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On Tuesday, with no fanfare, IBM closed the last chapter in the life of one of the most iconic early computer programs, Lotus 1-2-3, when it withdrew support for the final build of the software.
IBM Lotus 123 Millennium Edition, IBM Lotus SmartSuite 9.x, and Organizer have now officially all passed their end of life support date and, according to IBM's website, "No service extensions will be offered" ( http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS913-091 ) – not that anyone is seriously using the spreadsheet any more.
It's a sadly muted end for what was, at one time, the world's premier spreadsheet. Lotus 1-2-3 was one of the first applications that made IBM's original PC a serious business tool, but it fell by the wayside due to poor coding decisions, failure to adapt, and the crushing tactics of Microsoft.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Friday October 03 2014, @10:58AM
Go ahead and laugh if you wish, but many years ago, I started doing my income tax in Dan Bricklin's VisiCalc.
Now, mind you, my taxes are not very complicated.
But, I already had a box for everything, and all I had to do is put this year's number in the last year's box.
I have done this for about 30 years or so.
I keep telling myself to do something about it, but I will still fire up VisiCalc for another run each year.
Yes, I know VisiCalc's support is long since gone. Actually I never needed support at all. It just worked.
And its still working.
The problem does not seem to be VisiCalc's lifetime, rather it seems soon I will no longer be able to get the forms to transcribe the numbers into to mail to IRS.
Dan, you did a great job on that little program... I sure have enjoyed using it... its a really nice little tool.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @03:21PM
How about it? Lotus 1-2-3 was to IBM PC what Visicalc was to Apple II.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @07:02PM
I tried using a Visigoth to do my taxes once, but he generally made an awful mess of things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @07:10PM
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday October 04 2014, @06:47AM
Why would anybody laugh at you for using a tool that works for you? Even though I have Office 2K7 I'm still running my beloved Office 2K on my desktop AND my netbook...why? Why would I not? Its fast, has a low footprint, does everything I need it to and is solid as a rock. But I feel this way about any good tool, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
Of course this is NOT true of Lotus 1-2-3 because what they got rid of today was NOT Lotus but LINO, a cheap copy of Open Office skinned to look similar to the old Lotus. if you were gonna run LINO you might as well just went to the source and used OO or LO instead, because LINO was just a reskinning it was always behind the rel OO/LO releases and wasn't feature complete, last IU checked they just ripped Base out of OO before releasing as LINO.
So good riddance to another reskin of a piece of FOSS painted up to look like something else, reminds me of that Vista Linux that came out a few years back, why not just run the real deal instead of a knockoff that is only skin deep?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday October 04 2014, @09:15AM
I figured it was at least good for a chuckle that someone out there was still using some little program written to run DOS 1.0... The whole program is about 30Kbytes. I am pretty sure its written in assembler. Just like the FutureNet schematic capture program I still use ( Albeit I admit I am falling in love with Eagle.)
Funny thing, the executable is still on the web. Right Here! [bricklin.com]
My first one had copy protection, and I ran it under DOS 3.3, but the one I link to above is the same one I use now. I liked it because it was so damned simple.
I keep the executable and so far about 30 years of data files on one 1.44Mb floppy disk. I keep two copies in the little binder I store paper copies of my last three years returns. Usually, the VC.com file is on the machine, but if it isn't, there are multiple copies of it on the disks. I just did not want my tax data left laying around in my machine; once the job was done, I wanted to remove the disks, print the returns, mail to IRS, insert copies and return disks to binder until next year when I do the same again.
Some more old DOS programs I can't seem to shake are MathCad, Borland Eureka, Borland TurboC++ ( which is my quickie way of checking out my Arduino code ), and ( God forbid!!!) GWBasic! Damned near anything text based. I even have "TCP/IP Lean" protocol stacks written in TurboC++ so I can check for expected behaviour on the internet before downloading similar code into embedded systems - because the most I am apt to do is nothing more than send and receive a very specific packet structure and I do not want to spend a lot of overhead implementing the entire suite when all I need to do is exchange a few text strings. Just enough code to make and receive a packet the routers will route is good enough for me. Completely nonstandard contents, but as long as the addressing is right, I guess it doesn't matter much what in the envelope, as my code is at both ends. I just treat the internet like I do the post office.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]