Ability (1985) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database DOS

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 1.0
• Demo
• 1.2
• Plus 1.0
• Plus 2.0

Mandrake Linux (1999) 7 Linux

Mandrake Linux was a highly polished and easy to use Linux distribution, originally based on Red Hat Linux with KDE. In 2005, Mandrake Linux became Mandriva.

• 6.5
• 7.0
• 9.0 PowerPack

Tru64 UNIX (1999) 13 Unix

Tru64, formerly Digital UNIX, formerly OSF/1 was DEC's UNIX product for their line of Alpha based systems. After DEC's acquisition by Compaq, it was renamed to Tru64. DEC previously had sold a BSD derivative named Ultrix for Vax and MIPS based systems. Their new UNIX on Alpha was meant to counter AT&T and Sun's SVR4 Unix. Tru64 / DIGITAL UNIX / OSF/1 is somewhat interesting in that it used portions of the Mach microkernel and BSD kernel and userland in a manner not entirely unlike NeXTSTEP or Mac OS X. Like OS X, Tru64 itself is not a microkernel system but uses Mach code in its kernel to implement threading and scheduling and possibly other features.

• 5.0
• 5.1B

Backpack Drivers (2002) 0 DOS Windows

This CD contains device drivers for all Micro Solutions Backpack hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and disk drives as of 2002. Backpack drives were mostly external parallel port connected, and very useful on systems that could not be expanded otherwise.

• 2002

Max Blast (1999) 0 DOS

Max Blast is a utility for setting up Maxtor hard drives. It includes a partitioning tool, BIOS overlay, bad sector re-mapping, and an advanced diagnostic program. It also includes 32-bit mode IDE drivers for Windows 3.1.

• Plus 1.x
• Plus II

Mozilla (2002) 2 Web Browser Windows Linux Mac OS X

Mozilla is an open source web browser based on a rewrite of the Netscape web browser. Netscape Communications Corporation released the source code in 1998 with the intent that it would be used as the core of next Netscape browser. Shortly after the release, Netscape Communications Corporation was acquired by AOL. Mozilla was used for the basis of Netscape 6.x and 7.x. Mozilla (later codenamed SeaMonkey) was eventually reworked and became Firefox.

• 1.x

Microsoft Office (1991) 213 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 9 (1999) 133 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

Adobe Illustrator (1988) 83 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

Photoshop (1988) 64 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

AIX (1986) 33 Unix

AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a Unix port originally developed by IBM and released in 1986 for the IBM RT 6150, a RISC based desktop workstation. It was later ported to the RS/6000, POWER, and PowerPC platforms as well as IBM System i, System/370 mainframes, and the PS/2 personal computers, and the Apple Network Server.

• AIX PS/2
• 3.x
• 4.1.x
• 4.3.x
• 5.1

Breadbox Ensemble (2001) 15 DOS

First released in 2002, Breadbox Ensemble from Breadbox Computer Company, was a commercial office application suite for DOS that was based on GEOS/Geoworks and New Deal Office.

• 4.x

PartitionMagic (1995) 25 Utility DOS Windows

A tool from PowerQuest, and later Symantec, that enables manipulation of partitions through its own bootable media. PartitionMagic can shrink, grow, or move partitions without the need to backup and restore files in that partition. It supported a variety of file systems, and the core DOS-based parition tool fit on a bootable 1.44mb floppy disk. It was extremely popular, and made installing or removing multiple OSes much easier.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

QuickBooks (1993) 6 Financial DOS

First introduced in 1992, QuickBooks from from Intuit, is an easy to use accounting and bookkeeping program targeted at small businesses and accounting novices. It features check writing, accounts payable and receivable, invoices, cash flow forecasting, and reporting. It provides more functionality than the home-user based Quicken.

• 2.x (DOS)

DOS USB Support (2001) 7 DOS

Yes, there are USB drivers for DOS... Miracle-driver from Panasonic Japan does the unthinkable Before you start scratching your head, let me repeat that this is not related to your favorite linux distro's or Windows XP/W2K/98/ME's USB support, this has to do with people like me, booting some flavor of DOS to copy files around or using DOS-based partition back-up software.

