Brief information about the Software database "SoftBase" ======================================================== Windows Software Database with information about over 8900 products and over 5000 suppliers. 1/ Newslist. New products, new versions since last 90 days. 2/ List prices, local prices, mail order prices or upgrade prices. 3/ Suppliers in USA or Malaysia 4/ Literature references, mostly PC Magazine, PC World and PC Computing 5/ 66 groups of products for, e.g. WORD, SPREADSHEET, DATABASE, NETWORK, . WINDOWS, IMAGE, FAX, DTP, CAD, ECONOMY, HOME, EDUCATION, CHILDREN, . COMMUNICATION, CD etc. and combinations like NETWORK and UTILITY etc. 6/ Editors choice, Test rating, Most sold or most downloaded from BBS. 7/ Fax, phone, BBS, Compuserve and Internet addresses. 8/ dBase compatible databases. The database contains mostly information about commercial software, but also some shareware, freeware and hardware. Latest news since previous versions: 1 UPDATED up to December 1, 1994. 2 Newslist about 30 pages December 1, 1994 3 More and more information about latest shareware uploaded to . FTP-sites in Internet with info about versions and filenames 4 Mail order prices in USA updated. 5 After search possible to print out the information from screen . or a list of other products from the same supplier or from . the same manufacturer. 6 Color coded screen lists showing if good or "bad" product. . according to test results, editors choice or most sold information . and possible to click on items in the lists to get more information. 7 Possible to search on Boolean choices "and/or/not" among groups. First choose which groups of products you want, e.g. STATISTICS or SHAREWARE. Second perform search on name or function or make lists on screen or printer. To increase speed use preview and printer lists. The information is updated all the time. Old information about products and suppliers is checked and new information is added. The structure is under perpetual change. A few new fields are added or changed now and then. Some statistics in SoftBase when the database had 8069 products around end of August 1994. Payware Amount Shareware Group Total Average Shareware Average related to Amount % price Freeware % price ================================================================= Software 6,844 84.8% 545 $ 1,734 100.0% 55 US$ CDRom 478 5.9% 254 $ 15 0.9% 60 $ Hardware 747 9.3% 2,442$ 0 0 0 $ Rated products 1.170 14.5% 830 $ 88 5.1% 32 $ With ed. choice 978 12.1% 1,889$ 19 1.1% 48 $ Most sold popular 227 2.8% 217 $ 40 2.3% 31 $ Freeware 349 4.3% 349 4.3% 0 $ Shareware with Internet sites 377 21.7% 33 US$ Shareware with Compuserve areas 714 41.2% 37 US$ Payware Shareware Group Total Average Shareware Average related to Amount % price Freeware % price ================================================================= Graphics 4,124 51.1% 583 $ 638 36.8% 37 $ Utilities 3,362 41.7% 428 $ 967 55.8% 32 $ MS Windows 2,366 29.3% 486 $ 456 26.3% 30 $ Shareware + Frw 1,734 21.5% 1,734 100.0% 55 $ Network able 858 10.6% 1,765$ 44 2.5% 59 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Communication 757 9.4% 840 $ 139 8.0% 45 $ Computer Language 732 9.1% 981 $ 161 9.3% 61 $ Wordprocessing 619 7.7% 293 $ 59 3.4% 55 $ Database 601 7.4% 1,266$ 57 3.3% 52 $ Sound, voice 596 7.4% 328 $ 43 2.5% 32 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Animation 566 7.0% 183 $ 88 5.1% 22 $ Special 503 6.2% 551 $ 94 5.4% 151 $ Administration 439 5.4% 268 $ 169 9.7% 212 $ Charts 427 5.3% 491 $ 27 1.6% 116 $ Printer related 405 5.0% 517 $ 69 4.0% 34 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Images 