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slightly different view, but to my recollection, familiar with. Presentation software, that pro-
replacing the typewriter was the first “killer vides a sequence of slides for presentation be-
app” that appeared. Word processing took ad- fore a large group, became a popular addition
vantage of the computers capabilities and al- to other software used in an office setting.
lowed many people to create works of litera- Presentation software is currently dominated
ture quickly, accurately and by themselves. by Microsoft’s PowerPoint. Photo Editing soft-
Over time, word processing on a computer ware became popular after picture file types,
completely replaced the typewriter and the like .jpg, .png, and .bmp, were invented,
many thousands of people it took to keep them around the mid-nineties. Music player software
operating; the typing pool disappeared. Many became available after the invention of music
people were caught off guard. Because many file types, like .mp3, again, in the mid to late
people always had a person to create their in- nineties. Video player software also arrived in
ter-office memos, they never had to learn to the nineties, with the invention of video file
use a keyboard. (Fortunately, I was forced to types like mpeg-1, mpeg-2, and mpeg-4. Boy,
th
take a keyboarding course in the 9 grade. Its the nineties were a busy time for inventing
value became quite evident later when I had to useful computer file types. Database software
use a keypunch machine to create lines of was also another “killer app” that came on the
source code for a main-frame computer.) So, scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s; re-
now with word processing available, most peo- member dBase II, or FoxPro, or Paradox.
Communications software and the internet
changed everything. They allowed computers
to communicate with other computers which
allowed people to take advantage of comput-
ers that were in remote locations. Networking
software made computer to computer commu-
nications possible. Networking software, which
was initially an addition to the Operating Sys-
tem, eventually became, and is currently, an
integral part of the Operating System. In the
very early nineties, the World Wide Web ap-
peared and with it, browsers. Browsers are an-
other “killer app” and are what give us the abil-
ity to visit any website on the internet. You
ple could create their own inter-office memos
and eventually turn those memos into emails may remember some of the first browsers;
(initially only within the company). Email was MidasWWW, Lynx, NCSA Mosaic, Internet Ex-
one of the next “killer apps” to appear. These plorer, Netscape Navigator, and Opera. Safari,
early applications started before and without Firefox, and Chrome came along a little later.
the benefit of the internet. It’s through using the browser that you can get
to all those wonderful retail sites for shopping
on the internet.
But before we get to the internet, there were
many other “killer apps” that became part of
computing. Here’s a brief walk down software So, early on, before the internet, the answer to
memory lane. Spreadsheet software started as the question of what you will do with a comput-
VisiCalc and evolved thru SuperCalc, Lotus 1- er was simpler and was probably one of the
2-3, MultiPlan, and finally to the current Excel. following: Word processing, Graphics manipu-
Graphics software, software that allows one to lation, Database development and uses, Com-
munications. The uses were pretty limited. But
manipulate images on the computer, came on today, there is a much wider choice of activi-
the scene early and now is represented by ties to answer the question. The computer is a
Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW, Microsoft
Paint, and probably some others that I am not very versatile machine and today you could be
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