MaxThink satisfies a need for thinking with a computer that I wrote about 30 years ago and reproduced in a post on September 12, 2009, Time Travel: Musing About MaxThink & More… I invite you to hop back and read the earlier post before continuing.
MaxThink (for DOS) opening screen
I’ve been using computers for about 30 years and in all that time, I’ve only found one program that comes close to the genius of Neil Larson and his old DOS version of MaxThink, the unique and wonderful idea processor, and that’s Brainstorm, a thinking and planning aid program that I used and liked for a few years on my Windows desktop machine. Brainstorm was close but not quite, lacking some of the key features that made MaxThink special.
I began migrating from Windows to Linux almost four years ago and made a complete break over a year ago. I do everything on my Linux Mint 9 Desktop now. Brainstorm runs under Wine but loses some of it’s best features and MaxThink for Windows won’t run at all under Wine (I tried the demo twice last week with no luck), so I’ve installed my old DOS copy of MaxThink94 using DosBox, a DOS emulator created to run old DOS games. MaxThink runs perfectly with DosBox and I couldn’t be happier.
My fingers never leave the keyboard when I’m cranking out ideas and reorganizing them with MaxThink. The keystrokes are intuitive and I was up to speed in a matter of a few days. Not having to use the silly mouse is a huge advantage when you are thinking and typing away.
At first glance, MaxThink is a powerful outliner, but the real power is under the hood. MaxThink came with a fat, printed manual that by some miracle, I still have. Neil’s book is more than a user manual for MaxThink. It’s a well written tutorial on ways of thinking: Evaluative thinking with the Prioritize command, synthesis thinking using Binsort and Randomize to combine information in new ways, curiosity or experimental thinking with the Lock command, systematic thinking using Get, Put and Gather, creative uses of the Sort command, and one of my favorites, segmented lists.
And yes, I end up with a well thought out, complete outline. I can’t print directly, but Neil provides a Write command that saves outlines to an ASCII file that opens in my favorite text editor where I can print the way I prefer anyway.
The journey is everything in creativity and MaxThink makes that journey more productive and pleasant. I created a two and a half page outline mirroring and assisting my writing as I go through lesson three in WritePro. MaxThink helps me to generate new ideas, to discover relationships among ideas, to organize my ideas and to preserve them so I’ll remember and build on the ideas.
The synergy is amazing. Begin a new writing project with an open mind and a blank screen in your editor. Write whatever comes to mind without judging or editing. When you go back for a look, pick out the good stuff, the best ideas and start a MaxThink outline to help organize those insights and discover new ones. Then back to the editor for revisions or a complete re-write. Back and forth between insight and editing until the project is complete. Love the creative journey which is never complete because when one project is finished another beckons.
The Aware Writer 
30 years ago I was in a grad class having been given an assignment to talk about the new computers…I knew nothing then..and I only know enough to get by….Michelle
Computers are simply tools Michelle and we use what we understand and what works for each of us.
John
I have been listening to you preach to me about thinking software and outlines for the better part of the last five years, John. I think I may be to the point where I am willing to try one of these programs. With six large projects only in my head, it may be interesting to see where the computer would take what I have.
Hmmm.
Red.
Preaching Red? Yeah, I suppose I do that at times. If you are juggling projects, you might want to have a look at org-mode for Emacs. Open source and all that. Org-mode is a good outliner with powerful to-do, links to your agenda (within Emacs), etc. Not so good for thinking and brainstorming though. I do most of my writing using org-mode and can publish to Latex or html quite nicely.
John
I really enjoyed your appreciative post. Like you, I have used MaxThink dating back to ’84 or ’85. I use the Windows version now, but DOS was the best experience. I learned an extraordinary amount from Neil’s writings and his manuals, which I’ve applied continuously. I’m using it now to organize a research study I’m doing. Sometimes I think of Larson/MaxThink as the iPod/iTunes of idea processing.
