Re: Mildly OT: dBASE IV

Marshall wrote:
> I randomly surfed my way to a PC World article on the
> "25 Worst Tech Tech Products of All Time." It was actually
> better done than those sorts of things usually are.
>
> I was interested to see item #5: dBASE IV.
>
> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,3,00.asp#dbase
>
> Roughly, the blurb claims the company went from market leader
> to nowheresville on the "strength" of this single release.
>
> I vaguely remember Ashton-Tate as a once-was tech giant.
>
> Anyone have any stories about this they'd care to share?

Not knowing what types of stories are of interest, I can give a customer's perspective (mgmt, sorry) from that time. I recall that Borland was coming on strong and doing well in higher ed with the combination of Quattro Pro (biologists loved it and used it well beyond it's lifetime in the business world, for example), Word Perfect, and also Paradox. This was tough competition for DBase everywhere, but particularly in higher ed. The CS department was a little chagrined, perhaps, when I signed a higher ed contract with Borland for unlimited use of these three products, thereby making it free for use in computer labs. This was enough of a carrot to entice them to stop teaching with DBase and use Paradox instead.

Shortly thereafter Borland acquired DBase, and it seemed like DBase fell off the radar at that point.

Unless he has left in the last couple of years, the DBase President is (was?) a former Pick executive, which might account for the mention of VARs on their home page. Cheers! --dawn Received on Sat May 27 2006 - 03:09:35 CEST