An entire era is disappearing into oblivion. The software distribution portal Tucows Downloads, launched 28 years ago, has been closed forever. The portal was 4 and 5 years older than the search engines Google and Yandex, respectively. But it's his time to go into retirement.
The portal is a file storage where tens of thousands of free and shareware applications for Windows, Linux and macOS were posted in the public domain. In most cases, the programs were downloaded by the developers. The distribution of pirated and cracked software was not welcomed on the site. Now the portal is closed, but fortunately, his legacy remains with us. In the article, we tell a brief history of the site and reveal the reasons for the closure.
Why close the historical portal?
Tucows Downloads is owned by Tucows . The company is now the second largest domain name registrar after GoDaddy . Tucows is also the largest wholesale domain registrar in the world. The company said that the closure of the portal is due to the desire to focus on the development of the main and priority business areas. There are many well-known companies among Tucows clients, including Shopify.
The decision looks logical, since the behavior model of users who now do not enter the portal has also changed. To install software, in most cases, developer sites and application stores, such as the App Store and Play Store, are used.
According to CEO Elliot Noss, Tucows' downloads are already "too old". In addition, old sites are always a maintenance problem and certain risks.
Almost analog start
Tucows Downloads came from a Bulletin Board (BBS) with shareware applications. The board was run on a computer at the local library in Flint, Michigan. The population of the city at that time was about 110 thousand people.
Tucows is an abbreviation of The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software and it sounds like two cows. Therefore, the portal logo depicts two cow heads.
Low competition contributed to the rapid development of the portal. At the turn of the century, there weren't enough aggregator sites. Therefore, one way or another, everyone came to Tucows Download. Everything changed in the 10s of the 21st century. The explosive growth of technologies and Internet resources began. The need for the site has dropped to almost zero. But because of their love for her, the Tucows team did not dare to close the portal forever.
The project team has been thinking about consigning the site to oblivion since 2016 . But she perceived it as part of the national treasure. For sentimental reasons, it did not close it , but transferred it into the national treasure, appropriating the role of a public service. They did not make money on the project, they only financed its maintenance.
Now a clear vision of the further development path has appeared, so the people involved in maintaining the software distributor will be engaged in the main and core projects for the company.
Eternal data
At the moment, most of the software previously available to Tucows Downloads, transferred to the Internet Archive (Internet Archive).
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that, like a digital library, collects various kinds of materials and software. They promise users archiving and free access to data. The main goal of the Internet Archive is to preserve cultural and historical value in the digital era. As of the end of March 2019, the archive size was 45 petabytes.
