Hi Brian,
While searching the forum today, I got results going back 20 years. This made me curious to ask... what was the date and version number of the first release?
Are there any particular milestones of note that perhaps those of us who haven't been around since the beginning might find interesting?
Best wishes for the holiday season and for 2026!
Hey Todd!
AbsoluteTelnet/SSH first came out as a telnet-only terminal emulator around 1996, around two years after I graduated with a computer engineering degree from Auburn University. I didn't record dates for a lot of the very early versions. After all, it was only a pet project that I wrote for myself and shared with a few friends. SSH1 was added around 2001 and SSH2 later that same year. And it's grown into what it is today because of input from a lot of fans like you!
Fun facts:
-   The multicolored 'Celestial Software' logo in the about box was drawn in crayon by my son Chris when he was 3 or 4 years old. He's now 31 and has a 2 year old and 5 year old of his own. 🙂
-   The spinning cube in the about box was adapted from 3d rendering code I wrote when I wanted to be a game developer. I've been carting it around ever since.
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I hope you've enjoyed your holidays! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!!!
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I've been using AT at work pretty much daily since 2002! (in spite of occasional pressure to use putty during corporate periods). Shoutout to Brian Pence for being amazingly responsive to the rare issues I've encountered. Speaking of nostalgia (or the opposite) I especially appreciate the tabbed interface, I couldn't live without that. I think there wasn't sftp in the beginning though that is rather lost in the mists of time.
@bpence Wow, AT will turn 30 this year. That is amazing! That's cool to know your son Chris contributed artwork to this program. I've often wondered about that 3D cube's inspiration. Now we know the story behind both. 😀
