The Proxomitron: An Introduction (2004)

In addition to all the cool things that others have said in this thread, Proxomitron was my first interaction with a 'weird' license, and going down that rabbit hole helped inform my understanding of software, business, and the world:

https://proxomitron.info/45/help/License.html

Wow. This brings back memories. Proxomitron was one of the core pieces of software I’d setup immediately after an OS reinstall. It was also my first real introduction to understanding how packets get routed and html worked.

Prox was invaluable. I never could write good filters myself but there was a small group on its forum that did a lot of heavy lifting. Tragic that its creator died so young.

I wonder if something like it will come back if ad blocking at the browser level is pessimized by Google and others.

Edit: The website still exists at https://www.proxomitron.info/

So much nostalgia here. Arguably one of the late-90s/early-2000s programs that helped me get into software development, as it offered immediate rewards (ad-blocking or re-styling of favorite sites) in exchange for some modest not-too-technical experimentation.

Yep, used proximitron for adblocking for many years, then switched to admuncher (system-wide low-level adblocking for Windows) and then to uBlock Origin for browsers in conjunction with AdGuard Home DNS-based adblocking for my entire LAN.

Proximitron worked great for its time, though.

Shame about the author, it was a great little program to use.