Thank you Stephen. I wish Neil hadn’t gotten tangled up in his long quest to port MaxThink to windows and ported to Linux instead. Not only do I still have the manual, I have the audio tape from Max 91 that I played again a few weeks ago.
I’ve been trying to get some of the functionality of Max into Emacs/org-mode. One of my favorite features of Max is the segmented list. I’ve found a way to make lists rapidly and move text quickly with org-mode. If I could cut and paste between Max and my native Linux programs but it’s not possible. I’ve not given up and if I can’t get MaxThink doing what I need done, I can at least incorporate as much of Larson’s thinking ideas into org-mode.
John
Another one of Larson’s tools I’d like to see ported to Linux is perm. DosBox is OK, but native applications are so much nicer.
I set up a conference call with Neil and one of the CentOS developers to try to persuade him to work on open source version’s of his tools, but it didn’t work 😦
Rick
Hi Rick,
I agree. Native applications are the way to go. Flipping back and forth between MaxThink on DosBox and org-mode is a pain in the butt. I have a license for Brainstorm (since 2006) and it runs OK on Wine, but still crashes. Neil could port to Linux and keep the program closed source — works for me.
I use VueScan for all my photo scanning. I bought one pro license a few years ago when I used VueScan on Windows. Now that I’m 100% Linux, the native version of VueScan runs perfectly on my machine.
I think Neil made a serious mistake when he spent all those years trying to get MaxThink running on windows. I think the windows version sucks.
John
Yep, Unix and Linux have a much richer environment for manipulating text. Maybe I should send Neil a copy of the Unix Philosophy 🙂
I’m still looking for the Holy Grail of a folding editor for Linux that provides most of the movement methods offered by MaxThink.
Rick
I’ve been questing for that Holy Grail. Org-mode is great and I do most of my writing inside org-mode. I found a way to build a list quickly using org-capture and I’m still learning.
Someone who knew what they were doing could probably get a subset of MaxThink functionality running using Perl scripts.
Lately I’ve been evaluating the opensource Hierarchical NoteBook (HNB) outliner. Modifications to the .hnbrc config file allow the end user to change command key bindings. It currently supports a subset of the MaxThink features along with some extensions, like XML i/o. One of the undocumented features is ^G (grab a node) which then allows the arrow keys to move that node around inside the outline. This is roughly equivalent to the MaxThink Lock command.
http://hnb.sourceforge.net/
Something else interesting just turned up. FreeMind can export OPML files which can be read by HNB. Another tool called text-to-freemind can take a tab indented file and convert it into an XML which can be read by FreeMind. This gives us round trip file exchange…
http://uwstopia.nl/geek/projects/text-to-freemind/text-to-freemind.uws/
I know this is an old conversation, but I’ll still take a moment to respond. I’ve been using Maxthink since the late 1980’s. I think I started with Maxthink89. Currently, I run the DOS version in an XP virtual machine on a Win 7 laptop. I did purchase the Windows update (version 2.55) last year, but discovered that I could not install that on a 64 bit OS. So…that also is running under the virtual machine.
But the vast majority of my work is done in the DOS version. As others have stated…it is seamless and so internalized that I don’t have to think to use it. I’m a pastor, and so am doing weekly writing of sermons and meditations. While I’ve managed to do other writing in WORD, and have learned to use its editing and review functions, there is no comparison to the adept handling of concepts and thoughts that I find in MaxThink. I was utterly miserable in the interim period before I got the virtual machine set up and had to do writing of sermons for several weeks in WORD. It just didn’t work well with my thought processes.
I went so far as to purchase and set up another laptop in Win 7 32 bit SOLELY so that I could write and print from MaxThink in native mode! Not sure what I will do when that is no longer an option. I’m still using systems that have parallel ports (the laptop through a legacy docking station) so that I can print directly from Maxthink.
