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Comment by mikecoles | Hacker News Reader

The article mentions 'Terminate'. That software was a joy to use.

https://web.archive.org/web/19980627010642/http://www.termin...

Checking up on other old favorites such as BitchX/irssi and slrn, I found they're still being developed:

slrn --- NNTP/spool-based Usenet newsreader last updated: 2023-03-18T04:31:51 [UTC] repository: git://git.jedsoft.org/git/slrn.git tarfile: slrn-pre1.0.4-9.tar.gz ( size: 1563860 bytes; md5: f193d983e104a82ef4fd70b1037f8b60 ) github: https://github.com/jedsoft/slrn

https://github.com/BitchX/BitchX1.3

https://irssi.org/2023/03/31/irssi-1.4.4-released/

I'm using irssi right now! There are still active irc communities.

IRC is still alive. I have irssi on a monitor on the side all the time, both for friends and work.

IRC is not as big as it used to be, but at its highest it was mainstream even for computer illiterates.

I still use slrn. In the old days, I used tin! Also, I use mutt for one of my old email accounts (used to use elm...)

I use SLRN daily.

Yeah, Terminate was a big step up from Telix. Wow that takes me back.

I used both of those, as well as ProComm Plus (PCPLUS.EXE). Thanks for the trip down memory lane!!!

I used all those as well. But I also learned that many experts on the BBSes use Commo. I'm too young to appreciate complexity of Commo at that time.

Oh wait. There's Telemate as well. My all time favorite.

Commo and TeleMate!! That's right! I think I just found my long lost brother! :-) Thanks again. (And yes, TeleMate was my favorite too. I remember it came on 4 x 1.44MB floppies and had a kick-ass scripting language. It was all about the macros and automation back then!)

Wow. I miss those days. Back when life was simple. I really wish my kids could experience working with TSR dos programs, and being intentional of what you are trying to do with a computer. Every k mattered back then.

The swiss knife of BBSing... it even had a Cost Manager that I used, so my parents won't kill me because of high phone bills.

I even remember its creator’s name: Bo Bendsten. I hope he’s doing okay.

I tried to track him down a few years ago so I could register my (previously pirated) copy of terminate. I figured better late than never. But I couldn’t find him.

I recall that there were some shenanigans with the sale of the company. I think there’s some messages floating around on newsgroups and around the place about it. I found this https://paste.ee/p/Z0ywP

Interesting. Thanks for the link. I remember using a Russian clone called “Terminator” which looked way more polished than Terminate, but don’t know if it’s related to this controversy.

EDIT: Oh! I found it and installed it from https://www.sac.sk/files.php?d=3&l= . Apparently, Terminator isn't a Russian clone like I remembered, but actually the successor to Terminate written by George Collins.

Wow! I had no idea about Terminator! It would be fascinating to hear about what happened from Bo's perspective.

edit: this thread has some more info https://groups.google.com/g/comp.dcom.modems/c/JdOtiDGCV3Y

There's one person in the thread who is skeptical that Bo was in the wrong!

Well, that was a rabbit hole to go in. I see that Bo had made no attempt to explain the situation to his followers over the years which isn't in his favor.

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