Long live Lotus Symphony!

If you’re more experienced than I am, the names IBM and Lotus will definitely ring a bell. For all you younger viewers out there, the Lotus Suite was a set of office applications for the corporate and consumer world. They usually came pre-installed on IBM machines (I have an affectionate IBM machine called “Beigey” that came with it) running Windows 98 or earlier.

So, what happened to Lotus Smart Suite? I’m guessing the popularity of Microsoft Office drowned it out and it was recalled by IBM for some re-engineering; and the result it produced was Lotus Symphony. Due to the popularity of free office applications (I’m guessing), IBM decided to do the same and make Lotus Symphony a freebie.

How is Lotus Symphony different?

• You’re in charge! Lotus Symphony is based on the Open Document Format (ODF) standard-which means you’re not locked into proprietary file formats, software licensing agreements and upgrades. Finally, free tools and freedom of choice!

Can Lotus Symphony handle my existing files?

• With Lotus Symphony, you can import, edit and save a variety of file formats including Microsoft Office files. You can even export your documents to Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF). The tools work with computers running both Microsoft Windows and Linux- environments, with support for Apple Macintosh planned for the future.

For more information and a list of FAQ, visit: http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/product_faqs…

It does sound pretty interesting, and even though it’s still in its beta stages, I might end up giving it a run-through. I do hope that its GUI will be prettier than the one OpenOffice.org sports though – it’s honestly not that hard to do (not that I don’t appreciate the guys at OpenOffice.org).

Lotus Symphony’s suite will compose of three programs all quite aptly named; word processor Lotus Symphony Documents, slide show creator Lotus Presentations, and graph/data manager Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets. Although there have been quite a few negative reactions already, I’m sure that everyone without Microsoft Office that don’t prefer OpenOffice.org will be relieved to have an alternative to turn to.

Now, I’m not saying Lotus Symphony will be able to out-sell or out-run Microsoft Office 2007 (have you seen the Ribbon?), but I can hardly compare the two in the same category, as you need to pay for one and you can get the other for free. Download with reservations though, it’s still in its beta stages so it might be a bit buggy.