There is a definitely an element of pure nostalgia from growing up with those programs, but I think there is a bit more to it. For me it evokes memories and fee

There is a definitely an element of pure nostalgia from growing up with those programs, but I think there is a bit more to it. For me it evokes memories and feelings of focus. Just look at all of today's IDEs and note application that offer "distraction free" or "typewriter" modes that are echoing simpler interfaces of old. And as another commenter mentioned, these apps were extremely capable and polished. So when I'd sit down to write my papers in high school, I'd open up WordPerfect and it alone would do everything I needed, and there was literally nothing else running so I just sat down and wrote. I don't achieve that sort of single-task work style very often these days.