4 ms·

The Simtel CD Collection (1994-2001)

gmuslera 6y ago
Used to have some of them in my BBS in Uruguay in the early 90s, before internet got there. They (and CDs included with magazines and things like that) drove the shareware/freeware movement around here back then.
chx 6y ago
Why does Simtel come up so much lately? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26157165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26157165
pajko 6y ago
SAC is also worth mentioning. It was my source of utilities back then, distributed on CDs included with a computer magazine (still did not have access to the net for a couple of more years). https://www.sac.sk/ https://www.sac.sk/
GekkePrutser 6y ago
Yeah I remember those CDs. Never had them, they were quite expensive in Europe IIRC. Back in those days having 700MB of stuff was HUGE :P On packet radio it would take me all night to transfer a file of 1-2MB. In fact it was a lot quicker to grab my bicycle and take a floppy over to the friend I was downloading it from. Sneakernet was actually a thing :D I'll have a look through these archives.
- ido 6y ago
  Don't know what packet radio is, but during my dialup days I'd be happy to get 5kb/sec download (on supposedly 56kbit connection). I remember moving the computer to another room that had better quality phone line as that affected internet speed.
  - bwmabe 6y ago
    My first guess was transmitting the audio of a data cassette over HAM radio; but a quick search shows it's something quite different[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio
- stevekemp 6y ago
  I remember hearing of them, but at the time I didn't have the ability to download files that large over my modem. Recently I've been getting back into CP/M and it took only a few minutes to download a Walnut Creek CP/M CD image from 1994. Largely because of the slow hosting site. So much fun exploring the random contents, will definitely take me a few months to try to run all the binaries, and experiment with them!
m463 6y ago
I remember Prime Time Freeware. It was like a book + cdroms full of software. Here's the closest description I could find: https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1243 https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1243
squarefoot 6y ago
I had some of those CDs. In the early 90, before broadband Internet, they were a godsend. That site parent directory is worth a look too, lots of memories over there.
FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
See also: https://archive.org/details/walnutcreekcdrom https://archive.org/details/walnutcreekcdrom https://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/ https://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simteln... https://exodos.the-eye.us/ https://exodos.the-eye.us/
elvis70 6y ago
Nostalgia. I still have a "Shareware Bonanza" compilation CD from Tons & Gigs from 1992 with 20,000+ programs on 3 CDs, about 1.5GB of compressed files (more than 3GB uncompressed after them), which was huge. I had a 32MB hard drive back then (before I bought a new PC with a 120MB hard drive the following year). https://archive.org/details/Shareware_Bonanza_Tons_and_Gigs_1992 https://archive.org/details/Shareware_Bonanza_Tons_and_Gigs_...
FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
Also see also: http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html
- https-bot 6y ago
  https://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html https://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html is the HTTPS version of http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html you used that also works and with 100.00 similarity on their contents. (I'm a bot, see https://github.com/fishy/https-bot https://github.com/fishy/https-bot for source code)

Used to have some of them in my BBS in Uruguay in the early 90s, before internet got there. They (and CDs included with magazines and things like that) drove the shareware/freeware movement around here back then.

chx 6y ago

Why does Simtel come up so much lately? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26157165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26157165

pajko 6y ago

SAC is also worth mentioning. It was my source of utilities back then, distributed on CDs included with a computer magazine (still did not have access to the net for a couple of more years). https://www.sac.sk/ https://www.sac.sk/

GekkePrutser 6y ago

Yeah I remember those CDs. Never had them, they were quite expensive in Europe IIRC. Back in those days having 700MB of stuff was HUGE :P On packet radio it would take me all night to transfer a file of 1-2MB. In fact it was a lot quicker to grab my bicycle and take a floppy over to the friend I was downloading it from. Sneakernet was actually a thing :D I'll have a look through these archives.

ido 6y ago
Don't know what packet radio is, but during my dialup days I'd be happy to get 5kb/sec download (on supposedly 56kbit connection). I remember moving the computer to another room that had better quality phone line as that affected internet speed.
- bwmabe 6y ago
  My first guess was transmitting the audio of a data cassette over HAM radio; but a quick search shows it's something quite different[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio
stevekemp 6y ago
I remember hearing of them, but at the time I didn't have the ability to download files that large over my modem. Recently I've been getting back into CP/M and it took only a few minutes to download a Walnut Creek CP/M CD image from 1994. Largely because of the slow hosting site. So much fun exploring the random contents, will definitely take me a few months to try to run all the binaries, and experiment with them!

m463 6y ago

I remember Prime Time Freeware. It was like a book + cdroms full of software. Here's the closest description I could find: https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1243 https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1243

squarefoot 6y ago

I had some of those CDs. In the early 90, before broadband Internet, they were a godsend. That site parent directory is worth a look too, lots of memories over there.

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago

See also: https://archive.org/details/walnutcreekcdrom https://archive.org/details/walnutcreekcdrom https://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/ https://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simteln... https://exodos.the-eye.us/ https://exodos.the-eye.us/

elvis70 6y ago

Nostalgia. I still have a "Shareware Bonanza" compilation CD from Tons & Gigs from 1992 with 20,000+ programs on 3 CDs, about 1.5GB of compressed files (more than 3GB uncompressed after them), which was huge. I had a 32MB hard drive back then (before I bought a new PC with a 120MB hard drive the following year). https://archive.org/details/Shareware_Bonanza_Tons_and_Gigs_1992 https://archive.org/details/Shareware_Bonanza_Tons_and_Gigs_...

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago

Also see also: http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html

https-bot 6y ago
https://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html https://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html is the HTTPS version of http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html http://www.ittnnet.com/downloads/downloads.html you used that also works and with 100.00 similarity on their contents. (I'm a bot, see https://github.com/fishy/https-bot https://github.com/fishy/https-bot for source code)