dBASE (1983) 79 Database DOS Windows

Ashton-Tate dBase was an early popular database management system for CP/M and MS-DOS. It was regarded as one of the killer applications for CP/M, and achieved good success. At the time of conception Ashton-Tate was a garage based company but quickly grew.

• II v2.x
• III v1.0
• III v1.1
• III Plus v1.0
• III Plus v1.1
• IV v1.0
• IV v1.1
• IV v1.5
• IV v2.0
• 5.x

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 77 Spreadsheet DOS

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
• 4.x (DOS)

Microsoft Works (1986) 69 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

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 (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

The Print Shop (1984) 24 Publishing DOS

The Print Shop is a home oriented publisher capable of creating calendars, banners, greeting cards and other printable goods. It started off on the Apple II and Commodore 64 where it became popular for its simplicity and ease of use. From day one, it featured interactive editing, on-screen artwork/layout selection, print previewing, and a library of customizable clipart.

• For IBM PC (DOS)
• The NEW PS (DOS)
• Deluxe

Quattro Pro (1987) 24 Spreadsheet DOS Windows

Quattro Pro, initially just named "Quattro", is a spreadsheet application from Borland International. It competed against Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel, and had several advantages including tabbed sheets, and the ability to handle up to a million rows. Quattro Pro was the subject a lawsuit by Lotus, simply because because Quattro Pro copied their menu user interface, but Lotus claimed this was not allowed. This also affected The Twin and VP-Planner.

• 1.0
• Pro 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• SE 1.0
• 4.x (DOS)
• 5.x
• 5.6 (DOS)

Multiplan (1983) 23 Spreadsheet DOS OS2

Microsoft Multiplan was an early 8-bit spreadsheet application for CP/M and MS-DOS with ports to numerous other platforms in the early 80s. Initially it competed against VisiCalc and later Lotus 1-2-3. A companion product, Microsoft Chart, provided graphing support. Multiplan was never ported to Windows, where it was replaced with Microsoft Excel. Excel also replaced Multiplan on the Macintosh platform.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 22 Graphics Publishing Novelty DOS

Instant Artist, later renamed to Print Artist, is a greeting card and sign creation program that uses vectorized graphics. It was created by The Pixellite Group, the original authors of The Print Shop, and published in 1992 by Autodesk. It was later sold by Sierra On-line. It features a high quality set of generic reusable clip art. The clip art uses vector based technology that was also used in BannerMania.

• 1.0 (DOS)

QuarkXPress (1986) 21 Publishing DOS

QuarkXPress was THE standard publishing software during the 1990s. However it failed to update its product line to newer technologies in a timely manager, charged insane amounts for updates or additional features that should have been built in to the software, and became very abusive to their customers. Later versions required a parallel port/ADB copy protection dongle. They lost most of their market share to Adobe InDesign.

• 3.x

VisiCalc (1982) 21 Spreadsheet DOS Other

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program for personal computers. It was extremely successful, and pivotal as it was significantly responsible for moving personal computing out of the realm of hobbyists and in to the realm of serious business tools. application suite that also included VisiWord, VisiFile, VisiSpell, VisiTrend/Plot, VisiSchedule and VisiTutor. a GUI based environment. But that did not catch on. The similarly named Visi On Calc spreadsheet is not at all related to VisiCalc, and later had to be renamed to Visi On Plan.

• 1.x
• Advanced Apple III
• IV
• Advanced IBM

Mathcad (1989) 20 Mathematics DOS

Mathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations.

• 2.5

R:Base (1985) 20 Database DOS

R:Base, from Microrim and first released in 1983, was a popular relational database that competed with Ashton Tate's dBASE product. R:Base was the first relational database for the IBM PC, also notable as earlier relational databases typically required more powerful hardware. R:Base also includes a form and report generator that is optimized for the capabilities of the IBM PC and features the ability to add or remove fields without losing data or relationships.

• 5000
• System V
• 2.x
• 3.x
• Personal 1.0
• 4.x

Ventura Publisher (1986) 18 Publishing DOS

Ventura Publisher, originally from Xerox, is a professional desktop publishing program for the GEM graphical environment and later Windows. It has the distinction of being the first popular publishing program for the IBM PC platform. It competed with Aldus PageMaker, which initially was more popular on the Mac platform. There are also versions for Mac and OS/2.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 2.0
• 3.0 for DOS-GEM

Ability (1985) 15 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

SuperCalc (1983) 11 Spreadsheet Graphics DOS CPM

SuperCalc was a spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980, and originally bundled (along with WordStar) as part of the CP/M software package included with the Osborne 1 portable computer. It quickly became the de facto standard spreadsheet for CP/M and was ported to MS-DOS in 1982. It competed against spreadsheets such as VisiCalc, Multiplan. and Lotus 1-2-3.

