
History Uncut: Bill Gates unveils Microsoft Excel (1987) - robot
http://www.history.com/videos/history-uncut-bill-gates-unveils-microsoft-excel-1987
======
rms
Excel, still Microsoft's best product?

~~~
pinaceae
undoubtedly. of course it came after visicalc, but by now it is not hyperbole
to say that a large part of the world economy runs through excel spreadsheets.

and it is _really_ hard to displace. the optimisations in that tool are
amazing, you don't realize it's performance until you try the alternatives.

some argue it is the OS of finance. definitely shares its spot with SAP FI/CO.
a controller will give up any tool before letting go of MS Excel.

it is the number one reason of companies being reluctant to using iPads. how
will i edit my spreadsheets? what about macros? i need this to capture
expenses, forecasts, etc.

if MS releases MS Office/Excel for iOS, Surface is dead.

~~~
eckyptang
Lets reverse your last point: when MS releases Office for Surface, iOS is dead
in business.

If they hit that mythical $199 price point which is rumored (unlikely) and it
ships with Office RT, then there is no better tablet proposition out there.

~~~
podperson
There are a _ton_ of people out there who used to think they _needed_ office,
and have been using iOS happily without it. Microsoft made a huge mistake not
releasing Office for iOS as soon as they could -- these people would all have
bought it and remained convinced it was indispensable.

Now, most of them won't care (and probably figured out that Office wasn't
actually very good at its core functionality, like word-processing and
creating presentations, compared to cheaper, easier-to-use alternatives). In
any event, the strangehold MS had over the enterprise where even people who
didn't want Windows were forced to use it, is broken.

So... dream on.

~~~
eckyptang
I get the feeling you've never used Office for anything serious?

~~~
r00fus
I think the parent commenter was merely stating that a large portion of Office
users realize that what they're doing isn't "serious" - despite it being
critical to _their_ uses, it's something that doesn't require the full power
of a desktop Office suite (and thus can be done without Microsoft).

Fact is, even Surface won't be as mobile as something that fits in your pocket
- and I seriously doubt Microsoft can or even wants to make (perhaps a
stripped down) Office into a $10 smartphone app.

------
iscrewyou
Correct link: [http://www.history.com/videos/history-uncut-bill-gates-
unvei...](http://www.history.com/videos/history-uncut-bill-gates-unveils-
microsoft-excel-1987??cmpid=PaidMedia_Taboola_Video_HIST_TOPICVIDEO#history-
uncut-bill-gates-unveils-microsoft-excel-1987)

------
dm8
Was this their first product in office suite?

Out of curiosity, why didn't IBM ever release office suite? They had such a
strong hold on enterprise market and yet all they did was to buy lotus notes
that too in mid nineties (quite late).

~~~
omh
I'm a little young to know for sure, but did IBM make any significant software
(other than the OS) before the purchase of Lotus? At the time when Excel was
announced they were still running OS/2 as a joint venture with Microsoft.

(Incidentally, IBM does now have an office suite. A quite nice version of
OpenOffice: <http://www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home>)

~~~
nhebb
They made DB2 in the early 80's. DB2 has always seemed like the quiet giant in
the database world. They even have a free Express edition [1], but I never
hear anyone talking about it.

[http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/express/download.htm...](http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/express/download.html?S_TACT=wikien&S_CMP=ecddww01)

------
tisme
[http://spreadsheet-day.com/blog/spreadsheet-
history/visicalc...](http://spreadsheet-day.com/blog/spreadsheet-
history/visicalc/)

------
pge
With all the talk about linux desktops recently, I think one of reasons for
lack of adoption is right here. In the business world, excel reigns supreme,
and there isn't a viable linux equivalent. Give me excel for linux and I could
be rid of windows for good.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I'm always interested in this - what are the specific features that
LibreOffice Calc and the like lack that you use?

~~~
pge
(1)compatibility at a formula and function level for some of the excel
functions (eg. matrix functions). (2) VB macros

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It sounds like your definition of "viable" differs from mine then.

LibreOffice Calc does "matrix formulae" and whilst it doesn't do VB macros you
can write macros in some common scripts/languages including javascript and
python (see eg <http://webodf.org/blog/2012-04-13.html>).

It's certainly not a drop in replacement and certainly not right for everyone
but one often hears "we couldn't use $x" when in fact what is meant is there
is no impetus to use a replacement and that the users don't want to adapt
entrenched behaviours.

That's fine but is quite different as an objection to "the software can't do
what we need".

~~~
pge
that's fair - Calc can do everything you need, so the objection is more
clearly stated as it not being compatible with excel. You can't share files
with excel users (like you can with Word and AbiWord or Writer).

------
schneby
Anyone else notice the Warren Buffett cameo at :14?

