Re: Mildly OT: dBASE IV

From: Alvin Ryder <alvin321_at_telstra.com>
Date: 28 May 2006 16:42:02 -0700
Message-ID: <1148859722.629561.25550_at_j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>


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?
>
>
> Marshall

Borland killed it. A case of "time to market" versus "doing everything properly" but then failing on the "properly" part. Bugs galore and late.

Meantime Billy boy snuck MS-Access in, prettier and somewhat buggy but at a quarter of the price - people didn't mind, they saw hope. Foxpro filled the "hardcore" niche.

Borland got hurt bad, the CEO had to go, the languages deparment was plundered of its gurus. Anders Hejlsberg of Turbo Pascal and Delphi fame now does C# at a company that can pay him.

MS eventually bought FoxPro and Borland had Paradox, by then dBase was dust.

Wordperfect was simlar. Once the leader but too slow to market with their windows version, again MS-Word wasn't perfect either but at least it was there.

People talk about MS monopolizing but these other guys actually kill themselves.

With drama like this who needs soap operas? Received on Mon May 29 2006 - 01:42:02 CEST

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