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How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

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Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#21

Post by joshaidan »

bluedino wrote: post #17
baldfat wrote: post #8

Not a deal of the century it would have just delayed the MS machine a little. Back then they either bought you out (Power Point) or they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect).

>> they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect). WordPerfect kind of killed itself. They never embraced the GUI because they thought Windows was ugly. The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. They were all over the map trying to make a suite of strange, semi-office-related programs. When they went from 4.x to 5.0 they had to re-do the printer driver model, just as Windows was…

>> The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics.

It's kind of ironic how nowadays I prefer using Vim for coding and other tasks. And I also find myself preferring Markdown more and more whenever I can for a variety of tasks, from planning meetings to preparing presentations.

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#22

Post by surganov »

martin-adams wrote: post #12
mikehearn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unabashedly in support of using presentation software for initial UI design. For basic wireframing, you don't need much more than the ability add shapes, text, color, images + a way to demonstrate user flow (e.g. by ordering slides). Presentation software is perfect for this. It is accessible to everyone, lets non-technical users offer constructive input and is just incredibly fast to get something basic circula…

Actually you're right. I know a UX designer who had all the UI elements in wireframes and would move things around in Powerpoint based on feedback on conference calls. I think my observation is when someone who 'thinks' they know what the right thing to do is from a UI point of view and shares it around before getting the actual designers involved. The ones who say, we need another button here, rather than asking, wh…

> Keynotopia transforms Keynote and PowerPoint into the best rapid prototyping tools for creating mobile, web and desktop app mockups

http://keynotopia.com

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#23

Post by eli »

joshaidan wrote: post #21
bluedino wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect). WordPerfect kind of killed itself. They never embraced the GUI because they thought Windows was ugly. The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. They were all over the map trying to make a suite of strange, semi-office-related programs. When they went from 4.x to 5.0 they had to re-do the printer driver model, just as Windows was…

>> The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. It's kind of ironic how nowadays I prefer using Vim for coding and other tasks. And I also find myself preferring Markdown more and more whenever I can for a variety of tasks, from planning meetings to preparing presentations.

Vim is a tiny fraction of a percent of word processor usage. Most people like GUIs.

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#24

Post by baldfat »

bluedino wrote: post #17
baldfat wrote: post #8

Not a deal of the century it would have just delayed the MS machine a little. Back then they either bought you out (Power Point) or they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect).

>> they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect). WordPerfect kind of killed itself. They never embraced the GUI because they thought Windows was ugly. The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. They were all over the map trying to make a suite of strange, semi-office-related programs. When they went from 4.x to 5.0 they had to re-do the printer driver model, just as Windows was…

OK same kind of idea:

Netscape vs Internet Explorer (MS just gave the browser away for free) For a good 6 months Netscape was out "selling" IE but eventually IE won the war for a good 15 years.

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#25

Post by pivo »

joshaidan wrote: post #21
bluedino wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect). WordPerfect kind of killed itself. They never embraced the GUI because they thought Windows was ugly. The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. They were all over the map trying to make a suite of strange, semi-office-related programs. When they went from 4.x to 5.0 they had to re-do the printer driver model, just as Windows was…

>> The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. It's kind of ironic how nowadays I prefer using Vim for coding and other tasks. And I also find myself preferring Markdown more and more whenever I can for a variety of tasks, from planning meetings to preparing presentations.

I remember talking to some very unhappy legal secretaries way back then when they were forced to switch from WordPerfect to Word. They used WordPerfect day in and day out and were very efficient at it's keystroke commands and loved it because it was fast.

With its focus on the mouse and GUI slowness, Word was a very painful transition and productivity drain for them.

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#26

Post by MikeTLive »

baldfat wrote: post #24
bluedino wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect). WordPerfect kind of killed itself. They never embraced the GUI because they thought Windows was ugly. The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. They were all over the map trying to make a suite of strange, semi-office-related programs. When they went from 4.x to 5.0 they had to re-do the printer driver model, just as Windows was…

OK same kind of idea: Netscape vs Internet Explorer (MS just gave the browser away for free) For a good 6 months Netscape was out "selling" IE but eventually IE won the war for a good 15 years.

microsoft publisher - licensed from the authors, rebranded, then given away killing the entire windows market for the original product on windows or any other platform

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#27

Post by babuskov »

ralfd wrote: post #20
raldi wrote: post #15

The deal of the century was when SAIC bought Network Solutions for $4.7M in 1995. Five years later, they sold it to VeriSign for $21B.

4 years?? Holy shit, what a return.

That's interesting. I also read it as "Four", but now I look at it and it reads "five". Could be some brain trick.

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#28

Post by dagw »

joshaidan wrote: post #21
bluedino wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> they out Advertised or eventually caught up and passes you (Word Perfect). WordPerfect kind of killed itself. They never embraced the GUI because they thought Windows was ugly. The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. They were all over the map trying to make a suite of strange, semi-office-related programs. When they went from 4.x to 5.0 they had to re-do the printer driver model, just as Windows was…

>> The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. It's kind of ironic how nowadays I prefer using Vim for coding and other tasks. And I also find myself preferring Markdown more and more whenever I can for a variety of tasks, from planning meetings to preparing presentations.

It's kind of ironic how nowadays more people are using Vim.

Are they? Based on my totally unscientific observations vi(m)s popularity has dropped over the past 15-20 years

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#29

Post by ethbro »

pivo wrote: post #25
joshaidan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. It's kind of ironic how nowadays I prefer using Vim for coding and other tasks. And I also find myself preferring Markdown more and more whenever I can for a variety of tasks, from planning meetings to preparing presentations.

I remember talking to some very unhappy legal secretaries way back then when they were forced to switch from WordPerfect to Word. They used WordPerfect day in and day out and were very efficient at it's keystroke commands and loved it because it was fast. With its focus on the mouse and GUI slowness, Word was a very painful transition and productivity drain for them.

Mouse is always easier for new users to learn. Keyboard is always faster for trained users and anywhere with tight processing performance metrics you'll see almost exclusively-keyboard users.

Ironically, a lot of users still prefer mainframe applications over newer GUIs for the same reason.

Source: I've worked for quite a few "on the floor" user processing centers for various types of data. 30s-2min per work item type of stuff.

Re: How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

#30

Post by babuskov »

eli wrote: post #23
joshaidan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The keystroke-based interface was trashed by critics. It's kind of ironic how nowadays I prefer using Vim for coding and other tasks. And I also find myself preferring Markdown more and more whenever I can for a variety of tasks, from planning meetings to preparing presentations.

Vim is a tiny fraction of a percent of word processor usage. Most people like GUIs.

Yes.

Most people who aren't in the tech just launch a word processor (word, libreoffice, etc.)

Tech people on Windows use Notepad or a similar GUI program.

Vim is used by a tiny, tiny fraction of people in the world.

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