25 Killer Apps of All Time ~ for the Personal Computing Age....

Technospin Blog ^ | Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 12:05 pm | Richard Graber

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Peter Coffee, an editor of eWeek magazine has published a list of 25 killer apps of all time. This list totally reflects his personal timeline in the computer publishing business and sets a benchmark for ‘killer apps’ although I’m a fan of his work. I’ve been in technology since 197x…’ Big deal. I wrote code on a DEC PDP-11 using a Hazeltine terminal at Univ of Miami back in 1979. The technology sucked big time.

Mitch Kapor made boucoup $$ from Lotus 1-2-3. Many of us cut our teeth on 1-2-3’s macros. The Lotus Magazine from the 1980’s was a GOLDMINE of information for spreadsheet nerds. My 1-2-3 macros were sometimes pages long and could repaint the bathroom and regrout the kitchen counter. Then came Excel with VBA and oh-my-God it was the equivalent of programming nirvana. 1-2-3 was reserved for the back shelf at Goodwill. And of course we didn’t have to shoe-horn it into dBaseIII+ > we just linked or cut-n-pasted it into MS-Access and instant database relativity. Woo hoo!!

So what is the real ‘killer app’ list? I could list my own. Peter has DEFINITELY set off an interesting discussion with this article. Sad part is, many folk don’t have tools in their toolbox and wouldn’t know how to maniuplate data (or want to, for that matter). But if you’re a ‘data guy’ (or gal) what does work for you? Does it work for your corporation? Many of us have jobs because we know how to manipulate data when others don’t. Makes for a strange ‘niche’ in life.

[KoRn]

Outlook Express!!

/sarc

[tacticalogic]

EDLIN.

[neb52]

My current company uses Lotus Notes and is switching to Outlook/Exchange to match the rest of the Corp. that purchased us last year. This was the first time I had ever used Lotus and the cool factor wore off quick when I realized how primitive it was compared to Outlook/Exchange. The first coporate groupware mail program I used was MS Mail. It was pretty simple and easy, but Exchange 5.5 was a major imporvement.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think the World Web Web and browsers like Firefox are the Killer Apps/....coupled with software setups like the FreeRepublic Bulletin Board....Browser....remembering device....whatever one chooses to call it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What are ....., MOST, ... our ERP is Vantage.....?

[neb52]

Outlook Express!!

/sarc

GROIN!!

How many corrupt .dbx files have I come across just from backing them up to reinstall Windows and then restore the .dbx files. What a piece of junk. Granted I have had similar occasional problems with .pst files for Outlook. But that happens rarely and is usely the older back up .pst files.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

i still use Lotus SmartSuite when i'm working in Windows. If i ever get smart enough to be able to use WINE, i'll be using it out of SuSE. Love it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I was a heavy user of mainframe based PROFS,.....but it was a kludge.....

Built on VM/370...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I was a heavy user of WordPro....turned out my Algebra tests on it.....still have a copy around.....

[kidd]

I'm surprised that WordPerfect didn't make the list.
It was THE PC-based word processor of the late 80s and was a predacessor to MS Word.

Myst was the game that first made graphics so important for gamers.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It should be on lots of lists....but every list is personal....apparently Coffee started with Word....probably came with his computer.....

[GoldCountryRedneck]

MS Flight Simulator.

[Chi-townChief]

MOST = Maynard Operations Sequencing Technique

and Vantage is one of the many Enterprise Resource Planning apps out there.

[neb52]

Will you predate me. I got started right when MS was coming out with NT 4.0 and Windows 95(shudder) was becoming more popular. Its funny how long it took for new MS Windows to take on. But I think that was prior to the agreements they have with the main PC manufacturers nowadays. I also was never much of the back end heavy computing. Always dealt with desktop and small/med size servers. I am one of those that pushed NT 4.0 out there killing off Netware. Some days looking back, that may not have been the greatest thing. But more blame of the demise of Netware can be laid at the feet of Novell then anything else.

[No Truce With Kings]

Man, that list brings back memories. I remember when I first encountered WordStar. It was like a miracle. You could edit ON THE *FLY*. Cool stuff for someone who grew up writing school papers on an electronic typewriter.

[Grut]

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Photoshop yet.

[neb52]

"I'm surprised that WordPerfect didn't make the list.
It was THE PC-based word processor of the late 80s and was a predacessor to MS Word.

Myst was the game that first made graphics so important for gamers."

Symantec's Act was left off as well and that was THE desktop database prior to MS Access. Of course MS also had Fox Pro(I think that was what it as called) prior to Access. Hospital I worked at five years agao was still using that.

[Always Right]

Windows 3.0 was not an OS. It was a GUI app running on top of DOS, which was the OS.

And it wasn't even that useful until Windows 3.11 when they added some basic networking.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And what about FLASH....?

Guess Coffee doesn't use them...

[Tribune7]

Photoshop is on the list.