game trailblazer

Chapter 33 Office Software Controversy ([-])

After repelling BADD's provocation, Zhang Lexing shifted his focus to VisualSystem. In the midst of his busy schedule, 1984 passed quietly, and by the time Zhang Lexing recalled it, it was already the New Year's holiday.During this year, relying on the efforts of all employees of the company, VisualSystem has achieved considerable development. It not only maintains the dominance of the PC operating system, but also expands rapidly in the office software market, and continues to compete with Lotus and WP in North America. At the same time as the market, it has also begun to set foot in overseas markets. The living space of Microsoft Office software has been continuously compressed, and Microsoft's performance has also maintained a steady downward trend.

After the New Year, in order to purchase a compression software to add to the Kylin system, Zhang Lexing was dragged by Yang Xinxin to board the Pan Am flight to Perryville before he could get over the holiday syndrome.As soon as they got on the plane, Yang Xinxin sat in the seat by the window as usual, Zhang Lexing had to sit next to her, and the other seat was occupied by a bearded guy with glasses.

This trip took a long time, Yang Xinxin habitually leaned on the seat and began to catch up on sleep, while Zhang Lexing didn't feel sleepy at all, so he could only sit bored on the seat and flip through magazines to pass the time, occasionally looking up at the surrounding situation.The bearded and glasses guy next to him was also reading a book. Zhang Lexing glanced at it from the side. It seemed to be books related to programming. It seemed that this guy was a programmer.Zhang Lexing took a few more glances at the bearded and glasses brother, and always felt as if he had met him before, and there was a familiar feeling.After pondering for a while, Zhang Lexing finally remembered that the guy in front of him was Dan Bricklin, the chairman of Software Art Company, and the developer of the spreadsheet software VisiCalc.

"Hello! Is this Mr. Bricklin?" Zhang Lexing asked cautiously for fear of identifying the wrong person.

"Yes, you are?" The bearded and glasses brother turned sideways and looked at Zhang Lexing in surprise.

"I'm Zhang Lexing from VS Company, nice to meet you." Zhang Lexing took one of his business cards and handed it to Bricklin.

"I've heard of VS Company, which has developed quite fast over the years. I didn't expect the chairman of the company to be so young." Bricklin took a look at the business card and said with a complicated expression.

"Mr. Bricklin, are you also going to Perryville on business?" Zhang Lexing asked curiously.

"Ah!" Bricklin sighed, and said with some disinterestedness: "I'm going to do business, but I'm not contacting business, but I want to sell my company."

Maybe it was because of too much pressure recently, or because Zhang Lexing seemed to be pleasing to the eye, Bricklin unconsciously began to talk about the current situation of his company, and only then did Zhang Lexing know that Software Art Company was on the verge of bankruptcy. In the 80s, the software art company was still in full swing. Later, with the rise of the PC, Bricklin was only on the last train due to the entanglement of lawsuits. It was too late when the PC version of the VisiCalc spreadsheet software was launched. Similar products from other companies Under the pressure of the attack, the sales of Software Art Company went from bad to worse. In 84, the annual sales volume was only 2500 sets, which was not even comparable to the fraction of other companies in a month.The financial situation of Software Art Company is also deteriorating. It has been struggling to make ends meet for several years, and its debts have reached 220 million US dollars. If a solution cannot be found soon, the company will soon enter the process of bankruptcy and liquidation.Although Bricklin was very reluctant, he could only reluctantly find a new owner for the software art company he founded. This time he came to Perryville to negotiate terms with a company that was interested in acquiring his company.

Hearing this piece of music, I couldn't help but feel a little moved. As the pioneer of spreadsheet software, Software Art Company holds some related patents. If it can be acquired, I believe it will be of great benefit to the development of VisualSystem in the office software market.So Zhang Lexing woke up Yang Xinxin and discussed the matter with her in a low voice.After listening to Zhang Lexing's narration, Yang Xinxin keenly discovered the opportunity, and therefore forgave Zhang Lexing's sin of waking her up.With Yang Xinxin at the helm, Bricklin quickly gave up, gave up his original plan, and discussed the details of the acquisition with Yang Xinxin instead.At this time, Zhang Lexing was sent to the window to face the wall by Yang Xinxin on the grounds of getting in the way, so he could only stare at the blue sky and white clouds outside the window in a daze.

Yang Xinxin's efficiency is very high. Before the plane landed, he had already negotiated the specific acquisition conditions with Bricklin. VisualSystem invested $80 to acquire Software Art, and at the same time assumed Software Art's debt of $220 million. Dan Bricklin then joined VisualSystem as a technical consultant.

Perhaps it was the successful acquisition of the software art company that made Yang Xinxin interested. Only a month later, she made another move, and this time the target was the company's competitor - the digital research institute, which is not well-known. After the equity plus cash, VisualSystem successfully won the Digital Research Institute, and Gary Kildall joined the company's operating system division at the same time, and once again devoted himself to the development of his favorite operating system.

