Dennis Austin was a software developer who co-created the slideshow software PowerPoint.
- Died: September 1, 2023 (Who else died on September 1?)
- Details of death: Died at his home in Los Altos, California, of lung cancer that metastasized to the brain at the age of 76.
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Dennis Austin’s legacy
Austin joined the software startup Forethought in 1983, working alongside entrepreneur Robert Gaskins to create a program aimed at transparencies for overhead projectors. This is what the first version of PowerPoint – initially called Presenter – did, allowing the user to make transparencies with graphics and text. Renamed PowerPoint in 1987, the software was acquired by Microsoft that same year, along with Forethought.
Austin followed PowerPoint to Microsoft, leading further development of the software until his retirement in 1996. As PowerPoint evolved into the slideshow software that is now widely used in business and beyond, it became the target of derision. Some blamed the software itself for the way some users employ it as a bandage for an uninteresting or poorly researched presentation. But Austin and Gaskins pointed out that this was a failing of the user, not of the software.
Notable quote
“[PowerPoint is] just like the printing press. It enabled all sorts of garbage to be printed.” —from a 2007 interview for the Wall Street Journal
Tributes to Dennis Austin
Full obituary: The Washington Post
