5 ms·

That’s a name I have not heard in a long while. I used to use it back on Windows 95 because it was a faster way to view JPEGs than opening Internet Explorer. Ev

by donatj 3y ago

That’s a name I have not heard in a long while. I used to use it back on Windows 95 because it was a faster way to view JPEGs than opening Internet Explorer. Everything about that makes me feel old.

101008 3y ago
I opened the link first and I kept a few seconds trying to remember what we had to use to open JPEGs and GIFs back then. Then I read your comment. Right, IE for images. What a fun world we lived on!
- integricho 3y ago
  ACDSee 2.4 and 3.1 were similarly legendary and fast in both startup time and overall performance of image loading.
  - omnibrain 3y ago
    When ACDsee got bloated (and the shareware screen to nagging) I switched to IrfanView.
    - DrSiemer 3y ago
      ACDsee just kept getting worse until it just became unbearable. I did miss the image sorting abilities until I found PhotoSift.
      - integricho 3y ago
        sadly it did, the 3.1 version was the last one that I remember as still not bloated, 4.x was already bad. But up until that, 1.x, 2.x, ..., they were great.
  - therealmarv 3y ago
    Also remember the times... I think ACDsee 2.3.x was a game changer on Windows systems with little memory back in the day... it was so fast and displayed partially on the fly. Btw I use a Mac nowadays and I get strong ACDsee vibes from open-source Phoenix Slides https://blyt.net/phxslides/ https://blyt.net/phxslides/ with browsing through images with the mouse-wheel ;)
AlienRobot 3y ago
>I used to use it back on Windows 95 because it was a faster way to view JPEGs than opening Internet Explorer. That's an amazing sentence. We should frame it and put it in a museum. Actually someone should make a book filled just with quotes like this, call it "Life Before the Gigahertz" or something.
- necubi 3y ago
  I see so many comments these days bemoaning how slow modern software has gotten, but no one seems to remember/have been alive for the time when just rendering an image would take multiple seconds. Just goes to show that our expectations scale with the available technology.
  - muxator 3y ago
    And now decoding a jpeg takes the blink of an eye, but we wait five seconds for a widget to render. When it does, we click somewhere else, because in that exact moment the layout was reflown.
  - bdhcuidbebe 3y ago
    i remember watching images download and how relevant progressive rendering was. blurry shapes!
- Terr_ 3y ago
  News quotes followed by a link to an audio file that discloses its length and probable (larger) time to download.
bitwize 3y ago
Everybody was down with either IrfanView or ACDSee to look at their collection of uudecoded por--er, photographic human figure studies they got off USENET.
Semaphor 3y ago
Still a part of the standard software I install on every new install.
- cellularmitosis 3y ago
  As an only occasional windows user, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing such a list, maybe in a GitHub gist if you find yourself bored one day :)
  - throwup238 3y ago
    Not the OP but I use a subset of the software available on https://ninite.com/ https://ninite.com/ (IrfanView included)
    - Semaphor 3y ago
      Used to use that as well, but the selection was too limited for me, so I first switched to chocolatey, and nowadays, winget. This way I can install almost everything I want with one command. I'll post my list tomorrow when I'm back on my PC.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  - nolok 3y ago
    Each their own, that's mine. Note that this is not a tech user or developper list, but the list of what I install on any new windows pc, including those at work etc ... 7zip (open any archive) VLC (open any audio/video file) IrfanView (+ the "all plugins" installer on the same page, open any picture file) SumatraPDF (read PDFs) Libreoffice (to open any office files) NAPS2 (easy scan, and split/merge/... PDFs) Ditto (give your clipboard a memory) Everything (an instant file search that works) TeraCopy (replace windows copy with queue, queues, add files to the queue instead of starting a second parallel copy, pause that works, ...) Powertoys (so many to list ... mass rename file easily, screen ruler, text extractor ...) If it's appropriate : Qbittorent (clean torrent client) Nvidia graphic card ? NVCleaninstall, so you can install just the clean driver you need Windows 10 or 11 ? O&O Shut Up (to disable all the telemetry and onedrive in one click, there are plenty alternatives but I sort of like this one) Windows 11 ? ExplorerPatcher to remove suggestions in the start menu and the new and terrible castrated contextual menu And of course your browser of choice and extensions In ten minutes you have a computer that feels much more smart and usable. There are plenty of great software out there, but I feel like many what to install lists are very topical or include software you won't use in many cases or once every 6 months, so this is my short list of what you will use essentially every time you use the computer.

