What "Office-Like" Program do I get for free? I fo

[Plinkerton]

I remember reading a thread, in which someone asked where their free copy of "such and such" was. (I can't remember the name).

Someone replied that in the back of the T42 manual, there should be a number to call, to request your free copy.

The program was sort of MS Office-Like if I remember correctly. It had a word processor, and I believe some sort of PowerPoint like program.

What was this program called? I can't look in the manual, as I don't have one at the moment.

I want to say it started with an "L", but I could be completely off...

Thanks!
-Plink-

[JHEM]

Lotus SmartSuite: http://lotus.com/products/product2.nsf/wdocs/sshome

All you need to do is call IBM support and tell them you want your SmartSuite CD.

Regards,

James

[dd]

Linux ?

[Plinkerton]

That's it JHEM! I was right with the letter "L"!

Thanks a lot for that. I'll have to give them a call.

[Plinkerton]

To help anyone who wants to get Lotus Smartsuite, but doesn't know who to call, this is the number:

1-800-690-3899

I finally found this number out after being dragged around in circles by the geniuses at IBM.

[admsteiner]

Does it matter when you bought your laptop? And does this apply to all laptops, including the Thinkpad Express models (T42)?
Thanks,
--Adam

[Plinkerton]

I have an Express model, T42, so it definitely applies to that.

I have heard someone mention that if you call within the first 30 days, they will send it to you, but I'm not sure about afterward.

The lady though, that I talked to, didn't have any connection with my prior account info that IBM usually has. She took my serial number, my name address, etc., all the stuff they usually know already.

So, because of this, I really doubt they would tell you that they wouldn't send it to you.

Might as well give it a shot. Took about 5 minutes to call. I also got Lotus Notes, though I don't really know what that is.

Keep us updated if you call and everything goes well.

[lfeagan]

As a note for people into alternatives, OpenOffice.org is a very good alternative. I personally find it to be superiour to MS Office for more serious publishing tasks than Word but when I don't feel like doing the typesetting myself or don't need that functionality.

[Plinkerton]

I concur.

OpenOffice is great. i found it when I was (and when I say I was, I mean my friend was ) looking for an illegal downloadable copy of MS Word. I stumbled on OpenOffice and it turned out to be great. It really saved my [censored] when I needed to type a Word compatable file for school.

I actually have no idea what Lotus Smartsuite is. I guess it's "office like". I just want it cause it's free, and I'm gonna take everything free I can get from IBM, since they keep sending me computers with stuck pixels, and cause I spent so [censored] much on this thing...

[hausman]

I actually have no idea what Lotus Smartsuite is. I guess it's "office like".

Historical note: Lotus was the company that developed what turned out to be the first "killer app" for the original IBM PC. The product was Lotus 1-2-3 and it included a the first "suite" of office apps, including spreadsheet, graphing module and (very primitive) word processing and database functions. During the PC-DOS era they were actually the largest PC application software company (larger even than Microsoft.) When Windows came out Microsoft beat them to the punch on native Windows applications and soon MS Office became the de facto standard. Lotus then went on to develop another major application called Notes, but they kept on with their Windows-based office apps as SmartSuite in a vain effort to compete with MS Office. When IBM bought Lotus they did it in order to own Notes, but they also got SmartSuite. In the early days of the acquisition IBM tried to popularize SS by forcing their employees to use it. That, even more vain effort, failed even worse than Lotus' effort, but since IBM already own the code, it costs them next-to-nothing to offer "free" copies to buyers of IBM notebooks and desktops

[Plinkerton]

Thanks hausman. That was an interesting piece of knowledge there.

[edcard]

... The product was Lotus 1-2-3 and it included a the first "suite" of office apps, including spreadsheet, graphing module and (very primitive) word processing and database functions....

Are you thinking of Lotus Symphony? As far as I can recall, 1-2-3 did not include word processing or database modules. I believe the first suite was actually called the "Smart" software package which in fact may be a predecessor to Lotus Smartsuite, although at the time it was not a Lotus product.

[hausman]

Are you thinking of Lotus Symphony? As far as I can recall, 1-2-3 did not include word processing or database modules.

Not officially. The original box (*) touts "Spreadsheet. Graphics. Information Management. Plus." Information Management refers to the database functions under the /DATA menu. And Plus refers to the very primitive word processing that one could do by typing text into spreadsheet cells. As primitive as it sounds now, it was a very sophisticated package at the time that quickly unseated VisiCalc as killer app for the new PC.

The Symphony (and Jazz for Mac) suites came later, but were never the commercial successes that 1-2-3 was. The WP came from Lotus' acquisition of Ami Pro software. But it was 1-2-3 that made Lotus the largest PC software company of the era, just as VisiCalc had done for Personal Software during the Apple II era.

BTW, even the current version of SmartSuite continues to call its spreadsheet "1-2-3."

(*) I still have a copy of the release 1.0 package. It ran only on the original two-floppy IBM PC. When IBM introduced the XT with a built-in HD, 1.0 would hang. Lotus had to rush a 1.0A version that recognized DOS 2.0's disk support and file system extensions. (1-2-3 also had a copy-protection system that depended on there being 8 sectors on a disk track. That was not the case with the XT's 10MB HD. I can elaborate if there's anyone out there who still doesn't know how to crack that copy-protection scheme )

[edcard]

Just as I thought then.

[dd]

Received 2 cd's today in the post:

Lotus Smartsuite millenium Edition release 9.8

Lotus Notes 6.5 ..........

So it appears that YES you do get Lotus software with the thinkpads !

Thanks

[yellow_lenghan]

If you buy the thinkpad from someone else than IBM (such as Bill), do you have to ask Bill or IBM to get the free cd's?

[dd]

Hi

I got my thinkpad from Bill



I asked for the cd's ...........

Hope this helps

BTW: I did ring IBM, but they gave me the link below: just entered my serial number of my thinkpad and the deiks were sent! I believe if you are in the States that you just ring up IBM! The link below is for Australina NZ and Asia


http://smartsuite.modusmedia.com/