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How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M

blog.zamzar.com

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

#81

Post by nashashmi »

mikehearn wrote: post #9
martin-adams wrote: post #3

I think it's so ironic that the first version of Powerpoint was for Mac which ended up helping give Windows it's name when running Office. I've seen Powerpoint used for so many crazy things. Most notably non-technical managers designing a UI in Powerpoint. It's just one of those, lets just get the job done pieces of software.

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…

You just inspired me to see everything in its simplest yet powerful form. Hell with intent!

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

#82

Post by nitroscott »

serge2k wrote: post #46

> The new offer, however, was for cash rather than MSFT stock, overcoming one hesitation of our investors. Whoops.

The adjusted price of a share of MSFT on 6/25/87 was $0.37. Had they received $14m in Microsoft stock, almost 38 million shares would be worth about $2B today.

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

#83

Post by spdegabrielle »

vidarh wrote: post #74
Razengan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As well as the first SimCity and a few other series that started in the Apple ecosystem. One of the bigger ironies is how Doom was developed on NeXTSTEP then went on to make the IBM PC cool among gamers. Also the first web server if I'm not mistaken. Thankfully, unlike the Amiga etc. the Mac didn't completely die and has been having a great resurgence in the past half-decade. Looking forward to this Monday and hoping…

The Amiga will never die [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] ;) (become irrelevant to the vast majority, sure). That last link is for a new FPGA based M68k clone that adds additional instructions, pipelining and other fun stuff as an accelerator for classic Amiga's (it sprung out of the ashes of the now defunct "Natami" project to create a new M68k compatible Amiga-compatible machine). [1] http://www.a-eon.com/?page=x1000 [2] ht…

I love Amiga fans - they are a special type of awesome/crazy!

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

#84

Post by bdcravens »

dogma1138 wrote: post #18
martin-adams wrote: post #3

I think it's so ironic that the first version of Powerpoint was for Mac which ended up helping give Windows it's name when running Office. I've seen Powerpoint used for so many crazy things. Most notably non-technical managers designing a UI in Powerpoint. It's just one of those, lets just get the job done pieces of software.

Where's the irony? Microsoft started (ignore the DOS part) as a company that developed applications for Macintosh specifically word and excel which started on the Mac and only got Windows support in later versions with Word 4/Word for Windows 1.0 and Excel 2.0.

> Microsoft started (ignore the DOS part) as a company that developed applications for Macintosh

I think you're saying we should ignore the first 10 years of the company. The company started in 1975 creating a BASIC interpreter for the Altair; the first version of Excel for Macintosh was released in 1985.

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

#85

Post by cortesoft »

chime wrote: post #33

Random trivia for tech history buffs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forethought,_Inc . under founder Rob Campbell sold PowerPoint to MS and FileMaker to Apple. Of course everyone knows PowerPoint but even most techies today have never touched FileMaker - it was the Django/Rails/WordPress/SquareSpace/RAD application back in the day. At a time when very few could code, FileMaker let anyone create a full-featured databa…

Oh man, I played with FileMaker a ton as a kid. I made so many cool random databases for my stuff.

I had no idea what a database even was, but it was still fun to play with.

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

#86

Post by LaMarseillaise »

27182818284 wrote: post #45

I know lots of folks my age that loved Hypercard. Deal of the century? No, but Hypercard not going mainstream was a huge missed opportunity. I mean I know a generation now of people my age that grew up with that and loved that product in elementary school and all of us ended up doing lousy powerpoints in high school, college, and beyond. (Additionally given the programming-like nature of Hypercard, I wonder how many…

My sister and I learned how to make things with HyperCard (and HyperTalk) when I was about 6 or 7 years old. We quite enjoyed it, but it took me many years to rediscover programming as an adult.

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

#87

Post by xorcist »

dogma1138 wrote: post #79
kalleboo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first version of MS Word was for MS-DOS, not the Mac

Looks like you are correct Excel 1.0 and Word 1.0 were released for the Mac in 1985, Word 1.0 was released for MS-DOS 18 months earlier. Excel was never released for the MSDOS and both it and Word came to Windows in 1987.

Excel and Word for Windows was created to showcase Windows, but I doubt it was as early as 1987.

Multiplan was the DOS based spreadsheet software they sold (successfully) at the time.

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

#88

Post by bdcravens »

hnal943 wrote: post #59

While obviously PowerPoint is ubiquitous and influential, it's interesting - I don't think I've ever used PowerPoint in professional life. The last time I needed to prepare a slide presentation was in high school.

My job doesn't require Powerpoint, but I've used it when given user group/conference talks.

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

#89

Post by lostlogin »

ethbro wrote: post #44
wlesieutre wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Halo was being developed for Mac as well, until MS went and bought Bungie. They presented on stage at MacWorld in 1999.

sighs Oh, Marathon.

I still hear the rocket launcher occasionally.

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

#90

Post by abritinthebay »

coldcode wrote: post #39
abritinthebay wrote: post #16

PowerPoint would never have become what it was without being on Windows and part of Office. So no, not really. Ignoring network effects makes this kind of silly. Keynote has also been better for a number of years now. Still not as popular just because Macs are less common than PCs with office.

Having worked on Persuasion 1.0 (Powerpoint's only real competitor for a while) being part of Office eventually killed Persuasion (when Adobe owned it later) because Powerpoint was "free".

Right, exactly. It came with Word/Excel so basically anyone at an office already had it because they had Office.

Never underestimate the power of "it's already installed"

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