Re: The enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel

rbowman wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

On Mon, 28 Oct 2024 10:24:46 -0400, DFS wrote:
>

"‘I grew up with it’: readers on the enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel

>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel#Early_history
>
I sure as hell didn't grow up with it...

I remember Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc. Then the Microsoft copycats came along.

    Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in
    1982. Multiplan became very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems
    it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft released the first version of
    Excel for the Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and the first Windows
    version was 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) on
    November 19, 1987. Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and
    by the early 1990s, Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft
    achieve its position as a leading PC software developer. This
    accomplishment solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its
    future in developing GUI software. Microsoft maintained its advantage with
    regular new releases, every two years or so.

--
No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain.  All I'm after is
just a mediocre brain, something like the president of American Telephone
and Telegraph Company.
-- Alan Turing on the possibilities of a thinking machine, 1943.