381 4.7% 393 $ 40 2.3% 35 $ Games 375 4.6% 49 $ 121 7.0% 22 $ Spreadsheet 372 4.6% 528 $ 15 0.9% 53 $ Multimedia 367 4.5% 251 $ 4 0.2% 95 $ Economy 362 4.5% 579 $ 124 7.2% 62 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Freeware 349 4.3% 0 $ 349 20.1% 0 $ Educational 341 4.2% 74 $ 91 5.2% 32 $ Mail 328 4.1% 684 $ 69 4.0% 43 $ PIM 321 4.0% 315 $ 95 5.5% 40 $ Information 306 3.8% 296 $ 36 2.1% 41 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Security 295 3.7% 286 $ 63 3.6% 71 $ OS/2 250 3.1% 2,270$ 33 1.9% 27 $ Fax 232 2.9% 961 $ 9 0.5% 60 $ Children 226 2.8% 48 $ 37 2.1% 23 $ Fonts 225 2.8% 282 $ 38 2.2% 45 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Home 216 2.7% 122 $ 125 7.2% 34 $ School 204 2.5% 128 $ 64 3.7% 28 $ Video 202 2.5% 286 $ 3 0.2% 31 $ CAD 199 2.5% 1,367$ 21 1.2% 63 $ Accounting 191 2.4% 405 $ 69 4.0% 87 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Menus 179 2.2% 179 $ 67 3.9% 34 $ Presentations 170 2.1% 336 $ 11 0.6% 48 $ Selfstudy 167 2.1% 132 $ 36 2.1% 22 $ Human Language 134 1.7% 225 $ 22 1.3% 24 $ Statistics 128 1.6% 687 $ 14 0.8% 37 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Mathematics 122 1.5% 403 $ 34 2.0% 25 $ Desk Top Publ 120 1.5% 405 $ 11 0.6% 60 $ Drawing 119 1.5% 293 $ 19 1.1% 28 $ Technical 115 1.4% 1,465$ 23 1.3% 30 $ Antivirus 103 1.3% 143 $ 20 1.2% 34 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- MAC-PC related 98 1.2% 551 $ 5 0.3% 33 $ Sales Tools 92 1.1% 211 $ 28 1.6% 70 $ Forms 82 1.0% 728 $ 16 0.9% 30 $ Maps 82 1.0% 326 $ 5 0.3% 44 $ Project 82 1.0% 1,010$ 13 0.7% 44 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Medicine 80 1.0% 123 $ 29 1.7% 475 $ OCR 74 0.9% 1,005$ 1 0.1% 42 $ Hypertext 73 0.9% 688 $ 10 0.6% 17 $ OS 62 0.8% 586 $ 8 0.5% 18 $ CASE 56 0.7% 3,291$ 0 0.0% 0 $ Integrated 54 0.7% 316 $ 1 0.1% 79 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Taxes 49 0.6% 53 $ 11 0.6% 77 $ Decision making 43 0.5% 2,445$ 6 0.3% 32 $ Architecture 29 0.4% 431 $ 3 0.2% 40 $ Electronics 29 0.4% 495 $ 11 0.6% 31 $ Organization Charts 25 0.3% 202 $ 5 0.3% 42 $ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Barcodes 22 0.3% 743 $ 9 0.5% 60 $ Since the above was calculated there is a new group called Internet about 100 Internet-related products. The information on this is not complete yet. Many prices and suppliers are missing but the FTP-sites in Internet is registered mostly. I can not give any guarantee about the correctness of the information. It changes rapidly, limited time for double checking, and some errors are also done in my sources of information, the computer magazines and other sources. Most of the errors depend on lack of information in the magazines or catalogues like suppliers, version numbers, etc. I can also not give any guarantee about the function of SoftBase in combination with numerous different machine and software combinations. It is tested only on the authors machines. Like some shareware-authors say: "I don't promise more than that it can fill up your hard disk." Anyway I hope it can come to use to both professionals and amateurs. Once again: If you want it to run fast use only the preview lists on screen and the printer lists. I am not ready with the FoxBase conversion yet so screen lists and searches are painfully slow. But the lists do come after a few minutes also on the screen and the information can be printed out. Call voice or fax: (60) - 3 - 411-5547 Internet: adam@testad.pc.my Adam Testad No 17 Lorong 2B/27C Section 5 Wangsa Maju 53300 KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA