I'm sure everyone has some old software application that they've been using for years and don't have a valid reason to upgrade or move on from, are too stubborn or just don't want to have to learn a whole new program. I'm firmly in the last two camps, and while I will use older versions of say, Skype, so I don't fall prey to Microsoft's irritating advertising, the oldest program I still have in use is Paint Shop Pro 7.
The first time I came across Paint Shop Pro was version 5, I think, or possibly 4, way back in the late 90's. I think the evaluation copy came free on a cd in some computer magazine a friend had bought. We both found it to be an excellent tool, powerful for it's day with a great, easy to use interface, and introduced us to the concept of layers (basic stuff, I know, but back then...). When version 6 came out, we upgraded to that, and then again with 7. Jasc Software, the developers, redesigned the interface for 8 and 9 and we didn't like it, so we stuck with 7.
Jasc was bought by Corel in 2004 and the program began to change. We'd already dismissed 8 and 9, so we just ignored what Corel was doing with PSP and kept using 7... and the two of us still use it to this day. Why do we use it? Well, there's the great, minimalist interface, which is very easy to learn. We're both self taught, which should tell you all you need to know about how easy it is to learn and master. While everyone else used Photoshop or Gimp or whatever, we stuck with this old program. I have used it to repair some old photographs for my mother, getting rid of scratches and restoring colour, as one example.
Probably the biggest reason I love it, though, and the function I use the most, is it's image browser. I tried moving on and using other programs a few years back, but they either had a seperate browser in a different program or didn't have one at all... which annoyed me to no end. PSP drops a small file called pspbrowse.jbf every time you browse a folder, and it helps the program to remember the order of the images you browse. This means that, whenever I browse my documents folder, which is years old, all the images are in the proper order from the dates they were added. Screw having to learn a new program with a browser that will wreck the nice order PSP has been giving me for well over a decade now. A friend of mine got irritated when I mentioned this to him, and he said I was asking for too much (how could I be when PSP has been giving me what I've been looking for in a newer program since the late 90's?
I have it installed on both my desktop and laptop (Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8.1 x64, respectively) and it still works with no problems, despite being designed for Windows 9x way back in the 90's. I just checked the build date and it is from September 18th, 2000. That means it's almost fourteen years old now.
Fourteen years old! Can anyone top that? What ancient software do you insist on using, and why? As for me, here's hoping I can still run it in another fourteen years' time!
The first time I came across Paint Shop Pro was version 5, I think, or possibly 4, way back in the late 90's. I think the evaluation copy came free on a cd in some computer magazine a friend had bought. We both found it to be an excellent tool, powerful for it's day with a great, easy to use interface, and introduced us to the concept of layers (basic stuff, I know, but back then...). When version 6 came out, we upgraded to that, and then again with 7. Jasc Software, the developers, redesigned the interface for 8 and 9 and we didn't like it, so we stuck with 7.
Jasc was bought by Corel in 2004 and the program began to change. We'd already dismissed 8 and 9, so we just ignored what Corel was doing with PSP and kept using 7... and the two of us still use it to this day. Why do we use it? Well, there's the great, minimalist interface, which is very easy to learn. We're both self taught, which should tell you all you need to know about how easy it is to learn and master. While everyone else used Photoshop or Gimp or whatever, we stuck with this old program. I have used it to repair some old photographs for my mother, getting rid of scratches and restoring colour, as one example.
Probably the biggest reason I love it, though, and the function I use the most, is it's image browser. I tried moving on and using other programs a few years back, but they either had a seperate browser in a different program or didn't have one at all... which annoyed me to no end. PSP drops a small file called pspbrowse.jbf every time you browse a folder, and it helps the program to remember the order of the images you browse. This means that, whenever I browse my documents folder, which is years old, all the images are in the proper order from the dates they were added. Screw having to learn a new program with a browser that will wreck the nice order PSP has been giving me for well over a decade now. A friend of mine got irritated when I mentioned this to him, and he said I was asking for too much (how could I be when PSP has been giving me what I've been looking for in a newer program since the late 90's?
I have it installed on both my desktop and laptop (Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8.1 x64, respectively) and it still works with no problems, despite being designed for Windows 9x way back in the 90's. I just checked the build date and it is from September 18th, 2000. That means it's almost fourteen years old now.
Fourteen years old! Can anyone top that? What ancient software do you insist on using, and why? As for me, here's hoping I can still run it in another fourteen years' time!
