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The spreadsheet war, and who shipped first
VisiCalc proved that a spreadsheet was reason enough to buy a computer. Lotus 1-2-3 turned that proof into the best-selling application in the world. Excel took the next platform first, and the macro nobody documented outlived all three.
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The first one made the machine worth buying
VisiCalc, written by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, is the reason businesses bought the hardware it ran on.
Everything in Spreadsheets
3 pieces
- The first one made the machine worth buyingVisiCalc, written by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, is the reason businesses bought the hardware it ran on.
- Lotus owned the spreadsheet until Excel took Windows firstLotus 1-2-3 dominated DOS. Excel shipped for Windows earlier and better, and the platform decided the application.
- Every finance team runs on something nobody documentedSpreadsheet macros became load-bearing infrastructure without ever being treated as software, which is why they outlive their authors.