(In a reference to its original developer, Graphic Communications Inc., Freelance's executable file was named GCIFL.)

Freelance worked within DOS to produce slides comparable to those of Microsoft PowerPoint, a program originally created for the Macintosh.

When IBM then acquired Lotus, Microsoft used a licensing issue to delay IBM's access to the Windows 95 code base, allowing Microsoft Office to be released six months ahead of Lotus SmartSuite.

Freelance was eventually grafted into a new version of 1-2-3 for Windows (Smart Suite), but by then PowerPoint and Excel had become dominant.

However, the quality of the Freelance product eventually deteriorated as IBM's support of SmartSuite dwindled.