• 1.x

Logitech Mouseware (1987) 5 DOS Windows

Logitech mice and pointing devices were popular competition to Microsoft or Microsoft clone mice. Logitech mice often had extra features that required Logitech drivers, and early Logitech mice were not Microsoft or Mouse Systems protocol compatible.

• 3.x
• 4.0
• 6.x
• 7.x
• 8.x

Borland Enterprise Server (2001) 3 Windows Unix

Borland Enterprise Server was Borland's Java EE Application Server. The product was developed in 1999 within the team of former Visigenic company that was acquired by Borland in 1997. Borland's Java Studio was supposed to have BES and JBuilder tightly integrated, but in reality this integration never happened. BES suffered compatibility problems even with Borland's own products (JDataStore, OptimizeIt). The appearance of free commercial grade (and more mature) application servers, like JBoss, made BES unattractive and unable to really compete with the former.

• 5.x

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 55 Spreadsheet DOS Unix 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 (DOS)
• 1A (PCJr Cart)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• Add-ins
• 1.x (Unix)
• 1.x (Mac)
• 4.x (DOS)

New Deal Office (1999) 4 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations DOS

Based on GeoWorks, New Deal Office was a graphical operating environment for DOS which later became Breadbox Ensemble. New Deal adds a Windows-95 like user interface with a task bar and start menu. New Deal Office targeted low-end 386 and 486 computers that were not up to the task of running Windows 95. It was also released in a "WebSuite" edition only includes the internet connectivity and web browsing tools.

• 3.1b
• 3.2a
• 2000

Norton Utilities (1983) 42 Utility DOS Unix 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.

• 2.0x
• 3.00
• 3.10
• 4.0
• 4.5
• For System V
• 1.0 for Mac
• 5.0
• 6.0
• 2.0 for Mac
• 7.0
• 3.x for Mac
• 8.0
• 4.x for Mac
• 5.0 for Mac
• 6.0 for Mac

Sun Solaris (1989) 41 Unix

Solaris is a Unix based operating system created by Sun Microsystems (now purchased by Oracle in 2010). It is the successor to SunOS and was released initially in June of 1992. The OS is based off of System V Unix and its first release was known internally as SunOS 5. This OS was typically used on SPARC based processors, up until 1994 when it began to support x86 and x86-64 based machines. Versions of Solaris up until version 8 are considered abandoned, with version 9's support ending in October 2014.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 7.x
• 8

LapLink (1987) 7 Communications DOS

LapLink, from Traveling Software Inc., enables users to easily and quickly move files between two DOS computers using only a serial null-modem cable or a special parallel port connector. No other hardware is needed. Laplink was extremely popular.during the late 80s and early 90s. It was infinitely easier to set up any two arbitrary PCs (often portables or laptops) with LapLink than other methods, such as DOS based networking. MS-DOS 6 bundled a similar set of file transfer tools called INTERLNK and INTERSVR.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

PhotoDeluxe (1996) 4 Graphics Windows MacOS

Adobe PhotoDeluxe is a simplified photo manipulation tool targeted at novice users. It performs a variety of tasks, including red-eye removal, shadow dropping, smudging, and cloning and can produce "projects" such as cards and calendars. It is designed to integrate with scanners and digital cameras. It competed against Microsoft Picture-It

• 2.0
• 3.x
• 4.x

Final Cut Pro (2000) 6 Video MacOS

A video editor and post-production tool from Apple.

• 2.x

Ghost (2000) 10 Utility DOS

Ghost, originally released in 1995 by Binary Research and later under Symantec with the "Norton" title, is a PC cloning and imaging tool. It can image and restore drives to drives of different sizes, supports many different file systems, and supports many different archiving and communications methods. Ghost 7.5 and earlier support running from DOS. Later versions are Windows-only.

• 7.x