While I no longer manage all my writing from within MaxThink (which was wonderful in itself because of the direct file links available as I organized all my work), the tool is still essential for my work. I’ve had conversation with Neil Larson last year about updating the installation tool for the Windows version so that it would install on a 64 bit system, but don’t know if that has moved forward. At that time, Neil hinted that he was working on some ideas to bring something that looked much more like the DOS version into the Windows environment, but I haven’t seen any steps in that direction.
Again, just affirming this wonderful tool…and wanting to let you know that a few folk in the Windows fold are still managing to make it work!
Thank you Del. Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I’ve migrated my writing back to Windows. I bought a Lenovo T400 ThinkPad loaded with Windows & Pro for $180 because I wanted to play with a laptop and ended up with two computers: My Linux desktop and my Windows Laptop which I have connected to a port replicator and a KVM switch.
I know I started with Max89, then upgraded to Max91 and finally Max94. I tried the windows version a few times. Terrible.
I switched to Brainstorm back in 2006 but got away from the program when I switched to Linux. Now I’m using Brainstorm again because I can run in windows.
Interestingly, MaxThink and BrainStorm come from the same early days of personal computing.
I have difficulties running MaxThink so I’m using BrainStorm now. BrainStorm is an amazing program. I wonder what would have happened had Neil and David (the developer of BrainStorm). The rights and the code to BrainStorm were sold a few years ago and Neil isn’t getting any younger. Who knows what the future might bring.
Hi awarewriter
could you please compare the functionality of MaxThink and Brainstorm, pointing out the pros and cons of each?
Thanks in advance
Zalit
Hi Zalit,
I’ll do just that. Interestingly enough I was using Brainstorm last night to organize a long list. I tried the same list in MaxThink. Now I need to think about what I’ve discovered and write up a comparison. Give me a few days (more or less). Stay tuned.
Hey, what about that review?
I really look forward to it !
I used MaxThink back in the 80’s with great success and then for some reason got away and forgot about it, until now. Where can I get the new version and is it still the great tool it once was? I did run across a posting saying it is a virus-hacking program now. If so, what a shame.
swampninja
I loved MaxThink back in the 80s and 90s and used it all the time. I put it aside when windows came along. I tried the windows version of Max and didn’t like it but you can still get it from the website. From what I know, the posting saying Max is a virus-hacking program is bogus.
I’ve tried a few ways to use the old DOS version, but there are too many hiccups with this route.
I also have a program called Brainstorm which is still available. You might want to try BS. Either way, you get a 30 day no cost trial with no obligation to buy.
Like you, I started using MaxThink around 1983. DOS was the best version. I have been using the Windows version for several years. It works fine, takes a little getting used to, but it’s still an important tool for me. I use it for managing and organizing long lists into categories and subcategories for my research. I make heavy use of Binsort, Prioritize, Levelize, and the features for moving and reassigning topics
I too discovered MaxThink about 30 years ago. Love it. Can’t start a project without it.
I recently discovered DOSBox – and now use Max on my Win7 computer. However, I found DOSBox Turbo emulation program for the Android system. I installed it on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet. But, my bluetooth keyboard doesn’t have F-keys – which Max uses extensively. Are you aware of any ‘modern’ bluetooth keyboards that have F-keys that work with Max? Max would be extraordinarily convenient with a useable keyboard on a tablet
Hi Bob,
I haven’t used MaxThink lately. But I did discover that DOSEMU is much better than DOSBox. I run Linux Mint 17.
I’ve never handled a bluetooth keyboard. I do have two AlphaSmart Neos and an AlphaSmart Dana. I do a lot of writing on one of these then transfer to my main system.
I haven’t been using MaxThink because I do a lot of my planning these days with pen and paper (index cards still work for me). I also have Brainstorm running under Wine. The original developers of Brainstorm sold all the rights, etc. a few years ago. That program dates from the 1980 and cpm. Too bad Neil didn’t buy the rights. The people who did haven’t done a thing except sell it in years.