Ability (1985) 9 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database Windows

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.

• 1.5 for Windows
• 2000
• 2002

America Online (1992) 9 Web Browser Chat Windows

America Online was a proprietary dial-up online service that eventually grew to offerer Internet access. In the mid 1990s AOL was very heavily promoted. Every month or two, you were sure to get a free AOL floppy disk or CD-ROM in the mail. AOL originated as PC-Link.

• 2.x
• 3.0

AOL Instant Messenger (1998) 1 Chat Windows

AOL Instant Messenger is a once-popular messaging client popularized by America Online.

• 1.0

AppleWorks (1986) 8 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database MacOS Mac OS X

AppleWorks is an all-in-one Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics Editor, and Presentations tool. The original product was a text-based product for the Apple II. The Apple Macintosh and Windows versions were forked from ClarisWorks in 1998 by Apple. At the time, Apple was under a lot of pressure to have a direct alternative to Microsoft Office. There were serious concerns that Microsoft might pull Microsoft Office for the Macintosh from development.

• 5.x
• 6.x

ArcView GIS (1996) 22 Graphics Other Database Windows

ArcView, from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is a geographical information system program for Win9x/NT.

• 3.0
• 3.3

BOA HomeBanking with Manging Your Money (1997) 1 Financial Windows

This is the proprietary dial up program used with Bank of America's HomeBanking service ~1997. It is bundled with a customized copy of MECA's "Managing Your Money", a financial management program.

• 2.1a

Clarion (1989) 6 Database DOS

Clarion is an advanced user friendly 4GL DBMS and programming environment for DOS and Windows. It boasted the ability to greatly reduce application development time, featured highly integrated visual creation tools, and a powerful set of program functions.

• 3.1 (DOS)

ClarisWorks (1991) 26 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Publishing Database Windows MacOS

ClarisWorks is an all-in-one Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics Editor, and Presentations tool from Claris. In 1998, after version 5.0.2, ClairsWorks was purchased by Apple and re-branded under the "AppleWorks" name. It is not related to the Apple II AppleWorks product.

• 4.x
• 5.x
• For Kids 1.0

FileMaker (1984) 14 Database Windows MacOS

FileMaker is a very easy to use graphical flat-file database management tool from Claris that allows for visual form and report creation. Originally for DOS, there were Macintosh versions and later it was ported to Windows.

• Pro 3.x
• Pro 4.x
• Pro 5.x

IBM Small Business Suite (2000) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Server Database Windows Linux

IBM Small Business Suite for Linux V1.6 is a Development Platform with a Set of Personal Productivity Tools. It was intended to simplify businesses transitioning to "e-business" by providing a foundation on which users could “webify” their businesses. It includes IBM and Lotus middleware products for Linux and Productivity tools for Windows.

• 1.x

Instant Accounting (1998) 3 Financial Windows

Sage Instant Accounting includes comprehensive invoicing, complete vat management, detailed customer records, and powerful reporting.

• 98

JetForm FormFlow (1997) 3 Database Windows

FormFlow is a comprehensive business form and workflow automation tool. It is designed to interface with many different kinds of databases and many different e-mail, network, and fax sources. The "Filler" is essentially just the client runtime and does not include form creation or management abilities.

• 2.x

Lighthouse Design Ltd Productivity Applications for NEXTSTEP and OpenStep (1995) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Publishing Communications Other Database Mathematics Other

Lighthouse Design Ltd Productivity Applications is an application suite of programs for NeXT computers.

• MAY 1995

Lotus Approach (1993) 5 Database Windows

Lotus Approach, originally from Approach Software Corporation, is a relational database management system. Approach promises "instant productivity" with its WYSIWYG form and report designer, and is compatible with many existing database formats. Approach started off as an independent product, was purchased by Lotus, and later IBM. It was included in Lotus SmartSuite for Microsoft Windows.

• 96

Lotus SmartSuite (1992) 100 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations PIM Database Windows

IBM/Lotus SmartSuite is an office suite from Lotus software for Windows and OS/2. SmartSuite includes SmartCenter, 1-2-3, Word Pro, Freelance Graphics, Approach, Organizer, and ScreenCam.

• 4.0
• 96
• 97
• 9.0
• 9.1
• 9.5
• 9.6
• 9.7
• 9.8

MacInTax (1995) 0 Financial MacOS

MacInTax, from Intuit Inc, was a Macintosh program that helped one prepare their taxes. It has a friendly user interface, and walks users through an "Interview" to gather required information.

• 1994

Managing Your Money (1989) 11 Financial DOS Windows

Managing Your Money is your easy-to-use personal finance manager. MYM has all you'll need to take control of your finances. You can automate your checking account, track credit investments, reduce your debts, plan your savings, decide whether to refinance your mortgage, and much more. You don't have to use all this at first or ever. But it's nice to know its all here when you need it. It is sometimes titled as "Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money".

• 12.0
• 2.x (Win)

Microsoft Access (1992) 80 Database Windows

Microsoft Access is a powerful and friendly desktop database. You can design complex tables, forms, and reports through selection and drag-and drop. You can make a fully usable interactive database application without a line of code, but for more advanced functionality it supports built-in Visual Basic for Applications. It is also bundled with some versions of Microsoft Office

• 95 (7.0)
• 97

Microsoft Exchange (1996) 6 Chat PIM Server Windows

Exchange is a proprietary e-mail and groupware server software from Microsoft for Windows Server. The first version publicly sold was Exchange Server 4.0. The number 4.0 was used as it was a replacement for Microsoft Mail 3.x. At release, unlike other desktop/lan e-mail solutions it featured client/server communications rather than using file sharing, used a powerful messaging protocol, and stored all message and address book information in a database. It eventually evolved to include scheduling and many other functions. The Exchange Client (later Microsoft Outlook) supported rich text formatting, and the ability to create such things as e-mail forms.

• 4.0
• 5.5
• 2000

Microsoft Money (1992) 45 Financial Windows

Microsoft Money is a home oriented financial management tool. It was designed specifically for Microsoft Windows, and was touted as being easier to use. At its release it competed against products such as Quicken. Microsoft Money was discontinued in 2009.

• 4.x (95)
• 97 (5.0)
• 98
• 99
• 2000
• 2002
• Sunset

Microsoft Office (1991) 434 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.

• 95
• 97/98
• 2000
• 2001 (Mac)
• XP (2002 Beta)

Microsoft Works (1986) 172 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database Windows MacOS

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.

• 4.0
• 4.5
• 5.x
• 6.0
• 9.0

mIRC (2001) 2 Chat Windows

mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat client for 16-bit and 32-bit Windows with it's own unique scripting language.

• 5.x

MSN Messenger (2004) 1 Chat Windows

An old instant messenger platform from Microsoft since superseded by Skype. The MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger) servers have since been shut down from Microsoft, so don't expect this software to work anymore. Software is for historical purposes only.

• 7.x

My Advanced MailList (1991) 0 Database Windows

My Advanced MailList is a comprehensive mailing list manager database that supports a wide variety of label formats, embedded graphics, import/export with other databases, and printing POST-NET barcodes.

• 1.x (Win)