Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Email to Symantec re Outliners

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:7/24/1999; 4:28:15 PM
Topic:Email to Symantec re Outliners
Msg #:8723
Prev/Next:8722 / 8724

On July 16 I sent this email to the chief counsel at Symantec. I haven't heard back. If you're reading this and you work at Symantec, please get in touch: dave@userland.com. Thanks!

I am one of the founders of Symantec, the company I started, Living Videotext, merged with Symantec 12 years ago. I am a former Symantec vice-president and board member.

The reason I'm writing is that I'd like to let people who use my website examine the software I created for Symantec, MORE, ThinkTank and Ready. I believe there are ideas in these products that could be used by current-day software designers. I believe the products have little or no commercial value for Symantec. I also think that by contributing to the preservation of "antique" software, Symantec can earn considerable goodwill among computer users and even historians looking to piece together the evolution of PC software.

What sparked this interest was Lotus's decision to allow Dan Bricklin, one of the authors of Visicalc, the first spreadsheet program, to release a version that was created in 1981. I wrote it up in this DaveNet piece.

http://davenet.userland.com/1999/07/15/danBricklinsVisicalc

Thank you for considering this idea.

Dave Winer
UserLand Software

PS: Here's a narrative of how these products came to be Symantec products.

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