Report on Lotus' Support for OS/2- by Martin Brampton

(editor's note: The following news first appeared in EurOS/2 magazine. See below for EurOS/2 contact information.)

Lotus confirms support for OS/2

John Throckmorton is head of all SmartSuite operations at Lotus Development Corporation. He has released the following letter, originally submitted to Network World:

Michael,

I believe that your article ("IBM treats 9-year-old OS/2 client like a second-class citizen", p. 15, Network World, Sept. 2, 1996) is unfair to Lotus and misrepresents our commitment to OS/2 customers. You claim that Lotus's decision to contract with Logica, Inc. for some development work on our OS/2 applications indicates that "IBM/Lotus has given up on developing OS/2 products." This statement is untrue. In fact, our decision to enlist an experienced OS/2 developer such as Logica, Inc. for a portion of the development work on our OS/2 applications is a sign that Lotus is especially commited to our customers and intends to release the best possible products to the OS/2 community.

Sincerely,

John C. Throckmorton
Sr. Vice President
Business Applications Development

Lotus makes pre-release OS/2 products available

The following is taken from recent Lotus announcements:

Pre-Release System Requirements

Word Pro and Freelance Graphics 96 Edition for OS/2 Warp Pre-Release:

Installation of the pre-requisite OS/2 FixPak will require up to an additional 18MB; OS/2 requires additional space for a swap file. Mouse optional but highly recommended.

When Will Word Pro 96 and Freelance 96 for OS/2 Warp Ship?

Word Pro and Freelance Graphics are both now in pre-release for final testing, and are expected to go gold in Q4, shortly after IBM's new fall release of OS/2 Warp V4 (code named Merlin). Language plans have U.S. English targeted for shipment in early Dec, followed shortly by French, Italian, German, Spanish, Int'l English and Danish (FIGSE+D) for shipment by year end. Additional languages to follow in early 97.

What about the rest of the suite apps? Remaining new native OS/2 suite applications, including 1-2-3, Approach, Organizer and ScreenCam, are on track for the first half of 97. Further details will be provided as we begin entering beta for each application later this year and into early 97.

In EMEA:
Lotus plans to initially ship Word Pro 96 and Freelance 96 for OS/2 Warp together, followed by a suite release when all six new native OS/2 applications are available.

Other worldwide regional plans will be confirmed as we near shipment.

Further pricing and packaging details will be provided through existing contacts in each region as we near shipment.

What's New in These Releases?

Lotus Word Pro 96 and Freelance Graphics 96 for OS/2 Warp are the first two major releases of a completely new line up of SmartSuite applications for OS/2 Warp. These releases are designed with the needs of our enterprise OS/2 customers in mind, including common features and file formats with their Windows counterparts, and native OS/2 features to make OS/2 users feel at home on their platform of choice.

EurOS/2 Contact Information

We would like to encourage anyone working to achieve successful OS/2 implementations to participate in EurOS/2. All communications are despatched electronically, via Internet or CompuServe. To receive regular information from EurOS/2, please let us know your first name, last name, company, job title, address, telephone, fax, Internet e-mail address, CompuServe e-mail address, and indicate which form of communication you prefer.

EurOS/2 can be contacted in the following ways:

Martin Brampton is the organizer of EurOS/2 and editor of EurOS/2 Magazine, published by e-mail and WWW.

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