I was a software isturnctor at that time and remember the popularity of WordPerfect. This pre-dates Windows 98. As I remember, when Windows 3.1 and later Windows 95 was released Microsoft was not releasing enough technical information to allow other vendors to switch from DOS based software to Windows. Microsoft, at that time, claimed that their OS and Application divisions were totally separate so that MS Office had no advantage to other competing vendors. Years later they proudly claimed that MS Office was the best office suite because of the close development of Windows and MS Office.Paradox and DBase were great database programs but they, as well, struggled to port their applications to Windows. Microsoft rushed to market with Access to grab that market. The original product was terrible but gave MS enough of a toe hold in the market that their updates and patches made the product successful.