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IBM Lotus Symphony BETA - Free
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Posted by Ken Ashworth
Oct 15, 2007 at 02:58 PM
Came across this article at PC World:
First Look: IBM’s Symphony Office Suite
Free suite does much of what Microsoft Office can do and costs nothing.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138188/article.html
And here’s the link to the IBM site:
http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa
Not an endorsement, just passing along.
Posted by Tom S.
Oct 16, 2007 at 01:15 PM
I did download this some time ago. I find the potential intriguing because it has IBM behind it (read support for companies who are afraid to use an open source document format without it). But it will never gain any traction with me unless they package it and integrate it with Lotus Notes. Scripting would be a major plus as well as a database.
It will be interesting to keep an eye on it and see where it goes.
Tom S.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Oct 16, 2007 at 01:45 PM
I have downloaded this suite and tried it. It sure looks nice. One drawback seemed immediately apparent. There doesn’t seem to be any outlining function in the word processing component… unless I missed it.
I don’t think this suite is likely to challenge MS Office at all. The question is, how does it compare to other low cost/no cost office suites, such as OpenOffice and Ability?
Steve Z.
Posted by Graham Rhind
Oct 16, 2007 at 01:55 PM
For me having IBM behind it is a disadvantage rather than an advantage. IBM took Lotus over when its software was competitive and let it all die. This looks like an attempt to resurrect the (slightly updated) Lotus Office suite as a free version. I don’t think Microsoft need be worried.
I have never found any free office suite which can compete to any depth with MS Office. They will do 90% of what 90% of people require, but I have large and complicated documents and free or low-priced alternatives to MS Office just can’t manage them. OpenOffice cannot open large documents that even older versions of Word has no problems with, and Ability had to admit to me that their suite wasn’t as compatible with MS Office as they claimed after I sent them bug after diffference after bug after failure.
I won’t even be trying this one, I’m afraid ...
Graham
Tom S. wrote:
>I did download this some time ago. I find the potential intriguing because it has IBM
>behind it (read support for companies who are afraid to use an open source document
>format without it). But it will never gain any traction with me unless they package it
>and integrate it with Lotus Notes. Scripting would be a major plus as well as a
>database.
>
>It will be interesting to keep an eye on it and see where it goes.
>
>Tom S.
Posted by Tom S.
Oct 16, 2007 at 03:12 PM
I agree with your comment about IBM. I would point out, however, that they didn’t stop supporting Lotus and the support is what IBM is selling here. If companies invest in using the suite, they will probably always have the support to go with it. The programs, themselves, are basically a repackaged form of Open Office. If any open source programing organization is stable, its that one. So the program, itself, is unlikely to stop being developed.
Steve, the program should have an outlining component. I can’t imagine Open Office would have left it out.
Tom S.