After almost 30 years, IBM ends support for Lotus 1-2-3

 

 

If there are still any diehard users of Lotus 1-2-3, the venerable spreadsheet program that once ruled the first wave of personal computers in the 1980s, prepare to go without official support soon.

 

A report on tech site GigaOM said IBM, which bought the spreadsheet's creator Lotus in 1995, officially ended support for 1-2-3 last September 30. The first version of the software came out in 1983.

 

"Up until then, WordPerfect ruled in word processors, Lotus in spreadsheets and Software Publishing’s Harvard Graphics in presentations. Until Microsoft had a stroke of genius of bundling its spreadsheet, word processor and presentation packages together and selling them at a discount over what each product would have cost separately," GigaOM said.

 

Lotus' program had ruled the spreadsheet world before Microsoft came up with Excel.

 

Since Microsoft's Office began its onslaught in the productivity area, 1-2-3 and other programs in Lotus' SmartSuite struggled.

 

GigaOM also noted 1-2-3 was not the first “electronic spreadsheet,” as the distinction went to VisiCalc. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News