My longtime dream of being a programmer for Beagle Bros, Inc., the coolest Apple software company ever, came true in 1989. But it was not to last. After Beagle was sold to one of its programmers, it was heavy on programming talent, but light on experienced management. The struggling company began laying off employees. The day I was sent home I vowed never again to work for anyone but myself, a promise I would break later (only to ponder again recently).

The best chronicle of my early computer history (including fresh details about Beagle Bros and MDG) is in this GEnieLamp newsletter interview from 1992, posted on the GEnie online service.

So as Beagle was shutting down, the Morgan Davis Group was just booting up. MDG consisted of the three of us (me, myself, and I). Together, we put out several successful products to customers all around the world over a six year period. Here’s how we creatively distributed the labor…

Me, being the technical one, conceived and wrote all the software, including support systems, handled all tech support, and administrated ProLine, our 24-hour BBS. Myself, being semi-creative, managed the marketing, designed, wrote and typeset the accompanying documentation, ad copy, newsletters, and press releases. And, finally, I being the hard-working grunt, developed packaging solutions, copied disks, bound manuals, sorted bulk mailings, boxed quantities of products for retail distributors, and schlepped orders to the post office every day. We each put in an eight-hour shift, or so it felt. We were having great fun — innovating and creating unique, high-quality products like no other schizophrenically-staffed solo company.

Found here are products MDG sold commercially, now available for downloading for free. To learn more about them, click on the manual covers to view them in glorious Adobe Acrobat format.

LEGAL NOTICE: This site contains links to copyrighted software that you may download, use for non-commercial purposes, and give away exactly as-is, provided you include this notice. Modifying copies for others or commercial usage requires written authorization from Morgan Davis.

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