The history of software is full of revolutions. Operating systems, applications, services, protocols, mobile platforms, communication… over the years, there have been great innovations that have left their mark before and after. But can we pick one of these revolutions as causing the most change?

A decision has costs and depends on the person considering it. We asked the editors of Xataka and other tools from Webedia Spain to tell us what they were about: it is the most revolutionary software in all history.

Microsoft Excel

Flour selection Anthony Ortiz

It’s true that many of the software shared in this article are more complex, pioneering, and used than Excel, but for spreadsheets, I want to break a spear. Professional software with the most impact on small and medium-sized companies, that most fosters a culture of financial rigor and data-orientation. After that, dozens of services were born looking to conquer one of their use cases. If you don’t know very well what to do or how to work, I always recommend the same thing: learn Excel.

WordPress

Flour selection Xavier’s Chaplain

There are great examples in this field, but I can say that WordPress has changed everyone’s life, both personally and globally. What started as a blog-driven content management platform (CMS) is now a multi-disciplinary development used on 40% of the world’s websites and that it created a whole industry around it that employs a large number of people.

I’ve been using WordPress on my personal blog for over 15 years and I find it simply wonderful that it offers any user the opportunity to create and manage their own content. Blogs may not be as popular anymore, but WordPress (like its before and after alternatives) has proven that anyone can have their own website and express and share their opinions there.

VisiCalc

Flour selection Javier Lacort

Forerunner of Excel, the first tool in history to create spreadsheets. It has transformed the computer from being a hobbyist’s hobby to something useful in any business. For many, it was what led to IBM’s entry into the computer market and changed the entire perception of the beginner industry by those who until then saw it as little more than a hobby. There was already accounting software and it was even easier to use, but it was precisely its simplicity that was a limitation. The use of formulas has changed history, and today, more than 40 years later, we continue with the same basic idea. Spreadsheets are essential for any medium, VisiCalc was its seed.

Encarta Encyclopedia

Flour selection Caesar Muela

Encarta was the first major digitized encyclopedia, and I think this is very important because it was a clear demonstration of the potential of computers as an educational medium and as a tool of knowledge in general. The first edition was in 1993, and in those years, without a proper Internet connection and in the middle of the floppy disk kingdom, computers were not seen as something as useful and essential as they are today.. I think Encarta has helped break down the barriers that separate one product from another. cows of a mass device.

The initial idea developed by Microsoft was to have the Encyclopedia Britannica as a partner for the content, but things didn’t work out and they signed a deal with Encyclopedia Funk & Wagnalls. Thousands of extensive and documented articles, images, videos, interactive materials and a very intuitive interface have made Encarta a great window for most of us to get to know and learn about the world. And of course, It was the seed of Wikipediaprobably the most valuable encyclopedia (and free) in existence today.

lotus lime

Flour selection Antonio Saban

While Lotus 1-2-3 wasn’t the first spreadsheet program, that honor fell to VisiCalc, making it the first major spreadsheet program to win the battle on the IBM PC and became immensely popular before Excel’s arrival. In 1985 Mac. Lotus endured until the mid-90s with a lack of compatibility with Windows as the main axis of its decline. Yes definitely, He left a great legacy of adding inline graphics, naming cells, cell ranges, and macros..

As part of the spreadsheet revolution, Lotus 1-2-3 contributed to the fact that the work of all floors and buildings, like in the movie “Apartment”, can now be done in a single document. comes to the present.

Google Maps

Flour selection Enrique Perez

It’s hard to explain the rise of smartphones without going through Google Maps. Released in 2005, this app is found on billions of devices and is a true Swiss Army Knife. To say this is a mapping app would be an understatement: GPS, parking lots, gas stations, travel history, location, Street View, transportation schedules, traffic, radars, measuring distances, and even site recommendations. Google Maps is often understood as an app, but it’s almost an ecosystem unto itself.

But if there is one thing that can be said to have changed the history of information technology, it is that it plays a crucial role by making phones our private guide. Google Maps was one of the reasons people bought smartphones.; just to know where we are at any given time, to get directions on how to get somewhere, and to understand our location. There’s a lot of talk about augmented reality now, and no doubt Google Maps was one of the first apps that allowed us to tap into the potential of data to learn more about physical space.

email protocol

Flour selection Arantxa Herrantz

Email software is probably one of those before and after in computing history. It was designed as a system that allows machines to talk to each other and then to the people who run those computers. But gradually these apps got friendlier and added more options, including the possibility to attach all kinds of files. Email has thus become a huge document repositoryan inexhaustible source of virus, Trojan or spam infection, and in some cases a headache for users and companies.

There have been many attempts to redirect this app and use it more responsibly. Even adopt new tools that kill email. But today it is still one of the most downloaded and used apps on all types of devices.

iTunes

Flour selection Peter Aznar

As a software, I will choose one that does not have to stand out with its quality. change meant while consuming content: iTunes. The first version was announced in January 2001, at a time when the computer was still using CDs. With the advent of the iPod it became even more of a digital hub and a good starting point for the various streaming services we know today as online music services.

This served as a unified negotiation with the music industry, which did not fully understand why putting their music online would save them from piracy, and for consumers to understand this model later when video arrived. As software, its design was iconic (this icon used to burn CDs…) and became extremely popular when the iPod or iPhone arrived and synced with the Mac. Had major problems processing large amounts of information and this caused it to disappear in June 2019 thanks to its integration with Finder.

Image | Bernd Dittrich