by donatj 3y ago

101008 3y ago

I opened the link first and I kept a few seconds trying to remember what we had to use to open JPEGs and GIFs back then. Then I read your comment. Right, IE for images. What a fun world we lived on!

integricho 3y ago
ACDSee 2.4 and 3.1 were similarly legendary and fast in both startup time and overall performance of image loading.
- omnibrain 3y ago
  When ACDsee got bloated (and the shareware screen to nagging) I switched to IrfanView.
  - DrSiemer 3y ago
    ACDsee just kept getting worse until it just became unbearable. I did miss the image sorting abilities until I found PhotoSift.
    - integricho 3y ago
      sadly it did, the 3.1 version was the last one that I remember as still not bloated, 4.x was already bad. But up until that, 1.x, 2.x, ..., they were great.
- therealmarv 3y ago
  Also remember the times... I think ACDsee 2.3.x was a game changer on Windows systems with little memory back in the day... it was so fast and displayed partially on the fly. Btw I use a Mac nowadays and I get strong ACDsee vibes from open-source Phoenix Slides https://blyt.net/phxslides/ https://blyt.net/phxslides/ with browsing through images with the mouse-wheel ;)

AlienRobot 3y ago

>I used to use it back on Windows 95 because it was a faster way to view JPEGs than opening Internet Explorer. That's an amazing sentence. We should frame it and put it in a museum. Actually someone should make a book filled just with quotes like this, call it "Life Before the Gigahertz" or something.

necubi 3y ago
I see so many comments these days bemoaning how slow modern software has gotten, but no one seems to remember/have been alive for the time when just rendering an image would take multiple seconds. Just goes to show that our expectations scale with the available technology.
- muxator 3y ago
  And now decoding a jpeg takes the blink of an eye, but we wait five seconds for a widget to render. When it does, we click somewhere else, because in that exact moment the layout was reflown.
- bdhcuidbebe 3y ago
  i remember watching images download and how relevant progressive rendering was. blurry shapes!
Terr_ 3y ago
News quotes followed by a link to an audio file that discloses its length and probable (larger) time to download.

bitwize 3y ago

Everybody was down with either IrfanView or ACDSee to look at their collection of uudecoded por--er, photographic human figure studies they got off USENET.

Semaphor 3y ago

Still a part of the standard software I install on every new install.

cellularmitosis 3y ago
As an only occasional windows user, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing such a list, maybe in a GitHub gist if you find yourself bored one day :)
- throwup238 3y ago
  Not the OP but I use a subset of the software available on https://ninite.com/ https://ninite.com/ (IrfanView included)
  - Semaphor 3y ago
    Used to use that as well, but the selection was too limited for me, so I first switched to chocolatey, and nowadays, winget. This way I can install almost everything I want with one command. I'll post my list tomorrow when I'm back on my PC.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- nolok 3y ago
  Each their own, that's mine. Note that this is not a tech user or developper list, but the list of what I install on any new windows pc, including those at work etc ... 7zip (open any archive) VLC (open any audio/video file) IrfanView (+ the "all plugins" installer on the same page, open any picture file) SumatraPDF (read PDFs) Libreoffice (to open any office files) NAPS2 (easy scan, and split/merge/... PDFs) Ditto (give your clipboard a memory) Everything (an instant file search that works) TeraCopy (replace windows copy with queue, queues, add files to the queue instead of starting a second parallel copy, pause that works, ...) Powertoys (so many to list ... mass rename file easily, screen ruler, text extractor ...) If it's appropriate : Qbittorent (clean torrent client) Nvidia graphic card ? NVCleaninstall, so you can install just the clean driver you need Windows 10 or 11 ? O&O Shut Up (to disable all the telemetry and onedrive in one click, there are plenty alternatives but I sort of like this one) Windows 11 ? ExplorerPatcher to remove suggestions in the start menu and the new and terrible castrated contextual menu And of course your browser of choice and extensions In ten minutes you have a computer that feels much more smart and usable. There are plenty of great software out there, but I feel like many what to install lists are very topical or include software you won't use in many cases or once every 6 months, so this is my short list of what you will use essentially every time you use the computer.