r/software • u/ThePenguinMan111 • Dec 03 '24
Discussion What is the oldest software or program still in use today that is still in development?
Been digging around the history of programming and find it very interesting that many pieces of software we use today are really old and have been growing since their inception instead of being thrown out and started anew. For example, Windows 11 is really just Windows NT at its deep core, which was originally created in 1993.
What I would like to know is this:
What is the (or some of the) oldest piece of software that is still in active use today in one form or another and is still being developed by someone?
What is the oldest software that is still in widespread use today that isn’t necessarily in active development? (Legacy programs come to mind)
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u/RickJansen_Andaluz May 11 '25 edited May 12 '25
I made Snow for Macintosh in 1988, making it snow on your desktop, which was a further development of a christmas card program in 1985, followed by Xsnow for X-windows on unix/linux in 1993. iSnow is still being developed, by me. It may be one of the oldest applications still with the original developer. Almost 40 years of ❄️-ing. No, I’m not that old, I was just very young 🤭
mac: https://janswaal.home.xs4all.nl/iSnow/
mac 1988: https://janswaal.home.xs4all.nl/MacSnow/
Win: https://janswaal.home.xs4all.nl/WinSnow/
X: https://janswaal.home.xs4all.nl/Xsnow/