
Brief information about the Software database "SoftBase"
========================================================

Windows Software Database with information about over 10000 products
and over 6000 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 March 25, 1994.
2  Newslist at least 30 pages March 25, 1994
3  WWW pages for suppliers
4  More and more information about latest shareware uploaded to
.  FTP-sites in Internet with info about versions and filenames
5  Mail order prices in USA updated.
6  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.
7  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.
8  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 214 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