When VisualSystem was advancing bravely in the office software market, Microsoft on the other side encountered a big trouble, and this matter had to start from the second half of 1983.

Suffered two consecutive defeats on office software, Microsoft did not give up, but tried to find a new breakthrough.Gates held a small seminar at the Red Lion Hotel in Seattle. The participants were all generals under Gates. The meeting lasted for three days.During these three days, everyone discussed office software and market response from various angles, and finally came up with a set of mature ideas.Gates once again set Microsoft's new development goal in office software as spreadsheet software. This time, he must come up with a set of unprecedented software to defeat all opponents. The name of the software "Execl" fully reflects this idea .The person responsible for the development of this set of software is no longer Simeone, who had been re-elected for two terms before, but was replaced by a young Doug Klund.

At this time, Krond had only been away from the school for two years, and he had only participated in the Multiplan design project team with Simeone before. However, with the support of Gates, Klund was successfully promoted to the leader of the beyond project team.Being valued by the boss, Klund's morale was high, and he led several young men who were as young as him to be busy day and night, sometimes burying himself in the pile of papers and writing, sometimes not eating or sleeping to "bubble" Stack code in front of the screen.

Relying on the crazy work of the Transcendence project team, by the beginning of March 1984, the part related to the electronic watch had basically taken shape, but at this time due to the needs of another project of Microsoft, the Transcendence project team members were suddenly withdrawn.Krond felt a little dissatisfied, but fortunately there was not much work left, even if he was alone, it would take at most half a year for Execl to do overall debugging on the PC.Klund looked at the progress chart on the wall and couldn't help but sighed. It seemed that he had to bring the sleeping bag tomorrow.

On the second day, Klund came to the Beyond project team early as usual, ready to continue the development work.Turning on the IBM-PC/AT machine on the table, while waiting for the system to start, Klund found an extra envelope on his desk.Klund picked up the envelope and opened it. He couldn't help being furious.It turned out that this was an internal notice, signed by Gates himself, requesting the Transcendent project team to temporarily abandon the development of Execl on the current PC platform and develop the same software for Apple's Macintosh first.This news was like a thunderbolt to the young Krond, he seemed to lose his direction in life all of a sudden.

The fire in Krond's heart began to burn, and he couldn't enter the development state at all. He simply got up and rushed out of the project team, and rushed into Chairman Gates' office. Even the secretary couldn't stop him.

"Bill, you've made a mess of things!" Clunde no longer cared about etiquette, and shouted loudly: "I work day and night, for what? No complaints, I just hope that the PC version of Excel can be completed as soon as possible, but how can you do such a thing at this moment. VS and Lotus defeated us on the PC, and Microsoft must regain everything lost here!"

Bill Gates patiently explained the reason for the matter: "Mac is currently the best graphical user interface computer, it represents the future of computers, and has 512KB of memory, can give full play to the power of Execl, IBM- PCs are not yet comparable. I think that gaining experience on the Macintosh first is for the future..."

Cronde interrupted Gates annoyedly: "If you say all kinds of reasons, I will never accept this kind of sudden attack, unless you immediately withdraw the inexplicable decision."

However, Gates' attitude was also very firm. When he learned that there was no room for negotiation, the young and vigorous Krond handed in his resignation letter angrily.However, as a moral designer, Krond still did his best to deal with the aftermath.Enduring the pain in his heart, Klund transplanted some of the written programs to the Macintosh. He has been busy for almost nine months. Execl has begun to take shape and can basically run on the Macintosh.Klund felt he could leave, and he officially resigned from his job after the new year.Before leaving, in order to allow Execl to continue to develop smoothly, Klund specially made several video tapes to explain the development of Execl.

Klund left, waving his sleeves without taking a cloud, and the new programmers hired by Microsoft began to continue to complete the beyond project.It's a pity that the videotape carefully produced by Krond disappeared. As a result, the new programmers couldn't catch it at all. As a result, the progress of the transcendence project was extremely slow, and the development of Execl fell into a deadlock.Gates was as restless as an ant on a hot pot, but he was helpless.

At this time, Klund decided to go to California to try his luck because he couldn't find a job in Seattle.The room leak happened to be raining overnight, and Krond, who was already a little tight on money, fell asleep on the train bound for California, but when he woke up, his body had been ransacked.Seeing that poor Krond was about to end up on the street, fortunately he met Dr. Yu who was out on errands. With his cash-strapped and Dr. Yu's sincere invitation, Krond joined VisualSystem with hesitation. Saints also want to eat.

At this time, Microsoft had to continue to develop Execl slowly. When VisualSystem launched VisualOffice 3 in Mackintosh in March, Lotus also launched a jazz suite. Gates looked at it as a semi-finished Execl. , can only cry with Simeone again.

(End of this chapter)