[flenserboy]

The era was one of fits & starts, mainly because the basic things which could be done were done already, & pretty well — word processors, spreadsheets, databases, page design, software which fit needs, was powerful enough, & wasn't too buggy to use. The long hardware stall of the 80s (think about how the 6502 lasted, basically the same, for well over a decade, & how IBM was still selling an 8086 machine in '87) forced software makers to focus on quality products. What wasn't there yet, even with the improvements through the 90s, was enough grunt in the hardware to do the things that were significantly past those basics, & so there was a lot of "let's try this, let's try that" throwing things at the wall. There were great ideas, & shots at getting them right — contemporary interfaces still look sad beside NeXTSTEP, & the Newton wasn't approaching what it was supposed to be until near when it was axed. Companies don't just want to do bug fixes & incremental improvements; they want their customers to be excited about something, & the 90s churn had a lot to do with keeping people interested & invested.