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The Greatest Software Ever

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the only-the-best dept.

soldack writes "Information Week has an piece on the 12 greatest pieces of software ever. It also notes some that didn't make the cut and why. Their weblog covers 5 others that didn't make the cut."

4 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. the list by mincognito · · Score: 5, Informative

    12. The Morris worm 11. Google search rank 10. Apollo guidance system 9. Excel spreadsheet 8. Macintosh OS 7. Sabre system 6. Mosaic browser 5. Java language 4. IBM System 360 OS 3. Gene-sequencing software at the Institute for Genomic Research 2. IBM's System R 1. Unix

    --

    Ludwig Wittgenstein
  2. Re:Better choices - go back the originators by punkass · · Score: 5, Informative
    What CPUs are designed to run Java.

    That's kind of the point, Sparky.
    --
    "Nobody owns the fucking words man." - James Dean
  3. DOH!!! He forgot the wordprocessor by eclectro · · Score: 5, Informative

    I guess the question remains is which wordprocessor. While there's Wordstar, Wordperfect, and Word that might be worthy, clearly TeX should be in first place and mentioned on his list. TeX is the father of all wordprocessors that followed, and the author Donald Knuth had such firm belief that programmers should be responsible for what they create that he paid for each bug found in the code.

    This produced a completely error free program, and started a generation of programs that followed that would drive mechanical typewriters to extinction practically everywhere, and changed how we get printed text onto paper. Hence this is truly great software.

    So TeX is a glaring ommission for this list, and probably should have been close to the top, if not number one.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  4. Re: Windows by FuegoFuerte · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did you read the article? He specifically mentions VisiCalc, and also states WHY he decided Excel should be on the list and NOT VisiCalc. From the article:

    For software to be considered a success, it has to be up to handling the job it was created to do.

    That axiom certainly applies to VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet software. It's great because it demonstrated the power of personal computing. The software put the ability to analyze and manipulate huge amounts of data into the hands of every business. But VisiCalc itself, despite representing a breakthrough concept, wasn't great software. It was flawed and clunky, and couldn't do many things users wanted it to do. The great implementation of the spreadsheet was not VisiCalc or even Lotus 1-2-3 but Microsoft Excel, which extended the spreadsheet's power and gave businesspeople a variety of calculating tools. Microsoft's claims that it makes great software are open to dispute, but the Excel spreadsheet is here to stay. Nearly everyone is touched by it.

    See, there was more thought put into this than you may realize.