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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) by jcross on Friday October 03 2014, @09:57PM
You're absolutely right they're not doing it out of altruism, but according to their website they have over 600 devs working on over 100 open source projects, which is a pretty significant contribution in my book. Even though it's done for profit, I'm still grateful.
It's also true that SCO attacked first, but IBM did use some of their patent portfolio in the counterclaims. It was a small part of a bigger strategy, but still.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_v._IBM#IBM_counterclaims_against_SCO [wikipedia.org]