Spreadsheet Wars

Excel now dominates the spreadsheet world, but once upon a time there was actual competition among spreadsheet products. This program looks at Quattro 1.0, Allways 1.0, Lotus 1-2-3 3.0, Ashton-Tate's Full Impact, and Excel 2.1. Guests include Gary Kildall, Jan Lewis, and Jared Taylor of PC Magazine. Originally broadcast in 1988.

This item is part of the collection: Computer Chronicles

Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: spreadsheets; excel; lotus

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

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Reviewer: Mike.V - - April 28, 2006
Subject: Why Microsoft Dominates the PC Industry

I think this episode is a great example of why Microsoft came to dominate the PC software industry. Their demonstration of Excel, with its pixel graphics, mouse support and windowing capabilities completely blows away the ugly white on blue character-based Lotus 1-2-3. Looking back now, its easy to see why people were so quick to flock to MS products, as they were clearly a generation ahead.

Reviewer: Baroness - - March 14, 2006
Subject: Spreadsheet Wars rule!

As a little piece of IT history, this download is thoroughly worthwhile. As a teaching tool it goes through all the fundamental reasons why you would want to use a spreadsheet application.