IBM Lotus Symphony

A beta of IBM Lotus Symphony is now available. The details are at:
http://reviews.cnet.com/office-suite...ml?tag=bubbl_2

Symphony is free and CNet gave it a good review. It may be an
interesting substitute for three of the components of Microsoft Office.
I can't speak for Vista, but it installs and runs properly on Windows
Server 2008. Unlike Microsoft Office 2007 which has become so complex as
to be almost unusable, Symphony has a simple, clean, user friendly
interface. Symphony "Documents" can read and process Microsoft "Word"
documents.

Robbie wrote:
> A beta of IBM Lotus Symphony is now available. The details are at:
> http://reviews.cnet.com/office-suite...ml?tag=bubbl_2
>
>
> Symphony is free and CNet gave it a good review. It may be an
> interesting substitute for three of the components of Microsoft Office.
> I can't speak for Vista, but it installs and runs properly on Windows
> Server 2008. Unlike Microsoft Office 2007 which has become so complex as
> to be almost unusable, Symphony has a simple, clean, user friendly
> interface. Symphony "Documents" can read and process Microsoft "Word"
> documents.

Yes, I downloaded and installed it (on XP, not Vista although I'll fire
up the Vista box later today and give it a go) and it looks promising. A
bit slow, but it's still beta. It will be good to have an OpenOffice
alternative, although I have happily used OO for years. Thanks for
posting this.

As always, users should be cautious about running beta software and
understand that running beta software on a production machine is High
Risk and not recommended.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

* Malke:
> Robbie wrote:
>> A beta of IBM Lotus Symphony is now available. The details are at:
>> http://reviews.cnet.com/office-suite...ml?tag=bubbl_2
>>
>>
>> Symphony is free and CNet gave it a good review. It may be an
>> interesting substitute for three of the components of Microsoft Office.
>> I can't speak for Vista, but it installs and runs properly on Windows
>> Server 2008. Unlike Microsoft Office 2007 which has become so complex as
>> to be almost unusable, Symphony has a simple, clean, user friendly
>> interface. Symphony "Documents" can read and process Microsoft "Word"
>> documents.
>
> Yes, I downloaded and installed it (on XP, not Vista although I'll fire
> up the Vista box later today and give it a go) and it looks promising. A
> bit slow, but it's still beta. It will be good to have an OpenOffice
> alternative, although I have happily used OO for years. Thanks for
> posting this.
>
> As always, users should be cautious about running beta software and
> understand that running beta software on a production machine is High
> Risk and not recommended.

IBM Symphony is really just a rebranded/modified OpenOffice.


-Michael

MICHAEL wrote:

> IBM Symphony is really just a rebranded/modified OpenOffice.
>
>
> -Michael

No, I don't think so. It is true that IBM is going to be working with OO
but if you install Symphony you will see that it is quite different from
OO. In any case, it is good news that IBM is actively working on this.
Here is its homepage:

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/l...hony/home.jspa

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

* Malke:
> MICHAEL wrote:
>
>> IBM Symphony is really just a rebranded/modified OpenOffice.
>>
>>
>> -Michael
>
> No, I don't think so. It is true that IBM is going to be working with OO but if you install
> Symphony you will see that it is quite different from OO. In any case, it is good news that
> IBM is actively working on this. Here is its homepage:
>
> http://symphony.lotus.com/software/l...hony/home.jspa
>
> Malke

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2184621,00.asp
<quote>
"I think IBM Lotus Symphony is likely to become a useful boost for the OpenOffice.org-based
family of products, and it's sensible for IBM to offer the suite outside of the Notes 8 client,
to help its version of the OpenOffice.org applications build momentum," said Peter O'Kelly, an
analyst with The Burton Group. O'Kelly added that he doubts Symphony will put any real dent in
Microsoft Office's market share, but he said it may help to consolidate the many
OpenOffice.org-based offerings available today.
</quote.


-Michael