• 1.x
• 2 v1.00
• 3 v1.00
• 3 v2.00
• 3 v2.10
• 4.x
• 5.1

Turbo Pascal Toolbox (1985) 10 DOS CPM

The Borland Turbo Pascal Toolbox consists of several sets of sample source code for different purposes. They are designed for use in conjunction with the Turbo Pascal Compiler product. The sets include Turbo Graphix Toobox, Turbo Database Toolbox, Turbo GameWorks Tooolbox (new in 1986 with TP 3), and Turbo Editor Toolbox (new in 1986 with TP 3). Also see the Turbo Pascal Tutor.

• 1.x
• 4.0

FoxBASE (1987) 10 Database DOS Unix MacOS

FoxBASE, a relational database from Fox Software, started off in 1984 as a clone of dBase II that boasted many speed improvements. FoxBASE+ adds feature parity and compatibility with dBase III Plus. It was later aquired by Microsoft and became FoxPro

• Plus 1.x
• Plus 2.x

VisiTrend/Plot (1983) 9 Presentations DOS

VisiTrend/VisiPlot is a no-nonsense data analysis and graphing tool targeted at business users who wished to perform analysis on large spreadsheets. It is part of the Visi Series of applications from VisiCorp, that also included VisiWord, VisiCalc, VisiFile, VisiSpell, VisiSchedule and VisiTutor. There was also a version for the Apple II.

• 1.3

Packard Bell Navigator (1993) 7 Utility Other DOS

Packard Bell Navigator is an alternate user interface that replaces the Windows 3.1 Program Manager shell. It presents the content of your computer as a series of rooms.

• 3.5

Open Access (1990) 6 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Open Access III is a DOS based integrated office suite that includes a database, word processor, spreadsheet, statistical analysis, graphics, telecommunications and a C style custom application programming language.

• III

Overhead Express (1984) 6 Presentations DOS

Released in 1984 by Business & Professional Software, Inc, Overhead Express is a very early presentation program for the IBM PC that features high quality type, and an on screen print preview. It is geared towards overhead presentations, but can also be used for flyers, newsletters, report cover, labels, and more.

• 1.x

ChiWriter (1990) 5 Word Processor Mathematics DOS

ChiWriter is a WYSIWYG scientific text editor for DOS. Created by Cay Horstmann in 1986, it was one of the first that could write mathematical formulas on common PC computers.

• 4.00
• 4.2

PC-Calc (1984) 5 Spreadsheet DOS

PC-CALC is an easy-to-use "Visible Spreadsheet" program. If you work with numbers, at home, on the job or at school, PC-CALC is for you. Whether the task is simple or complex, PC-CALC can help you. By using its powerful commands, reports can be produced in minutes that would take hours to do manually, or days to write in BASIC. PC-CALC, written by Jim "Button" Knopf of ButtonWare ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Knopf ), is historically notable because it was one of the first programs marketed as shareware.

• 2.0
• 3.0

PFS:Plan (1984) 5 Spreadsheet DOS

PFS:Plan. from Software Publishing Corp, is a spreadsheet that you can use for all types of numerical planning, tracking, analyzing, and reporting . Later it evolved in to PFS:Professional Plan, and IBM rebranded a version as IBM Planning Assistant.

• A:xx

Springboard The Newsroom (1985) 5 Publishing DOS

"The Newsroom" is a very simplified desktop publishing program aimed at novices and children. It uses a simplified step-by-step interface similar to the original "The Print Shop", and bundles a variety of fun clipart images. requires a PC or PCJr with one floppy drive, CGA, and 128K of ram. Additionally, there were versions for the Apple II, and Commodore 64. transfer documents between any two instances of The Newsroom, even between the IBM/Apple/C64 platforms.

• 1985
• Pro 1989

Lotus Symphony (1984) 4 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database DOS

Lotus Symphony is a an integrated software program that combines five tools: spreadsheet - word processing, graphics, database management, and data communications - in one package. The spreadsheet has similar functionality to Lotus 1-2-3, however it uses a different software "engine". These releases are of the original suite produced by Lotus. For the unrelated suite produced by IBM under the same name, see "IBM Lotus Symphony".

• 1.00
• 2.00
• 3.00