Now 1-2-3, the core product that brought Lotus its fame, takes its turn on the chopping block. According to the 123 help file in my old copy of Smartsuite for OS/2 (1997) Working with 1-2-3 files. In 2012, IBM started retiring the Lotus brand While the expected culture war between the ultra-liberal Lotus and the buttoned-down IBM never happened, the acquisition didn't breath any new life into Lotus 1-2-3. When Microsoft Excel took over clear first place, Lotus was acquired by IBM in a hostile takeover in 1995. By the early 1990s, 1-2-3 had fallen into third place in the eyes of spreadsheet users.
1-2-3 would face competition from programs such as Excel and Quatro Pro that would weaken its hold on the marketplace by the late 1980s. With the opening of the Intel architecture and MS-DOS to IBM PC clones, Lotus 1-2-3 became the essential application for the 1980s PC revolution.
Its day is finally done.įar faster than its competition, such as SuperCalc and Microsoft's first spreadsheet, MultiPlan, Lotus 1-2-3 would become both IBM's and Microsoft's first killer app. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. I have tried reinstalling twice, including deleting folders left behind after uninstalling in the Program Files and userAppData folders, but the same problem still occurs.
Clicking OK on that window merely opens the main OO4 screen.
It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. I have used Lotus 123 (Version 5) for many years and all of my files (both company and personal) are on this software (registration 1R00151-32281470). Opening Lotus 123 files with OO4 Calc was working fine, but now it crashes to the Document Recovery window. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer.