I was thinking of building an old off the botnet internet PC just for kicks/nostalgia/retro gaming/video editing/etc.
So I was wondering what would some really useful old software that can be had for cheap? Not just any software but really useful stuff that even today works just fine for whatever you want to do.
My firs thought was The OS to use. I could dual boot 98SE and XP. I think XP might be the best assuming the PC has the hardware to run 95/98 software on it.
Some good software to run. Alias/Wavefront Stuff (before Automess took over)
Office XP (Not sure which distro though) Emagic Logic Lynx Pretty sure the CS2 version of adobe suite is technically free, but not sure if it was the best version for XP or 98 ?
If you have a decent card with hardware Midi synth, install Voyetra MIDI Orchestrator.
Ryan Cox
What kind of vidya do you like? I might be able to find some /vr/ recommended lists.
Cameron Smith
>tfw I still use Adobe Photoshop 7.0 in Wine and prefer it over GIMP
Justin Roberts
>Voyetra MIDI Orchestrator holy shit i remember this. had no idea it was so powerful. damn.
Joshua Allen
There was a small utility that you could use im messages to someone in an rdp session on windows server that you could also boot them off with, that would use a console session by default without the target server having anything. It was made by microsoft and was called tsclient or something similar. iirc it was on Windows Server 2000 and also worked with 03. I've never been able to find it since way back when and I've always wanted to use it again.
Owen Gray
*to IM with no bully
Tyler Long
I would recommend using just XP. 99% of all software that was designed for 9x will run perfectly fine on XP, and you get added stability and a hell of a lot more customization. Also Office 2003 > Office XP.
Evan Ortiz
Ditto, ps7 is greatest photo editing software of all time and it works on windows 10
Aaron King
AutoCAD 2005 is still my Go-to drafting software for any XP era machine. If it can run smoothly on this G40 with a pentium 4, 1gb of ram and integrated extreme graphics, it can run on anything.
Josiah Phillips
GNU/Linux
BSD
macOS
James Ramirez
XP might be a good choice for dealing with many software but if you want real nostalgia, you might pick a 9x or a lookalike (NT4/2K). 98se or Me might still work for offline shit, 2k will be more easy and basically more xpish but with a classic design (the classic theme of xp is inconsistent and feel wrong) . 95 is really too old now imo but maybe because I didn't owned one and my first PC ran 98
Kayden Hughes
winworldpc.com/library/applications fuck XP/9x and lego PCs, get a high-end OEM workstation and run 2000 or NT4 on it instead and pick some shit from here, the only general-use software it really lacks is Office 2000 which can be found easily elsewhere, or you can use 97 for pretty much the same experience
old Macs are a great option too just because of all the shit the Macintosh Garden has hoarded for them, you can get practically anything for an OS 9 system these days if you know what you're looking for
Leo Ortiz
I need a free BIOS flash utility to flash libreboot from DOS, any recommendation?
Also FreeDOS is my recommendation, an entire OS.
James Phillips
FreeDOS is useless incompatible shit for OEMs to skimp on software licensing fees
Xavier Cook
Office 97
Has everything you need from a word processor, tiny footprint, and also the last version that doesn't require a serial / activation so its usb portable.
Isaac Lewis
What you you use?
Camden Hughes
The benefits of using XP is that you can still by all means shitpost easily and use some XP era applications and games alongside older shit. Windows 7 and up may have issues with older 9x software. But an XP era machine has everything it needs for both MSDOS DESI-III CAD through CS:GO
Isaiah Cox
Is there anyway to emulate soundblaster on it for newer PCs that don't actually have a soundblaster card.
Josiah James
balabolka
Oliver Gonzalez
MS-DOS, what else? There is no other DOS family on Wintel systems worth using.
Jack Russell
Two words: wacky wheels
David Foster
you're not wrong, NT4 and 2000 aren't bad for shitposting either though honestly, NT4 browsers can handle Sup Forums fine with javascript off and 2000 works great especially with legacy captcha
but XP's compatibility is definitely a plus, something that NT4 especially doesn't have when it comes to DOS applications (though DOSbox can remedy a lot of it)
Blake Phillips
thanks
now I have the theme, the animal noises AND the honking running in my mind.
Julian Gutierrez
we should illegally fork windows 2000 using to our advantage a mixture of leaked source, winworld DDK's, whatever documents can be scavenged and a lot of reverse engineering.
FAR or Total Commander. But I have never used that, only default Windows interface. I have had two geek friends who couldn't live without either of file managers.
Bentley Thompson
hmm back in the day fravia really helped me with searching the net for stuff. I wonder if I could still find the +orc crack packs that would be a stroll down memory lane.
Jack Hall
>+orc crack packs you could still find them @ archive.org search for "krobar collection"
