Excel is practically synonymous with the word "spreadsheet" today, and has attained near ubiquity in the workplace and home. But it wasn't always the reignin...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.capebreton.social/post/1047745

Excel is practically synonymous with the word “spreadsheet” today, and has attained near ubiquity in the workplace and home. But it wasn’t always the reigning champion of the spreadsheet market.

In fact, Excel started out as a Macintosh exclusive, with Gates and Microsoft hoping that Excel could build a commanding position on the Macintosh, and then use that as a foothold to attack the dominant spreadsheet champion of the 1980s, Lotus 1-2-3. The Macintosh was in dire need of a killer app that could do for it, what VisiCalc had done for the Apple II years prior.

But could Excel be that app?

This is the story of how the world’s most dominant spreadsheet was developed for the flailing Macintosh, a computer with a fraction of the market share of the then standard MS-DOS PC, from which humble position Excel began its long climb to total dominance.

#spreadsheet #excel #documentary

  • crussel@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    7·
    8 months ago

    I really like Another Boring Topic. Their videos tend to be well-researched and in-depth, and are clearly things they’re interested in (ie not clickbait). Since content creation isn’t their day job the release schedule is pretty random, but it’s always worth the wait!