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>VisiCalc inspired Lotus 123, a similar program for IBM PCs. Bosses were much more willing to order a PC for their staff than something built by California hippies. As they used to say, you’ll never get fired for buying IBM.

Is this really true? I don't remember this being a widely held viewpoint but then again I was 10 years old. Back then, normal people didn't know who Steve Jobs was, never mind his damn-hippy ways.



My impression is that Apple II/VisiCalc were used by small/personal business and Lotus 123 was for big corporations/industry. But I might be wrong since I wasn't even born on that period.


The IBM rep was on first name basis with my Dad and his boss, those folks at Apple didn't have a rep.


Putting aside all the cultural/branding/sales stuff, the IBM supported more memory and therefore larger spreadsheets.

The first expanded memory (>640K) spec was pushed by Lotus ("LIM EMS").




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