Notice how installation could be customized to save space and select different target drives for different things, thus allowing for people with less storage space to install a “leaner” version of the software.
Windows 8 lotus 123 software#
The software itself was provided on four 1.44Mb High Density IBM Format disks. It involves the regular disk-swapping procedure as was common at the time. The first step is to install it – and instead of bombarding you with images, I’ve decided to go for a few snapshots stitched into an animated GIF. However, now’s a good time to give it a spin, as a way of saying goodbye to 1-2-3.
This isn’t a very fondly remembered version of the software, being mostly forgotten as a graphical “port” of the text-based 1-2-3. Their GUI Effortsįortunately, despite not having a copy of the MS-DOS version of 1-2-3, a kind member of OCAU managed to supply me with a stash of floppies including Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows Version 1.1, which appears to be released one year after Microsoft Excel 3.0 for Windows. I had used it at one point in time, but not for anything serious. This is probably the main way most Lotus 1-2-3 users would remember their experience with 1-2-3, because by the time graphical user interfaces come around, Lotus was very much on the back foot.Įven later, after the acquisition by IBM, with Lotus Smartsuite bundled as OEM products with laptops, the software failed to gain much traction (along with other software such as Word Pro/AmiPro). The interface is very basic looking, after all, this is the MS-DOS version which displays text characters only. The software itself was highly optimized, using direct-access routines to speed up performance. This is the later version 2.2 for MS-DOS, which was born the same year I was! This one could be run in various different graphic modes, such as VGA, EGA, Hercules, etc.
Windows 8 lotus 123 serial#
Unfortunately, it refuses to go any further on DOSbox, probably because of the lack of serial number. This was the rather memorable splash screen for Lotus 1-2-3, featuring a logo made from MS-DOS characters. In remembering, and celebrating the passing of Lotus 1-2-3, I did manage to find some Spanish copies of evaluations of Version 2.0 and 2.2. I grew up with Lotus 1-2-3 on MS-DOS, and although I didn’t use it much and don’t have a copy of it anymore (as the disks were disposed of before I realized their value), there’s not much I can do about that. I’m sure hardcore spreadsheet users would appreciate this as one of the pivotal moments in spreadsheet history, even if it is was a long time coming. Lotus 1-2-3 was officially discontinued by IBM, which acquired Lotus in 1995, on 30th September 2014, to very little fanfare. Their lack of consideration for graphical user interfaces led them to fall behind, providing an opportunity for Microsoft Excel to take over. It enjoyed the premier position until the mid 1990s, when problems with their release schedule and resource requirements started to become problematic, and Microsoft Windows started to take traction.
First released in 26 January 1983 for MS-DOS, it was feature rich, as well as high performance compared to its contemporaries, and easily overtook VisiCalc, MultiPlan and SuperCalc. Lotus 1-2-3 was one of the major spreadsheet software packages that propelled the PC to the forefront of business.