Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

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FuzzyBlog » Blog Archive » 11 Minutes of Link Blogging — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:35:06 GMT

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re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

F00sh — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:45:05 GMT

haha, I like how in that link to the 1984 Apple Add, where it says: "Business Graphics Before Macintosh".. its just a blank screen.

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Gabe — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 10:21:10 GMT

SamT: Multiplan and Chart were released in 1984 for the Mac; Excel 1.0 was released for Mac in 1985.

Check out http://toastbucket.com/apple1984ad/p08.html for an ad showing the two early pieces of software.

I don't know for sure if Excel was based on the Multiplan codebase or if it was a complete rewrite, but the people who wrote it also worked on Multiplan, so it's almost like saying that Windows 95 was the result of a merger between DOS and Windows.

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Inigo Montoya — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:33:45 GMT

"the name seems to have been just fortuitous ..." "I think it fortuitously lost all the old baggage ..."

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

(actually, I think it does, but I couldn't resist making the reference...)

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

SamT — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:45:45 GMT

Have to agree with Phil Wilson, the name seems to have been just fortuitous that Microsoft already had the trademark for "Microsoft Access." Got to say that the the program was so popular that after living on Word 4, Word 5, Word 6 (for DOS) that I can only recall looking at those Green Microsoft folders but can't recall having ever used the program.

Gabe: If Excel had 1st released for DOS it may have made life as a Multiplan/Chart merge but 1st releasing as a Mac only (there was a MultiPlan/Chart for the Mac?) I think it fortuitously lost all the old baggage (and picked up some memory hungry ones)

Love these digging into the past articles.

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Gabe — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 05:35:54 GMT

Speaking of Multiplan, I seem to recall that Excel was actually the result of a merger between Multiplan and Chart. Does anybody know why they came up with a new name?

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Phil Wilson — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:56:18 GMT

I don't know if this was a factor in the Access case, but it's a lot less fuss legally (registering trademarked names etc) and probably speedier to use an old trademarked dusty name that your company still owns that applies to a long dead product. Rumor has it that my company chose its name (Unisys) for that reason.

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Rich — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:24:48 GMT

I'm looking forward to the MultiPlan product launch...

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Tim Smith — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:24:55 GMT

HyperTerminal existed for a long time as a 3rd party application before MS licensed it.

re: Where did the name for Microsoft Access come from?

Andy — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 19:01:27 GMT

Oh, it's such a chore to move to and from c:\windows to c:\windows\system.