"When the post went up, the online shop at store.dbase.com was still online, but since the post was shared on Hacker News yesterday, even that has gone. One could say that after 47 years, dBase has finally been debased."
"Indirectly, what turned into dBase started out as a tool called JPLDIS, written for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's three Univac 1108 computers. A FORTRAN rewrite of the simpler Tymshare RETRIEVE [PDF] tool, it was started by Jack Hatfield and finished by Jeb Long. C. Wayne Ratliff then rewrote it in Intel 8080 assembly language for PTSDOS on his IMSAI 8080, and tried to sell it under the name Vulcan: he put an advert in BYTE Magazine, offering it for $50."
"Ashton-Tate renamed the database to dBASE II - to sound more mature - raised the price dramatically, and sold the CP/M version as shrink-wrap software. The late John Walker noted in 1982 that it was " selling like hotcakes at $800 a pop.""
"That same year, a PC version of dBase II became one of early commercial business applications for IBM's new PC. Former dBase Developer's Bulletin editor Jean-Pierre Martel'"
A blog post mourning dBase’s decline coincided with the disappearance of the remaining online presence, including the shutdown of the dBase website and its online store after being shared widely. The dBase lineage began with a tool called JPLDIS written for Jet Propulsion Laboratory computers, later rewritten in FORTRAN and then in Intel 8080 assembly for PTSDOS. Attempts to commercialize the tool under names such as Vulcan did not succeed initially, but licensing and a new company led to the creation of Ashton-Tate and the renaming to dBASE II. dBASE II was sold as shrink-wrap software, with pricing raised significantly, and early reports described strong sales and adoption on IBM’s new PC.
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