4 ms·

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. an

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.

chalst 14y ago
Quantrix is used a great deal in finance, and I have the impression that it is used more than Excel by people who need to have confidence that their financial models are correct.
- pinaceae 14y ago
  I wasn't precise enough, I meant financial departments within companies of all areas. Finance as in banking of course has its special tools - but I would be surprised if Excel is not used for anything quick and dirty. MS Excel is not precise enough in a lot of areas, you can't compare it to something like SPSS for statistics for example - but it's good enough.
snogglethorpe 14y ago
Visicalc was first, but I think it was Lotus 123 that really made spreadsheets popular; it was absolutely huge back in the day.
- lancewiggs 14y ago
  Yes. Excel took a long time to topple Lotus 123, but Lotus's failure to move to a GUI quickly enough saw Excel win. DOS Microsoft Word was before Excel I think.
  - jahewson 14y ago
    It was a similar story with Word Perfect, their failure to move to a GUI basically handed MS Word market dominance. Their belated port of the DOS UI was very awkward at first, and the move to 32-bit in 95 was the final straw.
  - arethuza 14y ago
    The "original" Word, before Windows, was available for DOS and Xenix - I actually saw some systems using Word on Xenix in '88.
    - snogglethorpe 14y ago
      I've actually used MS Word on Windows 1.0 (around 1985ish I think). It was .... well, basically unusably horrible. As you typed, it would swap stuff in/out from floppy disk; as you might imagine, this made even just entering text an excruciating experience. Luckily for MS, systems eventually got more memory and hard disks...
      - arethuza 14y ago
        The time I saw MS Word deployed on a Xenix box it didn't work terribly well - was fine on the system console but was barely usable on serial terminals as the make of terminals (Wyse something or other) had Alt keys which did nothing. And, as far as I recall, the Alt key was pretty important in Word. Of course, this wasn't Microsoft's fault - rather the idiotic salesman who had sold all of this without checking with anyone whether it would work or not.
- nhebb 14y ago
  I think Quattro was the #2 (behind Lotus) for a while - ahead of Excel. Borland just seemed to have an uncanny talent for running products into the ground.
  - huxley 14y ago
    Borland certainly did, but they also had plenty of bad luck. Just as they were getting close to finishing Quattro Pro, their head offices were hit by the 1989 World Series Earthquake (they were very close to the epicenter). Apparently, many of their computers survived the earthquake itself but were rained on by the damaged sprinkler system and covered in mushy ceiling tile debris. They commandeered a tennis court to try to dry off, clean and revive as many of the computers as they could They did end up releasing Quattro Pro, but then were soon sued by Lotus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_v._Borland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_v._Borland
  - jonsen 14y ago
    Reminds me of their word processor Sprint. Quite a fancy product of its time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(word_processor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(word_processor)
eckyptang 14y ago
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.
- Jabbles 14y ago
  I don't think MS needs to lower the price that much for businesses, given that a full licence of Office probably costs about that. Checks website, oh it's $499 for 1 user, 2PCs (obviously bulk discounts will be massive, but still).
  - eckyptang 14y ago
    No it's $199.99 for one user one pc or for two PCs, one user $279.99: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-business/ http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-business/ (It's $499 if you want access and publisher but most people don't)
    - pbhjpbhj 14y ago
      USD $199 is currently about GBP £122. We have VAT added at 20%, which makes the cost almost £150. GBP price is £190 (1 install, 2 is £240). Guess this is when you get a VPN. I'm interested how exhaustion of rights works in these situations can one of you [hypothetically] purchase the download for me and resell it to me in the UK? If you transfer it first to your UK server then presumably there would be no import duty or VAT to pay as it's a personal transaction?
      - eckyptang 14y ago
        You can just buy an OEM copy here. It's cheaper. Just buy a USB stick with it for £1 and you get it for £159 without all the hassle.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    Office is significantly lower than $499 or even $199 for PC's under their normal business licensing arrangements. Less than $50 for most larger businesses.
morsch 14y ago
For most of those people, it's simply the only software they're moderately competent with. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I wonder how much Excel has ended up shaping our world because of the point of view it implies.
- snogglethorpe 14y ago
  Yup... I used to have a boss who was a linguist by trade, who used Excel as his general-purpose programming language of choice, simply because it's what he knew the best. He was pretty good at it, so the stuff generally more or less worked fine, but it was a constant source of amusement for everybody else...

chalst 14y ago

Quantrix is used a great deal in finance, and I have the impression that it is used more than Excel by people who need to have confidence that their financial models are correct.

pinaceae 14y ago
I wasn't precise enough, I meant financial departments within companies of all areas. Finance as in banking of course has its special tools - but I would be surprised if Excel is not used for anything quick and dirty. MS Excel is not precise enough in a lot of areas, you can't compare it to something like SPSS for statistics for example - but it's good enough.

snogglethorpe 14y ago

Visicalc was first, but I think it was Lotus 123 that really made spreadsheets popular; it was absolutely huge back in the day.

lancewiggs 14y ago
Yes. Excel took a long time to topple Lotus 123, but Lotus's failure to move to a GUI quickly enough saw Excel win. DOS Microsoft Word was before Excel I think.
- jahewson 14y ago
  It was a similar story with Word Perfect, their failure to move to a GUI basically handed MS Word market dominance. Their belated port of the DOS UI was very awkward at first, and the move to 32-bit in 95 was the final straw.
- arethuza 14y ago
  The "original" Word, before Windows, was available for DOS and Xenix - I actually saw some systems using Word on Xenix in '88.
  - snogglethorpe 14y ago
    I've actually used MS Word on Windows 1.0 (around 1985ish I think). It was .... well, basically unusably horrible. As you typed, it would swap stuff in/out from floppy disk; as you might imagine, this made even just entering text an excruciating experience. Luckily for MS, systems eventually got more memory and hard disks...
    - arethuza 14y ago
      The time I saw MS Word deployed on a Xenix box it didn't work terribly well - was fine on the system console but was barely usable on serial terminals as the make of terminals (Wyse something or other) had Alt keys which did nothing. And, as far as I recall, the Alt key was pretty important in Word. Of course, this wasn't Microsoft's fault - rather the idiotic salesman who had sold all of this without checking with anyone whether it would work or not.
nhebb 14y ago
I think Quattro was the #2 (behind Lotus) for a while - ahead of Excel. Borland just seemed to have an uncanny talent for running products into the ground.
- huxley 14y ago
  Borland certainly did, but they also had plenty of bad luck. Just as they were getting close to finishing Quattro Pro, their head offices were hit by the 1989 World Series Earthquake (they were very close to the epicenter). Apparently, many of their computers survived the earthquake itself but were rained on by the damaged sprinkler system and covered in mushy ceiling tile debris. They commandeered a tennis court to try to dry off, clean and revive as many of the computers as they could They did end up releasing Quattro Pro, but then were soon sued by Lotus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_v._Borland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_v._Borland
- jonsen 14y ago
  Reminds me of their word processor Sprint. Quite a fancy product of its time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(word_processor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(word_processor)

eckyptang 14y ago

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.

Jabbles 14y ago
I don't think MS needs to lower the price that much for businesses, given that a full licence of Office probably costs about that. Checks website, oh it's $499 for 1 user, 2PCs (obviously bulk discounts will be massive, but still).
- eckyptang 14y ago
  No it's $199.99 for one user one pc or for two PCs, one user $279.99: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-business/ http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-business/ (It's $499 if you want access and publisher but most people don't)
  - pbhjpbhj 14y ago
    USD $199 is currently about GBP £122. We have VAT added at 20%, which makes the cost almost £150. GBP price is £190 (1 install, 2 is £240). Guess this is when you get a VPN. I'm interested how exhaustion of rights works in these situations can one of you [hypothetically] purchase the download for me and resell it to me in the UK? If you transfer it first to your UK server then presumably there would be no import duty or VAT to pay as it's a personal transaction?
    - eckyptang 14y ago
      You can just buy an OEM copy here. It's cheaper. Just buy a USB stick with it for £1 and you get it for £159 without all the hassle.
- protomyth 14y ago
  Office is significantly lower than $499 or even $199 for PC's under their normal business licensing arrangements. Less than $50 for most larger businesses.

morsch 14y ago

For most of those people, it's simply the only software they're moderately competent with. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I wonder how much Excel has ended up shaping our world because of the point of view it implies.

snogglethorpe 14y ago
Yup... I used to have a boss who was a linguist by trade, who used Excel as his general-purpose programming language of choice, simply because it's what he knew the best. He was pretty good at it, so the stuff generally more or less worked fine, but it was a constant source of amusement for everybody else...