Microsoft Office (1991) 354 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Publishing PIM Database Windows MacOS

Microsoft Office is a bundle of Microsoft's productivity application. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and later Mail, Office Manager, and Outlook. The "1.x" versions of Microsoft Office were simply a marketing bundle of the standalone products sold together with no other packaging changes. Even though these were distinct applications, rather than one single monolithic program, they shared a similar user interface, integrated well together and shared the ability to embed documents from one application in the documents of another.

• 2.x
• 4.3
• 97/98
• 2001 (Mac)

Mac OS X (1997) 342 MacOS

MacOS X was Apple's replacement for their classic MacOS. MacOS X is based on NeXTSTEP, a Unix-based OS. The first consumer release also featured a new user interface appearance called "Aqua". | 1.x-6.x | 7.x | 8.x | 9.x | MacOS X | All |

• Rhapsody
• Developer Previews
• Server 1.0
• 10.0
• 10.1
• 10.2

Mac OS 9 (1999) 214 MacOS

Mac OS 9.x, based on Mac OS 8 was the final product based on the classic MacOS architecture. Like previous version, it lacks true protected memory or pre-emptive multitasking. MacOS 9 was abandoned in favor of of the Unix-ish NextStep/Openstep based Mac OS X. | 1.x-6.x | 7.x | 8.x | 9.x | MacOS X | All |

• 9.0
• 9.1
• 9.2

Internet Explorer (1995) 186 Web Browser Windows MacOS Unix Mac OS X

Microsoft Internet Explorer is a web browser application created by Microsoft primarily for Microsoft Windows. It was initially based on Spyglass Mosaic. At various points, Internet Explorer was also available for MacOS, Solaris, and HP-UX.

• 2
• 4
• 5

Mac OS 7 (1991) 117 MacOS

Mac OS 7 was a major change from the earlier System Software, introducing integrated multitasking, a revamped desktop, networking, and transitioning the name from "Macintosh System Software" To "MacOS'. It was followed by MacOS 8.x. | 1.x-6.x | 7.x | 8.x | 9.x | MacOS X | All |

• 7.0
• 7.1
• 7.5
• 7.6

WordPerfect (1983) 111 Word Processor Other MacOS Unix Linux

During the late 1980's, WordPerfect was THE standard word processor for DOS based PCs in big business. Under DOS, it competed mostly against Wordstar. WordPerfect for Windows enjoyed some success in the early Windows environments, but was quickly displaced by Microsoft Word for Windows. Later Windows versions were part of Borland Office/Novell PerfectOffice/Corel Office/Corel WordPerfect Office.

• 4.1 (Amiga)
• 1.x (Mac)
• 2.x (Mac)
• 3.x (Mac)
• 8.x (Unix)

Adobe Acrobat (1993) 107 Publishing MacOS Windows Unix

Adobe Acrobat, first released in 1993, is a tool for creating portable electronic documents. Its documents retain complex formatting when used across differing systems, so that they appear identical when viewed on screen or printed to a printer. Acrobat accomplishes this by encapsulating Adobe's PostSript printer language in to a document file format and offering the ability to embed fonts that are not present on the target system.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Microsoft Word (1983) 105 Word Processor MacOS DOS Windows

The Microsoft Word word processor was first introduced for MS-DOS in 1983. Its design made use of a mouse and WYSIWYG graphics. Its crude WYSIWYG/mouse support was a direct response to the Apple Lisa/Mac, and VisiCorp Visi On. Initially it competed against many popular word processors such as WordStar, Multimate, and WordPerfect. Word for DOS was never really successful.

• 1.x (Mac)
• 3.x (Mac)
• 4.0 (Mac)
• 5.x (Mac)
• 6.x

System Software (0-6) (1983) 104 MacOS

In 1984 Apple Computer unveiled their Macintosh. It included a new user interface that revolutionized the way people though about computer interaction. Originally referred to as simply "Macintosh System", the underlying OS was a single-tasking disk system for the Motorola 68K CPU. Significant changes were made in MacOS 7.x. | 1.x-6.x | 7.x | 8.x | 9.x | MacOS X | All |

• Pre-Release
• System 1.x
• System 2.x
• System 3.x
• System 4.x
• System 5.x
• System 6.x

Encarta (1993) 97 Reference Windows MacOS

Microsoft Encarta was a home oriented interactive encyclopedia that was often sold with new OEM machines. Unlike a paper encyclopedia, Encarta took full advantage of being on a computer, with updates from the Internet, sound clips and movies, interactive charts and games, and good navigation.

• 1995
• 1997

Mac OS 8 (1994) 96 MacOS

Apple Mac OS 8 was another major overhaul of the OS from the earlier Mac OS 7. It added a new Platinum visual theme, a multi threaded Finder, better virtual memory, and many customization options. 8.5 and later require a PPC CPU. It was followed up by Mac OS 9. | 1.x-6.x | 7.x | 8.x | 9.x | MacOS X | All |

• Copland
• 8.0
• 8.2 Beta
• 8.1
• 8.5
• 8.6
• 8.7 Beta

Microsoft Works (1986) 95 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database MacOS Windows

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 1.x (Mac)
• 3.x (Mac)
• 4.0

FoxPro (1990) 92 DOS Windows MacOS Unix

FoxPro, originally from Fox Software and later Microsoft, is a relational database that clones the functionality of dBase IV, but offers vast speed improvements. It was based on Fox Software's FoxBASE (a dBASE II clone) and FoxBASE+ (a dBase III Plus clone). It adds a new mac-like user interface that was first developed for FoxBASE+/Mac.

