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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: 2, Interesting) by schad on Friday October 03 2014, @06:15PM
I was not, but I suspect that the IBM years were pretty grim. Lotus's products were all second-rate by the time IBM bought them, and IBM bought them mainly to bring an office suite to OS/2. OS/2 itself was... perhaps not second-rate, but definitely second-place at best. I expect it would've been a death march.
My fondest memory of Lotus is from one of the Dirk Gently books. It features some guy (not the titular detective) who starts a software company, and the highlight of his life is being mentioned in the same sentence as Lotus: "Such-and-such software company, unlike such successful firms as Lotus..."