[Blood of Tyrants]

I learned on Lotus 123. Excel copied it.

[pepsi_junkie]

I learned on Lotus 123. Excel copied it. Microsoft copied everything. It copied Excel from Lotus, Word from Word Perfect, Windows from Macs, etc etc. Their deal with IBM (and then later most of the manufacturers) to put Windows on all the PCs gave them the ability to never have to innovate, just watch what others liked, then buy the company that made it or just steal it and put them out of business.

[Dr. Sivana]

I learned on Lotus 123. Excel copied it.

When Lotus sued PaperBack Software and Mosaic for VP-Planner and Twin, they explicitly stated that Excel was NOT a copy of Lotus 1-2-3. Yeah, they are both spreadsheets, and 1-2-3 was MUCH faster on a PC because it stuck everything in RAM and was written in Assembler in the early versions.

But Excel is no more a copy of 1-2-3 than 1-2-3 is a copy of T-Maker.

Complain about Excel all you want, and when I work on Excel files in LibreOffice Calc, it is often locked when I open it up in a Windows boot session (a milder version of what the author complained of). Still, unlike the '80s, no modern spreadsheet is as capable, certainly not in Linux land. In the '80s, Quattro Pro could compete on the Windows side, and Trapeze and Claris Resolve on the Mac side. Don't forget Lotus Improv on the NeXT! I would love to see a reboot of Improv, but the buyer from IBM of Lotus Software, HCL contracting, is an unlikely candidate to revive Improv, Symphony, 1-2-3, or Jazz.