Microsoft Works (1986) 87 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database MacOS DOS

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 1.x (Mac)
• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (Mac)
• 2.x (DOS)

MindReader 2.0 (1988) 1 Word Processor DOS

Mindreader, originally by Kalman Toth of BusinesSoft and later from Brown Bag Software, is an "Artificial Intelligence based word processor" that learns the way you write, and anticipates what you are going to type next. It may suggest words, phrases, or entire paragraphs that you may add with a single keystroke.

• 2.0

Mite (1985) 0 Communications DOS

Mite is a telecommunications program that originated on CP/M. It was used for communicating with bulletin board systems, information services, and terminal emulation. It is not the most friendly or powerful, but some OEMs bundled it with their hardware.

• 3.x

Mix C (1985) 1 DOS

Mix C, from Mix Software, is a small and simple C compiler. It was sold alongside a well-written book on the C programming language. Later versions were known as Power C

• 2.0.x
• 2.5.x

Money Power (1989) 0 Financial DOS

Money Power, from Expert Software, is a low end, low cost financial calculation program for MS-DOS. It contains a set of rudimentary calculation programs for calculating loan interest, comparing IRA vs. savings, and such. Note: It only outputs results to a printer.

• 1989

MoneyCounts (1989) 0 Financial DOS

MoneyCounts is a simple and powerful personal accounting software program from Parsons Technology. This was popular for PCs in the 80s and in 1995 was sold to Intuit, makers of Quicken.

• 6.0

MoneyPlans (1989) 0 Financial DOS

Parsons Technology's MoneyPlans consists of a series of financial calculations intended to assist you in planning your personal financial situation. This includes calculations for Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Education, Retirement, Cash Vs Loan, Leas Vs. Loan, Adjustable Rate Loan, Loan Comparison, CD Comparison, Bond Volatility, and Discount Feasibility.

• 1.x

MS-DOS (1981) 1245 DOS

Originally 86-DOS, written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, DOS was a rough clone of CP/M for 8086 based hardware. Microsoft purchased it and licensed it to IBM for use with Microsoft's IBM PC language products. In 1982, Microsoft began licensing DOS to other OEMs that ported it to their custom x86 hardware and IBM PC clones.

• 3.20
• 3.21
• 3.30
• 3.31
• 4.0x

MultiLink Advanced (1986) 0 Server DOS

Multilink is a multitasking program that turns an IBM PC XT or PC AT into a multi-user, multitasking system supporting up to eight dumb terminals. A good alternative to XENIX on the PC AT.

• 4.00

MultiMate (1983) 6 Word Processor DOS

MultiMate, originally named WordMate, is a word processor designed to mimic the user interface of Wang word processing machines. It was primarily sold to large businesses, but eventually became popular with home users that were familiar with the Wang word processors. Later versions were bundled with extra third party software under the name MultiMate Advantage.

• 3.3x
• 4.0

Multimate Advantage (1986) 2 Word Processor DOS

MultiMate Advantage is the high-end professional version of MultiMate, targeted at corporate users.

• 3.6
• II 1.0

Multiplan (1983) 4 Spreadsheet DOS OS2

Microsoft Multiplan was an early 8-bit spreadsheet application for CP/M and MS-DOS with ports to numerous other platforms in the early 80s. Initially it competed against VisiCalc and later Lotus 1-2-3. A companion product, Microsoft Chart, provided graphing support. Multiplan was never ported to Windows, where it was replaced with Microsoft Excel. Excel also replaced Multiplan on the Macintosh platform.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Multitasking MS-DOS 4.00 (1985) 5 DOS

Multitasking "MS-DOS 4.00" is a developmental version of MS-DOS that was never released to retail consumers. It was eventually licensed to some companies for internal use. Development started in parallel during the DOS 2.x days, and was intended to be the successor to MS-DOS 3.x. It would have competed against Digital Research's Concurrent DOS.

