Lotus Magellan

Operation

Running under MS-DOS, Magellan scans the directories and files on a drive or floppy diskettes and creates a master index. It is aware of various current formats and provides the ability to view files without launching the original applications that created them. Its most powerful feature is fuzzy searching, connecting files by relative frequency of keywords, allowing the user to organize related data no matter where or in what format it existed on the user's computer.

Given this "semantic view" of the user's file system, Magellan not only exposes "hidden meaning" from disparate data, but also facilitates the actual movement of files and directories into a better physical organization. Advertisements promised to "Get all your ducks in a row" and showed a picture of a line of obedient rubber ducks.

Fate

Lotus discontinued Magellan in the early 1990s, after selling about 500,000 copies at about $50 each.{{cite magazine

Reception

James Fallows bemoaned Magellan's discontinuation, writing in 1997 that he still used it despite the difficulty of running the DOS application on Microsoft Windows.

References

References

1. [https://hbr.org/1998/11/the-new-math-of-ownership The New Math of Ownership], By Bill Gross, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1998 Issue, ''...In 1986, my brother, Larry, and I sold our software company, GNP Development, to Lotus Development and spent the next seven years as Lotus employees. But we felt like owners because, unlike other Lotus employees, Larry and I earned royalties on the products we developed for the company. These included HAL, a software program that simplified Lotus 1-2-3, and Magellan, which allowed PC users to quickly scan the contents of disks...''
2. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KjsEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Lotus+Magellan%22+%22Bill+Gross%22&pg=PT4 Beta Testers Sing the Praises of Magellan 2.0] By Barbara Darraw and Peggy Watt, InfoWorld, 19 Mar 1990, Page 5, ''..."We've added tons of options," said Bill Gross, a Magellan developer...''
3. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7npTtcjLOHsC&dq=%22Lotus+Magellan%22+%22Bill+Gross%22&pg=PA119 Idealab's Find], PC Mag, 8 Apr 2003, Page 119, ''..."I was doing this back in the 1980s with Lotus Magellan."...But the idea behind Magellan was a sound one, and creator Bill Gross and his current company, ldealab,...''
4. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_z0EAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Magellan%22+%22Bill+Gross%22&pg=PA106 Notes From The Field: Magellan on the rocks?], By Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld, 17 Feb 1992, Page 106, ''...Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Lotus, which has a Windows version of Magellan — one of my favorite programs — but ... Fine, so they don't want the product, but what's worse is they won 't even sell it back to the developer, Bill Gross...''
5. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qPzglj0Y0CMC&dq=Bill%20Gross%20pimco%20bond%20capital%20magellan&pg=PA33 Lotus's Magellan: The Fast, Easy Way To Manage a Disk Full of Information], By Bill Howard, PC Mag, 13 Jun 1989, Page 33, ''... Magellan is the brainchild of Bill Gross,...''
6. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jbft8HXJZwQC&dq=%22larry+Gross%22++%22magellan%22&pg=PA107 A Successor to Magellan, R.I.P.?], By Jim Seymor, PC Mag, 3 Oct 2000, Page 107, ''... Since then I've importuned Bill and Larry Gross, the brothers who wrote the program...''
7. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cZXvAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Lotus+Magellan%22&pg=RA1-PA62 Magellan: Information Retrieval Software from Lotus], By Greg Scott, U-M Computing News, Volume 4, Page 10-12, ''...Lotus. Magellan was announced in January 1989 with an April shipping date. With a list price of $195 (commonly discounted below $100), the program is not cheap, and it lacks some of GOfer's niceties. Yet Magellan works as it should...''
8. [https://books.google.com/books?id=XToEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Lotus+Magellan%22&pg=PT20 Users Praise Lotus Magellan Upon Shipment], By Ed Scannell, InfoWorld, 24 Apr 1989, Page 21, ''...Lotus Development Corp. shipped Magellan last week to users who are generally pleased with the program...''
9. [https://books.google.com/books?id=UDoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Lotus+Magellan%22&pg=PT59 Reviews:Magellan Smoothly Links DOS Shell, Search Features], By John Walkenbach, InfoWorld, 15 May 1989, Page 73
10. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9wwQdu9dei0C&dq=%22larry+Gross%22++%22magellan%22&pg=PA51 HOT PROSPECT: Lotus's Magellan Sails Through Files and Displays Popular File Formats], PC Mag, 28 Feb 1989, Page 51, ''...Called Magellan, the program reads the most popular file formats, ... Magellan, due out this winter, was written by Bill and Larry Gross,...''
11. [https://books.google.com/books?id=G4lbfW7i6xAC&dq=Lotus+Magellan+2.0+released&pg=PT61 Improved: Lotus Magellan, Version 2.0], PC Mag, 27 Mar 1990, Page 54
12. [https://books.google.com/books?id=aSD1Cp-McO8C&dq=Lotus+Magellan+2.0+released&pg=PA55 Magellan: Strong text searcher, weak DOS shell], by Derek Slater, Computerworld, 3 Dec 1990, Page 55, ''...With Release 2.0, Lotus Development Corp.'s Magellan...enhanced by support for 40 different file formats, up from 10 in Version 1.0...''
13. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cAmo4wSwQJ0C&dq=Lotus+Magellan+2.0+released&pg=PT11 Lotus upgrades Magellan, tunes up Symphony], By Sally Cusack, Computerworld, 26 Mar 1990, ''...Lotus Development Corp. last week unveiled Version 2.0 of Lotus Magellan...''