This was a twitter thread from July 12, 2021 further describing a feature mentioned in the latest post in Hardcore Software, a non-fiction, first-pers

Checkbox Features and the Competition

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2021-07-20 06:30:05

This was a twitter thread from July 12, 2021 further describing a feature mentioned in the latest post in Hardcore Software, a non-fiction, first-person account of the rise and fall of the PC revolution serialized through this platform, one section at a time, once or twice a week.

An old Excel example of head to head competition. When your product is in a well-known category, sometimes you get cornered by customers, analysts or even press (HN? 🙄) to do a “checkbox” feature. You don’t want to, but you start hearing your product is missing something. 1/

2/ Excel’s most aggressive competitor in the early days of Windows was from upstart Borland that moved more quickly to Windows than others. They competed on price and performance. They also had an obscure feature — make a slide show in a spreadsheet. Review from 1994!

3/ The Excel team was also an upstart relative to the monster that was 1–2–3. Excel 3.0 (1990) was a huge effort bringing out a new Mac and Win version simultaneously. It had many new features including the first toolbar (even on the box cover). It had a super lame slide show ☑️