{"slug": "office-97", "name": "Office 97", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.462, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-02-02", "latest": "2026-06-18", "why": "I use Office 97 for this reason, it's like 400mb installed and everything happens instantly.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use Office 97 for this reason, it's like 400mb installed and everything happens instantly.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Office 97"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 777437536, "item_id": 48589846, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589846", "by": "thot_experiment", "date": "2026-06-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Office 97 for this reason, it's like 400mb installed and everything happens instantly.", "excerpt": "I use Office 97 for this reason, it's like 400mb installed and everything happens instantly. Grab a copy off archive.org!", "context": "", "use_case": "office suite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 755228610, "item_id": 47201788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201788", "by": "linguae", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98/2000, Office 97, and Visual Basic 6.", "excerpt": "Steve Jobs is famous for his 1996 quote about Microsoft not having taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOzGI4MqSU). I disagree; as much as I love the classic Mac OS and Jobs-era Mac OS X, and despite my feelings about Microsoft's monopolistic behavior, 1995-2000 Microsoft's user interfaces were quite tasteful, in my opinion, and this was Microsoft's most tasteful period. I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}, {"id": 750573025, "item_id": 46910814, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46910814", "by": "fuzzfactor", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Then installing Office 97 added another 85MB and I was in business.", "excerpt": "I used to uninstall unneeded items and delete useless folders, go without swap, and Windows 95 did everything I could ask for at only 35MB of storage space on the HDD. Then installing Office 97 added another 85MB and I was in business.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MenuetOS \u2013 a GUI OS that boots from a single floppy disk"}, {"id": 749876624, "item_id": 46867289, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46867289", "by": "tombert", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It baffles me how usable Office 97 still.", "excerpt": "> Computers have been powerful enough for productivity tasks for 20 years It baffles me how usable Office 97 still. I was playing with it recently in a VM to see if it worked as well as I remembered, and it was amazing how packed with features it is considering it's nearing on thirty. There's no accounting for taste but I prefer the old Office UI to the ribbon, there's a boatload of formatting options for Word, there", "context": "", "use_case": "Office productivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Floppinux \u2013 An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["office suite", "office productivity"], "compared": [{"slug": "windows-9x", "name": "Windows 9x", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584207", "title": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200904", "title": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46867526", "title": "MenuetOS \u2013 a GUI OS that boots from a single floppy disk", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46866544", "title": "Floppinux \u2013 An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 777437536, "item_id": 48589846, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589846", "by": "thot_experiment", "date": "2026-06-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Office 97 for this reason, it's like 400mb installed and everything happens instantly.", "excerpt": "I use Office 97 for this reason, it's like 400mb installed and everything happens instantly. Grab a copy off archive.org!", "context": "", "use_case": "office suite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 755228610, "item_id": 47201788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201788", "by": "linguae", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98/2000, Office 97, and Visual Basic 6.", "excerpt": "Steve Jobs is famous for his 1996 quote about Microsoft not having taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOzGI4MqSU). I disagree; as much as I love the classic Mac OS and Jobs-era Mac OS X, and despite my feelings about Microsoft's monopolistic behavior, 1995-2000 Microsoft's user interfaces were quite tasteful, in my opinion, and this was Microsoft's most tasteful period. I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}, {"id": 750573025, "item_id": 46910814, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46910814", "by": "fuzzfactor", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Then installing Office 97 added another 85MB and I was in business.", "excerpt": "I used to uninstall unneeded items and delete useless folders, go without swap, and Windows 95 did everything I could ask for at only 35MB of storage space on the HDD. Then installing Office 97 added another 85MB and I was in business.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MenuetOS \u2013 a GUI OS that boots from a single floppy disk"}, {"id": 749876624, "item_id": 46867289, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46867289", "by": "tombert", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It baffles me how usable Office 97 still.", "excerpt": "> Computers have been powerful enough for productivity tasks for 20 years It baffles me how usable Office 97 still. I was playing with it recently in a VM to see if it worked as well as I remembered, and it was amazing how packed with features it is considering it's nearing on thirty. There's no accounting for taste but I prefer the old Office UI to the ribbon, there's a boatload of formatting options for Word, there", "context": "", "use_case": "Office productivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Floppinux \u2013 An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition"}]}