What very old/unmaintained software do you still use today, and why?
I still use Font Renamer to manage my font collection. It works great but hasn't received an update since 2008. Even the website looks straight out of the Windows XP era.
I used Winamp all the way up until last year at which point I finally sold my gaming PC and switched over to Mac + PlayStation. Out of everything on my PC I probably miss Winamp the most!
MP3Gain, the latest stable version was released in 2005 and I've been using it since then. It adjusts the volume level of MP3s using ReplayGain so that you don't have to change the volume between tracks. There may be newer software out there that does the same thing, but MP3Gain is free/open source and it works fine for my needs. I still maintain a library of MP3s, partly because my car is too old to do Carplay/Android Auto, but it can play MP3s from a USB drive.
I like to post to my WordPress blog from my desktop, so I use Open Live Writer. It's allow me the option to write without being connected to the Internet. I doubt it still in development.
RPG Maker XP was released in 2004, nearly 20 years ago, and yet the entire Pokemon fan game community uses it exclusively. Pokemon Essentials, by far the best framework for creating fan games, is written for it, and is still maintained to this day. It's such a large complicated project, with a huge ecosystem of plugins and resources, that it's impractical to migrate to the newer RPG Maker software that has been released since.
Pokémon Reborn has been one of the best Pokémon fangames I've enjoyed. Never thought I'd see the day it was completed, but it was last year. It supports wondertrade, online battles, trading and more, and has custom terrain effects.
I got lucky and was able to buy YNAB on Steam nearly 10 years ago for as much as they're charging now for a single month of their subscription. Manually exporting/importing transactions can be a little tedious sometimes but in comparison there's no way I could justify that high of a subscription cost
"This tool uses a sunburst chart to display the usage of your hard disk or other media. The chart shows all major files and folders from all directory levels at once."
In a previous life I did the occasional custom home theater remote control program job. Like Harmony, but better (I think). Anyway, my personal remote is a 20 year old remote with programming software from the same era.
The connection to the pc to upload the program is a serial Jack. My small form factor pc doesn’t have room for a permanent serial card, so I use a serial to usb adapter that’s 15 or so years old.
I’ve got the drivers for all of this stuff tucked away in multiple backups, alongside .txt files with notes on how to get it all going again, when, like this week, I add new gear and need to tweak the remote.
My dad insisted on using CARDFILE.EXE from Windows 3.1 up until he switched to a MacBook in 2010 or so. I still have the data file somewhere.
Gotta admit tho, it was one of the most useful applications that came with a PC back in the late 80s/early 90s. My folks put everything into that thing. They probably had about 350 cards!
I have an old cardfile file I created during University for all my contacts. I've lost touch with almost everyone I hung around then but it's nice to keep it for the memories.
Nikon Capture NX2 for editing raw nikon files. Can't beat it. I've never really understood light room and importing photos. But the colour control points in NX2 were and are fantastic.
There are a number of really good plugins I've bought for it too.
Unironically this. I'm always itching for Vim keybinds now. I have a plugin for Firefox and DBeaver. I even got Vim keybinds and modals in my terminal lol nothing is safe.
It's probably a bit newer than you mean, but I still use Cantata as my music player. Using mpd as the backend has some nice benefits, and I like the UI. I do build it with a patch to tweak the track art handling, though.
Up until recently I was using FreeCap, which is a SOCKS5 wrapper, to allow me to connect to my home stuff from work (via an SSH tunnel). They didn't allow VPNs but were cool with me doing that. My new job doesn't allow those kind of shenanigans, so I guess it's retired for the time being.
It's only old by the standards of phone apps, but I use a tricorder app from 2013 that got taken down by paramount for IP infringing. It presents more or less raw data from phone sensors in an LCARS interface.
It remains on my computer since 1998 so I don't need to learn any new tools.
Mostly kidding...but to be honest, I have just never had any need to try any other tool...it works perfectly for what I need to do (multi-tracking, sequencing, mixing). There's almost nothing I would want it to do that it doesn't...so I just stick with it.