Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a looong time…
We do what we must, because we can!
Lotus was so intent on protecting their revenue stream from software piracy that they built copy protection into the program. If the program was copied from one drive to another, it would not run. So if one bought a new computer or if the hard drive failed, the program could not be transferred to a new drive. The first versions of the software were pretty buggy too. I always visualized a Lotus company with a few programmers and many lawyers. They finally included a floppy disk that would allow a very limited number of copies, but still a PITA.
For a sec I thought this was !retrocomputing@lemmy.sdf.org. They’d love this over there.
What is lotus 123?
Boomer spreadsheet program.
Not literally, it came out in 83 - it was the original ‘killer app’, and was behind the widespread adoption of microcomputers into business in the pre-network and internet days.
Sorry but it’s a blatant gen x spreadsheet program!
The last release was in 2002. It’s not limited to Gen X. As an older millennial, I leaned Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Word Pro before I was introduced to Microsoft’s Suite.
WordPerfect or gtfo
I miss Wordperfect, although I don’t miss the templates everyone had on their keyboards.
I mostly wish Word had “show codes.”
Opera Soft’s games ftw
Right but we don’t age things from it’s last release do we!
First released in 83 when I was 9 and I played with my ZX81.
Huh. I played with my penis. And an Atari 1040ST (a few years later).
Well then, Thanks for sharing! I moved on from a ZX81 to a BBC Master (128k+dbl sided 40/80T dual disk drive) and then to a Falcon 030 in late '92. Games sounded sooo much better on the Falcon 030
That hardware is so fascinating (in hindsight): I love that it had a hardware jpeg decoder. Fun times.
As a younger Gen-Xer, we were still using Lotus Notes for logging calls when I worked at Dell Tech support in 98-99. It sucked.
Hahahahaha.
I was still using Notes in 2013. Most functions had moved on, but for the government department that I was working for at the time it was essential for IM, group mailboxes, and… a specific type of diplomatic communication.
it was the original ‘killer app’
That’d be VisiCalc from all the way back in 1979. The slam-dunk argument against Steve Jobs wanting the Apple II to be a glorified appliance with only built-in applications. A lesson he still hadn’t fucking learned by the time the iPhone came out.
Lotus 1-2-3 was the IBM PC answer to that 8-bit microcomputer program. VisiCalc had a DOS version, but it was a deliberately identical port. Bugs and all. Lotus bought the company within two years of launching its properly modern competitor.
That’s an interesting factoid. Thanks
