
The Methuselah of Software Packages? - jwilliams
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/the-methuselah-of-software-packages/
======
jhancock
In August, I purchased Mavis Beacon Teaches typing from Broderbund. It the
worst e-commerce experience I can recall.

Let me share a few things I experienced:

Their commerce partner charged me twice. I was able to catch this as they sent
me two charge confirmation emails. I decided it wasn't worth my time to
collect a double charge for $20.

The check out process automatically added an extra up-sell item to my final
check out and if I wasn't being careful enough to remove the item, I would
have paid more. They also added state tax to what was a download only order. I
don't see that too often. I had to put in a U.S. address to match my credit
card, but I didn't buy from the U.S., I made the purchase from Shanghai.

After I purchased, they sent me a download instructions. This email directs me
to create an account at their site and follow more instructions which ends up
letting you download a file in Stuff-it format. The stuff-it file is 91.1 MB.
After you download, you have to go register with Smith Micro to download their
free version of Stuff-it. But there's a catch. You have to give them your
email to download the free extractor and it isn't easy to figure out how to
get the free version as they try to sell you the deluxe version. Now I
regularly get spam from Smith Micro.

So once your done and you extract the Mavis Beacon program from the 91.1 MB
stuff-it file, you end up with a 92.3M app directory. Not too much compression
going on here.

And in the end, all I can say is, this program is ancient.

~~~
donw
You could have also Googled a bit and found a program called "The Unarchiver",
which will handle StuffIt files on OSX.

Now if anybody has a Mac-compatible program that will play RealMedia files,
yet isn't RealPlayer, I'd be really happy...

~~~
ars
<http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html>

Plays pretty much everything.

~~~
donw
Except for RealMedia; I've tried.

------
helveticaman
Damn, I'm amazed. This is one of the very few computer-related things I
remember from when I was a kid.

~~~
jwilliams
Same... I remember printing out certificates and other artistic masterpieces
using a daisy-chained 9 pin printer. Wild days.

------
chairface
> Can anyone think of a software package — or anything else, really — that
> proudly displays a version number higher than 23?

Well, there's Emacs.

------
wmf
I'm equally surprised that the Broderbund name still exists; last I heard they
were called Ubisoft. According to Wikipedia it's had a twisty life:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%B8derbund>

------
imgabe
AutoCAD is also up to 23 official releases (and countless spin off software
packages) Though they've long since abandoned putting the release number in
the name.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocad>

