Comment by kube-system
10 hours ago
I guess that's technically true, because "most businesses" are sole proprietorships without any employees... but they could get by just fine with a checkbook and a note pad.
But the reasons the business software sector grew far beyond Excel of the 1990s is because of the inherent limitations in scaling solutions built by business analysts inside of Excel. There's a vague cutoff somewhere in the middle of the SMB market where software architecture starts to matter and the consequences for fuckup are higher than the cost of paying for professionally made software with, importantly, a vendor on the hook for making sure it doesn't fuck up.
Uh, no. The main reason the software sector grew in the 90s was a particularly potent combination of FOMO, kickbacks, and strategically deployed cocaine.
Do you forget how much different offices looked back in the 90s?
No, no I don't. I also remember what tech sales looked like in the 90s and aughts. Jokes about strippers and blow were a cliche for a reason.