• 4.00

Music Construction Set (1984) 2 DOS

Music Construction Set is a program that lets you compose "music" using a graphical user interface. It supports 3-voice sound on the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000, and 4-voice sound via the Model 5150's cassette port!

• IBM 1987

MusicPrinter Plus (1988) 0 Media Player DOS

MusicPrinter Plus, from Temporal Acuity Products, Inc, is a musical notation program for MS-DOS. It supports CGA, EGA, and VGA video as well as MIDI playback.

• 1.1

MyLabelMaker (1988) 0 Publishing DOS

MyLabelMaker is a low-end budget title that aids in making labels using your printer. It is the perfect way print cards for your Rolodex, or labels for your audio cassettes!

• 1.x

NBI Legend (1988) 1 Word Processor DOS

Legend, from NBI, is a document processing program for Microsoft Windows 2.x. It primarily acts as a desktop publishing program, enabling users to lay out frames or embed graphics, but is can also act as a word processor. WordStar International where it became WordStar for Windows.

• 1.x

NetWare (1989) 64 Other

Novel NetWare was an early and powerful network/file sharing operating system. It was first released in 1983 and supported DOS and CP/M clients and was initially unique in that it shared individual files rather than entire disk volumes. Initially servers ran on a proprietary Motorola 68000 system but quickly changed to IBM PC where it supported a very wide variety of third party hardware. It used a cooperative tasking server environment and had some advanced features usually only found in mainframe products.

• 2.x
• 3.x

NEWS-OS (1989) 3 Unix

NEWS-OS was a variant of BSD (later System version V UNIX) developed by Sony for use on their series of work stations called the Sony NEWS (Network Engineering WorkStation). This machine was a desktop replacement to VAXes in japan, created in 1987. NEWS-OS was designed specifically for use on computer networks, and had support for the TCP/IP protocol, something that wasn't commonly used back in the day but now required for today's machines. Versions 1-4 of NEWS-OS used 4.2BSD as its base. Versions 5 and 6 used UNIX System V 4.2.

• 4.x

NewsMaster (1987) 0 Publishing DOS

NewsMaster, from Unison World, is a primitive low-cost desktop publishing program aimed at home users and low end PCs. It supports both dot-matrix and laser printers. Separate clipart libraries were also available, and it could make use of PrintMaster clipart.

• 1.5

NewWave (1989) 3 Other Windows

HP NewWave is an alternate shell for Microsoft Windows that gives it an icon-object desktop. It attempts to hide the file system from the user, instead presenting them with "objects" that may have many more properties and longer descriptions. It supports a feature called "Hot connects" that automatically updates data across different files.

• A.01.00

NeXTStep (1987) 21 Unix

NeXTSTEP, from NeXT Computers headed by Steve Jobs, is a Unix based operating system designed to run on m68K NeXT workstations. It later became the basis for OS X, with APIs and concepts preserved today.

• 0.x
• 1.x
• 2.x

Norton Anti-Virus (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Originally written by Symantec and sold as Symantec Antivrus for Macintosh, it became part of the "Norton" branded products sold by Symantec after they acquired Peter Norton Computing. Norton Anti-Virus became a popular product on DOS, Windows, and Macintosh (SAM was renamed to NAV in 1998) and battled the then-new threat of malicious software. In 2015, Symantec unified their security product lineup under the single "Norton Security" product. It was also bundled with Norton SystemWorks.

• 1.0

Norton Backup (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Norton Backup, from Symantec, is a fast and easy to use backup tool for MS-DOS. The original 1.0 suffered from reliability problems, but these were fixed in 1.1. It does not include a backup scheduler. It competed against backup utilities such as PC Tools Deluxe PC Backup, Taketwo Manager, Gazelle Systems Back-It, Backup Pro, FastBack Plus, and Keep Track Plus.

• 1.x

Norton Commander (1986) 81 Utility DOS

Norton Commander is a MS-DOS based file shell that was widely popular due to it's two column design. You could easily copy and move files between one folder or another, execute DOS commands and more. It competed against many other file managers including Gazelle Q-DOS and Xtree

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x