• 2.5
• 2.6

Borland Turbo Pascal (1983) 85 MacOS

Borland Turbo Pascal is a Pascal programming language compiler with an Integrated Development Environment targeted at the hobbyist and entry-level market. There were versions for CP/M and DOS. For a time, it was sold along side their professional "Borland Pascal" product line. Borland also produced a set of "toolbox" libraries along side their earlier versions.

• 1.x (Mac)

Red Hat Linux (1997) 81 Linux

Red Hat Linux was a popular early Linux distribution, that was made available as a boxed set available in stores.

• 5.0

Norton Utilities (1983) 80 Utility MacOS

The Norton Utilities is a suite of disk and system utilities designed to enhance system performance and stability. It started off as a set of disk utilities written by Peter Norton, and later was sold by Symantec. It competed against Central Point PC Tools and the Mace Utilities. In 2003, Norton Utilities was merged with Norton SystemWorks, but later split back out.

• 1.0 for Mac
• 2.0 for Mac
• 3.x for Mac
• 4.x for Mac
• 5.0 for Mac
• 6.0 for Mac

BeOS (1995) 80 Other

BeOS was an OS developed to run on the BeBox hardware, a PowerPC based machine. The OS was first released in October 1995 for use on the AT&T Hobbit, and later moved over to the PowerPC platform the next year. A Intel x86 port of the OS began in March 1998 with version R3. The last version released was R5.1 in November 2001 for x86 only. This OS was meant to be used for multimedia applications. It is POSIX compatible but is not a UNIX derived operating system (Windows is actually POSIX complient also).

• Developer Release 1
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 78 Spreadsheet MacOS

Lotus 1-2-3 was an early spreadsheet application available for MS-DOS. It became extremely popular in the late 1980s, displacing the former leader VisiCalc. Lotus had difficulties adapting 1-2-3 to the Windows environment, and was overtaken by Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet functionality was also included in Lotus Symphony. Later versions were included in Lotus SmartSuite.

• 1.x (Mac)

Microsoft BASIC (1981) 75 MacOS

Although Microsoft did not invent BASIC, their founding product was a BASIC interpreter for the Altair computer. The descendants below includes Microsoft's BASIC-80 (MBASIC), BASIC-86 (pre-GWBasic), BASIC for Mac, BASIC Compiler 86/88, Basic Compiler for Mac, and Professional Development System 7.x. IBM Personal Computer Basic Compiler, GW-BASIC, QuickBasic, and Visual Basic are listed separately.

• 1.0 for Mac
• 2.0 for Mac
• 3.0 for Mac
• Compiler 1.0 for Mac

Photoshop (1988) 73 Graphics MacOS Windows

Photoshop is a powerful drawing and photo manipulation program for both Mac and Windows. The Macintosh version was released by Adobe in 1990, although a very small number were bundled with Barneyscan slide scanners prior to that. Photoshop contained many advanced features including layered images, advanced color control, and plug-ins. Prior to its release, many of its features were only found in high end dedicated photo pre-processing systems.

• 0.x (beta)
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

Age of Empires (1997) 73 MacOS

Age of Empires is a civilization simulator strategy game where different empires fight to rule.

• 1.0

After Dark (1989) 69 Novelty MacOS

After Dark, from Berkeley Systems, Inc, is a set of entertaining screen savers for Mac and Windows. After Dark for Windows started off as "Magic Screen Saver" for Windows 2.x. After Dark was most famous for its "Flying Toasters" screen saver. Afterdark was very popular on both the early Macintosh computers and Windows 3.0, as neither included any kind of screen saver or screen blanker that would help prevent screen burn-in.

• 1.0 for Macintosh
• 9

Adobe Illustrator (1988) 68 Graphics MacOS Unix

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. It was often sold as a companion product to the bit-map/photo editor Adobe Photoshop. Illustrator was originally released in 1987 for the Apple Macintosh. Early versions were ported to NexT, Silicon Graphics, and Sun Solaris.

• 3.x
• 5.5

Lindows (2002) 67 Linux

Lindows, later Linspire, was an attempt similar to Corel Linux to put desktop Linux in the hands of the consumer. With a customized KDE 3.x desktop, custom applications borderline cloning the Apple iLife suite, and a primitive "app store," it was intended to be easy to use and fully functional out of the box.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.0.x
• 4.5.x
• 5.x

PageMaker (1987) 63 Publishing Windows MacOS

Aldus PageMaker, later Adobe PageMaker, is a desktop publishing program for Mac and Windows. First released in 1985, PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program for the Macintosh. It was followed over a year later with the release of 1.0 for the IBM PC. The PC version was a notable application as it was one of the few rare applications which would run under Windows 1.x. PC PageMaker 1.0 bundled a runtime version of Windows. This enabled MS-DOS users who had not decided to buy Windows to run PageMaker. Aldus skipped version 2.0 on the PC to bring version number in sync with the 3.0 Mac product.

• 5.0