Gamechangers: A list of software pieces that changed the world
Every software engineer’s wish is to deliver a product that will satisfy business goals and make the end user’s life better. Sometimes, software products end up not just satisfying a given need but revolutionizing an industry and creating global milestones.
Let’s take a look at five notable examples:
Windows 95
The operating system that made PCs a staple in every home in the western world, Windows 95, sparked a revolution in the relationship between humans and computers and forever altered the tech landscape. Who remembers Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston from Friends in the instructional video? Who can forget his/her first Blue Screen of Death or the hours spent playing solitaire or puzzling over Minesweeper? Even if you are an Apple fanatic, you cannot help but admit that the launch of Windows 95 still remains one of the most pivotal software events in history!
Visual Basic
Intended by Microsoft to be relatively easy to learn and use, Visual Basic was derived from BASIC and made programming for Windows approachable by using the components provided by the program itself. Nowadays, Visual Basic is considered an almost dead language, but its legacy in the world of software engineering is indisputable. Just ask any developer who got into coding by using BASIC.
Photoshop
The computer software that became a verb, Photoshop brought the darkroom experience into our screens. Launched in 1990, Adobe Photoshop 1 quickly stood out of its competition of bitmap editing applications. Created by brothers Thomas and John Knoll, Photoshop enabled photographic enhancement by its extensive plugin architecture. Almost 30 years later, Photoshop is now synonymous with image manipulation and Adobe’s line of products are used by professionals as well as amateur photography and creative enthusiasts all over the world.
Napster
Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker and immortalized in the public’s memory by a highly publicized legal battle with Metallica, Napster managed to change the music industry and the way we obtain and listen to music in just three eventful years. Although the original MP3 file sharing platform was shut down, the Napster brand lives on as a music streaming service and is doing just fine and the infamous Sean Parker, who also served as the first president of a little something called Facebook, switched from the online consumer industry to the health sector by starting the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) in 2016 to develop better cancer treatments.
Who needs words when you have David Fincher working his magic?
And the rest is (modern) history!
