4 ms·

A remnant of simpler times. Foobar and VLC, any other software that has always worked and remained pretty much the same?

by a0123 2y ago

tvshtr 2y ago
VLC is getting a a major UI overhaul, it's pretty much finished actually and should be released soon.
imiric 2y ago
> A remnant of simpler times. I think it has more to do with the authors and their principles, and less with the times. There are plenty of counterexamples from that era: all major browsers, the Sonique audio player (which I loved for the UI novelty), Winamp itself, etc. > any other software that has always worked and remained pretty much the same? mpv is in that league for me, and it's much more recent. Then, of course, there are very stable CLI and power user software that has existed for decades: Vim, Emacs, BSD and Linux coreutils, etc. Some of these are not necessarily simple under the hood, but I use them because they do one thing well (or in the case of Vim/Emacs as much as I want them to do :)), and I know that they're not going to disappear or drastically change as so many software does.
jolj 2y ago
Total Commander
The_Colonel 2y ago
"simpler" is not how I remember foobar2000. I used to use it (±15 years ago) because of its extreme configurability (e.g. in terms of layout). Configuring foobar2000 felt kind of like building your own music player. YMMV
- defrost 2y ago
  Simple to use, with a smart editable layout configuration for those that chose to go down that rabbit hole. I'm still using it to this day, with little more than an album tree, a playlist window, and an album art thumbnail that optionally all fold away. I've been down the configuration | plugin trail, good fun for those of us that enjoy that kind of thing but it is | was simple and clean from a fresh install.
- totetsu 2y ago
  I started using it again recently and was struck by just how much config I had to do to get it back as I remembered it. It is both annoying and amazing
- piaste 2y ago
  I remember installing some VERY pretty but very complicated setups from deviantart, and then having to fix the inevitable bugs in the panel layout scripts, every one of which was just one right-click away which was extremely cool. IIRC, they were in a sort of PHP-looking scripting language? I had very little coding experience before then, so it was kind of a trip trying to debug why the lyrics panel would freak out under certain scenarios :D
freep1zza 2y ago
mIRC
orthoxerox 2y ago
IrfanView. I tried replacing it several times with something slicker-looking, but no other picture viewer is as fast as IrfanView.
- gbraad 2y ago
  I was a fan of AcdSee, currently using DirectoryOpus, never got close yo the feel as in tbose days... so I get it...
- potamic 2y ago
  Anyone knows what they do different to achieve such speed?
- RunSet 2y ago
  I thought "I doubt it is faster than FastStone" but when I went looking for benchmarks all I could find was this forum post from 2011. https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25334.0 https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25334.0 Which does confirm that Faststone is faster but much water has passed under the bridge since 2011.
  - orthoxerox 2y ago
    That's an interesting benchmark, but I am more interested in a cold start test on a much smaller file (think 2MP, not 1200MP), because that's my usual use case.
    - RunSet 2y ago
      I agree. That is another problem with the benchmark- it gives the gold medal to ACDsee, which in my experience has the longest cold start of the three.
- zecg 2y ago
  The batch editing is also handy
Modified3019 2y ago
Media Player Classic The current actively maintained incarnation I use is https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc Irfanview is another “goes on every desktop install”. I even use it on Linux via wine.

A remnant of simpler times. Foobar and VLC, any other software that has always worked and remained pretty much the same?

by a0123 2y ago

A remnant of simpler times. Foobar and VLC, any other software that has always worked and remained pretty much the same?

tvshtr 2y ago

VLC is getting a a major UI overhaul, it's pretty much finished actually and should be released soon.

imiric 2y ago

> A remnant of simpler times. I think it has more to do with the authors and their principles, and less with the times. There are plenty of counterexamples from that era: all major browsers, the Sonique audio player (which I loved for the UI novelty), Winamp itself, etc. > any other software that has always worked and remained pretty much the same? mpv is in that league for me, and it's much more recent. Then, of course, there are very stable CLI and power user software that has existed for decades: Vim, Emacs, BSD and Linux coreutils, etc. Some of these are not necessarily simple under the hood, but I use them because they do one thing well (or in the case of Vim/Emacs as much as I want them to do :)), and I know that they're not going to disappear or drastically change as so many software does.

jolj 2y ago

Total Commander

The_Colonel 2y ago

"simpler" is not how I remember foobar2000. I used to use it (±15 years ago) because of its extreme configurability (e.g. in terms of layout). Configuring foobar2000 felt kind of like building your own music player. YMMV

defrost 2y ago
Simple to use, with a smart editable layout configuration for those that chose to go down that rabbit hole. I'm still using it to this day, with little more than an album tree, a playlist window, and an album art thumbnail that optionally all fold away. I've been down the configuration | plugin trail, good fun for those of us that enjoy that kind of thing but it is | was simple and clean from a fresh install.
totetsu 2y ago
I started using it again recently and was struck by just how much config I had to do to get it back as I remembered it. It is both annoying and amazing
piaste 2y ago
I remember installing some VERY pretty but very complicated setups from deviantart, and then having to fix the inevitable bugs in the panel layout scripts, every one of which was just one right-click away which was extremely cool. IIRC, they were in a sort of PHP-looking scripting language? I had very little coding experience before then, so it was kind of a trip trying to debug why the lyrics panel would freak out under certain scenarios :D

freep1zza 2y ago

mIRC

orthoxerox 2y ago

IrfanView. I tried replacing it several times with something slicker-looking, but no other picture viewer is as fast as IrfanView.

gbraad 2y ago
I was a fan of AcdSee, currently using DirectoryOpus, never got close yo the feel as in tbose days... so I get it...
potamic 2y ago
Anyone knows what they do different to achieve such speed?
RunSet 2y ago
I thought "I doubt it is faster than FastStone" but when I went looking for benchmarks all I could find was this forum post from 2011. https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25334.0 https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25334.0 Which does confirm that Faststone is faster but much water has passed under the bridge since 2011.
- orthoxerox 2y ago
  That's an interesting benchmark, but I am more interested in a cold start test on a much smaller file (think 2MP, not 1200MP), because that's my usual use case.
  - RunSet 2y ago
    I agree. That is another problem with the benchmark- it gives the gold medal to ACDsee, which in my experience has the longest cold start of the three.
zecg 2y ago
The batch editing is also handy

Modified3019 2y ago

Media Player Classic The current actively maintained incarnation I use is https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc Irfanview is another “goes on every desktop install”. I even use it on Linux via wine.