[Obituary] PowerPoint developer Dennis Austin passes away

Dennis Austin, co-developer of the slide creation software PowerPoint, has passed away. He was 76 years old.

Dennis Austin, software developer who created PowerPoint, dies at 76 - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/09/08/dennis-austin-software-developer-powerpoint-dies/

PowerPoint co-creator Dennis Austin is dead at 76 - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/9/23865578/dennis-austin-powerpoint-co-creator-died

Beginnings of PowerPoint - 102745695-01-acc.pdf
(PDF file) https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf

After studying engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Santa Barbara, Mr. Austin began working for the software development company ``Forethought'' in 1984 and began developing slide creation software with Robert Gaskins, who worked at the company. Ta.

The slide creation software was developed under the code name 'Presenter'. In his memoirs, Mr. Austin talked about the naming of PowerPoint, saying, ``While on a business trip, Bob (Mr. Gaskins) noticed a sign that said ``Power Point'' installed on the runway of an airport.The name was trademarked. After passing the test, we began working on the development of the ``About PowerPoint'' screen.''

Austin also said, ``Bob spent hours developing ideas with me, and my design reflected his feedback.'' I liken our joint development project to an architectural project. Bob said, ``I want to build my dream house,'' and I acted like his architect,'' he said, revealing that both of them contributed greatly to the development of PowerPoint. In his book Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint, Gaskins writes, ``[Austin] came up with at least half of the main ideas. If he hadn't been involved in the development, no one would have named PowerPoint. 'I would never have heard of it,' he said, underscoring the magnitude of Austin's contribution.

PowerPoint was released in 1987, but when it was first released it was only compatible with Macintosh (Mac) and did not work on Windows. Microsoft acquired Forethought for $14 million (approximately 2.1 billion yen at the rate at the time) a few months after the release of PowerPoint. At this time, The New York Times, which reported on the acquisition, described it as ``Microsoft's first large-scale acquisition.''

Then, in 1990, PowerPoint for Windows was released. After its acquisition by Microsoft, he continued to develop PowerPoint until his retirement in 1996. In an interview conducted by the Computer History Museum, Mr. Austin said that he was involved as a main developer until ``PowerPoint 3'' released in 1992.

At the time of article creation, PowerPoint not only runs on OSes such as Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, but is also available as an online tool.