Why Microsoft Excel won’t die

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by themickey, Oct 18, 2024.

  1. deaddog

    deaddog

    How is that the fault of the software.
    What is it about the software, that it is too sophisticated/complex for the average user?
    I know I haven't even scratched the surface of the programs poterntial. But that is my fault, not the softwares. Right now it does everthing I want it do do.
    Is it the software that has you upset or us dinasours?
     
    #41     Oct 18, 2024
  2. We are going in circles, I have said already why I dislike it.
    I can see that you like it, so there it is for you to use it.
    There is no point to argue about it.
     
    #42     Oct 18, 2024
    spy and deaddog like this.
  3. I missed this one. Yeah I agree, people use Excel because they don't know any better.
     
    #43     Oct 18, 2024
  4. SunTrader

    SunTrader

    Yea that must be it.

    Number one spreadsheet software in the world for decades.

    Only because ... they don't know better. :confused:
     
    #44     Oct 18, 2024
    Ninja and nbbo like this.
  5. People do not look for anything else when they have something working for them, that doesn't mean that is the best option for them, they just don't bother to look for anything else when something does the job.

    If you get to see more options you wouldn't use Excel, you use it because you don't know anything else or didn't bother to look for an improvement.
     
    #45     Oct 18, 2024
  6. deaddog

    deaddog

    #47     Oct 18, 2024
  7. Real Money

    Real Money

    VBA and Excel allowed me to make real-time charting software, and with a free brokerage API.

    Hard to beat that.
     
    #48     Oct 18, 2024
  8. themickey

    themickey

    I have no MS software, I use googlesheets.
    Never had a problem with Sheets, it's free, on cloud, not on HDD.
    Formulas mostly identical to Excel.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2024
    #49     Oct 18, 2024
  9. Good1

    Good1

    The narrative skips over Multiplan as if it didn't exist. In 1983 I was there when a family member took shipment of a machine that shipped with Microsoft's first spreadsheet, Multiplan, on a 5.25" floppy disk, introduced in 1982 first for 8-bit computers running CP/M.

    Multiplan was better than Visicalc, imo, looking back. It pushed the limit of 8 bit systems. When asked if he had any regrets, Bill Gates is said to have said he regrets putting so much development into Multiplan at the tail end of the 8 bit era.

    This focus allowed Lotus to leapfrog over by focusing on the 16 bit bus/chips to get the most out of those. With that head start, Microsoft completely lost out on that market and decided not to compete.

    Instead, Gates decided to develop the next era of spreadsheets that exploited Windows and the 32 bit chips as soon as those chips came out 1985/86. It's speculated that the lesson Gates learned on the Lotus leapfrog helped him capture the spreadsheet market thereafter by leapfrogging over Lotus.

    Excel was, and still might be, backward compatible with Multiplan if/when you "convert" a sheet of formulas to .silk format, consumable by Multiplan. If it doesn't rely on other sheets, and if the formulas are legacy enough, it'll run.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplan
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2024
    #50     Oct 18, 2024
    Ninja likes this.