is a great tool. Interactive real time interface with your data, report writer, software developemnt, front end to SQL Server, general purpose data environment and interactive access to operating system APIs( email, Active Directory, WMI, Scripting, etc).

Great tool !!

In reply to FoxPro

I use it over 10 years.
It’s a great tool to develop a small to mid scale system.

StupenDOS

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

This was one of the best DOS file managers/file utilities (ala XTree, PCTools, etc) that I ever used. It was written by one of the guys from PKWare I think, it used to be able to display files inside a zip file (even if you didn’t have PKZip). It also allowed you to “add-in” other programs (editors, etc), which I always thought was a great feature, it allowed you to “chain” your favorite utilities together.

for windows …… VISIO

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

For windows applications Visio was one of the few applications that had me say “Wow they got it right” after using it. I think it’s also one of the reasons everybody uses it to describe/compare their software to (instead of the “Intelligent Drawing” tag line that Visio used at first). Befors M$ bought them and decided to cripple it into being a better org chart maker it was THE diagramming tool to use (not just for networks, does anyone remember the Police/accident shape sets? How about when they started to easily tie the drawing properties into databases?).
It was one of the very few software companies that (if I had money) I would have invested in when I first saw it (for windows 3.1).

The Best Software I have used- and still use..

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

No question- the best software I have used was and is – the RESTORE feature in Windows XP and GO BACK when I was in Windows 98.
It has saved me on numerous occasions from all sorts of problems, made reformatting of hard drives redundant, even saved me from (some) viruses.
All this when one of my favourite occupations is trying out all sorts of trial programs, and sometimes grimacing from the results!!

GO BACK and RESTORE is the best software …

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

No question- the best software I have used was and is – the RESTORE feature in Windows XP and GO BACK when I was in Windows 98.
It has saved me on numerous occasions from all sorts of problems, made reformatting of hard drives redundant, even saved me from (some) viruses.
All this when one of my favourite occupations is trying out all sorts of trial programs, and sometimes grimacing from the results!!

Personal REXX – Quick & Clean

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

When you need some ad hoc simple non GUI code REXX is unbeatable. Originally written for IBM’s VM cp on mainframes a PC version was written by IBM employees and then a PC commercial edition was issued by Mansfield S/W group. Because of its plain english syntax you can not use it for years and still be able to remember its structure. I believe a Object Oriented version was also created. I wanted to test my internet by pinging every ‘x’ minutes (x depending on response) and write out the results including timeouts – took maybe 2 hours – runs on everything from DOS to XP. For the occasional programmer it’s the cat’s meow !!

firefox

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Specifically, tabs.

Monarch V8 – Datawatch

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

The best way to extract REAL data from any report – including PDF files. It easy and flexible and has great interfaces for linking files for ‘lookups’. I a have been using Monarch since the early dos versions for data extraction – its save hours and sometimes days in a conversion project.

TeleMagic v14 for DOS (PIM)

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

TeleMagic v14 for DOS was a FANTASTIC personal information/contact management app that worked under numerous network envornments and under any OS that supported networked DOS apps. It was VERY simple and INTUITIVE to use and it kept nearly ALL information easily accessable for nearly any possible situation. It’s only drawbacks were it’s inability to do WYSIWYG text file editing with multiple fonts in a windowing environment and it’s performance hit because of the limitations of the old dBase .dbf file format. I’d gladly trade TM14 for ACT! or GoldMine any day if it didn’t have the two above mentioned drawbacks.

MS Publisher

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

I have several publishing programs but this is the only one that is versitile enough to use in a classroom. Worksheets, puzzles, signs, certificates you name it. I’ve even used it for school graduation programs. I especially like the ease with which I can send completed work out to be professionally printed.

Ableton Live 5

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Live production and DJ application. Most intuitive interface I’ve seen, revised according to user suggestions made in discussion group. Does everything for music and much more…

LSPFix or Heung’s Emergency Repair Disk

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

LSPFix – instant releif for machines network-denied due to spyware…allows netbased removal tools to be run. Heung’s just because it’s always fun to see the look on the client’s face when you tell them their password was removed during repair :-0)

Handy Recovery

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Recovered the entire contents from a HDD that had a corrupt/broken partition table. The end user had no back ups, and had 2 years of financial info on it. Best 80 bucks I ever spent.

The Best ETL (Extract/Transform/Load) software is Data Integrator

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Used to be called Data Junction, it has been a valuable tool since 1998 in the conversion, loading and processing of data from one database environment to the other. Works slick, is easy to use and supports over 50 different databases and formats that can be converted from/to. Does just about any data transformation task you can think of, and some you probably didn’t even know about.

Bourbaki’s 1dirplus

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Best point and shoot substitute for the DOS command line, with powerful but easily customizable menuing system and quick access to the CLI whenever needed.

The best software I ever used is FinePrint

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Fine Print (fineprint.com)is a print driver program that has a plethora of options available prior to actually printing a document. I’ve been using this program for several years. The print preview segment of the program has saved me countless hours and costs associated with trial and error printing. It is free for use – – but has a crawler tagged to the bottom of the printed page in the free version – – and I purchased the program the first day I used the program I found it so useful.

PC Tools

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Probably the best utility suite ever written. Easily understood, intuitive interface, reliable, easily configured, almost always faster than typing the command at the prompt, comprehensive and comprehensible help files.

The backup utility had better compression than anybody else, supported both tape and external drives, and I never had a failure to restore. The defrag (they called it “compress”) was outstanding; you could actually see the improvement in drive performance. The shell included with later versions ran rings around both Norton and DosShell. You could even build a desktop, were you so inclined. Unfortunately, Central Point was snapped up by Symantec when they became a serious threat to the Norton Utilities.

I’ve seen nothing like it before or since. The only complaint I had was that early versions didn’t allow direct sector edits.

Crazy Talk

In reply to Fill in the blank: The BEST software I ever used was…

Ability to make pictures talk and make it seem very real.

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