IBM takes on Microsoft Office again with Lotus Symphony

Note: the description of the original Lotus Symphony product has been corrected.

An emboldened IBM challenged Microsoft's desktop application dominance with the introduction on Tuesday of IBM Lotus Symphony, a suite of free desktop applications.

Lotus Symphony is made up of three applications--word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs--which IBM already ships as part of Lotus 8.

The offering is in beta and is available as a free download with "community support" from IBM's Web site. IBM is considering other support options, according to a company executive.

Lotus Symphony Documents is IBM's editing software, designed for simplicity and standards support.

(Credit: IBM )

The name Lotus Symphony is recycled; it was the name of a desktop application suite that Lotus originally offered in the 1980s. In this renewed desktop software push, IBM is offering an "open" alternative to Microsoft's proprietary Office product line.

The software is based on the Eclipse open-source framework and natively supports the OpenDocument Format, or ODF, a standard document format derived from the OpenOffice open-source desktop suite.

The applications can also work with Microsoft Office documents and output Adobe PDF documents. People can make templates from existing Office documents, though Office documents with macros and other advanced features will not convert exactly, according to an IBM FAQ.

Significantly, Lotus Symphony will run on both Windows desktop computers and Linux machines. Support for Apple's Mac OS computers is planned.

"IBM is committed to opening office desktop productivity applications, just as we helped open enterprise computing with Linux," Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM Software Group, said in a statement.

Mills and Mike Rhodin, Lotus' general manager, are hosting a press conference in New York on Tuesday to introduce Lotus Symphony.

IBM last week said it is joining the OpenOffice.org open-source project and will be contributing human resources and code to bolster the project's initiatives, though it did not commit to offering support to business customers who use OpenOffice.

The Lotus Symphony product, to be integrated with other business applications, is designed for simplicity. It is aimed at both end users and business customers.

"It's not about the document on the desktop anymore. It's all about making information universally accessible and putting it to work on any platform and on the Web in highly flexible ways," Mills said in a statement.

IBM has been assembling a strategy for several years to pry away the control that Microsoft has over corporate desktop software.

It launched a desktop software strategy called Workplace, setting development off the Lotus Notes Productivity Tools, which have now cumulatively become Lotus Symphony.

IBM has also invested heavily in Eclipse "rich client" software because it is extensible with plug-ins and can run on different destkop operating systems.

Lotus Symphony is a departure for IBM in that it is offered directly to consumers, as well as business, rather than part of its Lotus collaboration and e-mail software.

On a technical level, Lotus Symphony is "fat client" software. Until now, IBM has favored desktop productivity applications that are managed by a server.

[Commander_Spock]

Who ever said "Elephants Can't Dance"...

... to the Sound Of Symphonies! Well, Commander_Spock and Crew just had that gut feeling that all will see this happening sooner rather than later; and, especially since the "festive seasons" are nearly here - again. One should guess that it must be time for that ISO Approved Standards Party; and, guess which companies will not make it to the GALA!

[Fake Donald Trump]

Notice that IBM had to use OpenOffice.Org codebase

and cannot innovate software anymore. IBM/Lotus has turned into a joke.

I'll give Lotus Symphony a try, but I don't see what advantage it has over OpenOffice.Org, StarOffice, or other things it uses code from.

StarOffice:
http://sun.com/staroffice

Also available for free with the Google pack:
http://pack.google.com

OpenOffice.org:
http://www.openoffice.org/

[Lolo Gecko]

I Been Microsofted ...

are these guys impaired? or what? they jus' can't seem to stop diggin' :)

[linuxbeatsMS]

OpenProj gets added to the Suite and it is complete

Wow, what a great announcement from IBM. I have been using Projity's project management solutions along with OpenOffice. I use it on Linux and Windows and it has been a wonderful experience docs, spreadsheets, presentations and projects. You can simply open existing native Microsoft Office files and you are up and running immediately. It is great to see IBM contribute. They should bundle OpenProj into the Suite and you replace Project which would have cost me $1,000 for each copy I was going to add (3) until I migrated. IBM Symphony will ease the cost of the other elements !!!! Watch out Redmond

[Scott Trotter]

Wrong description of original "Symphony"

The author is incorrect about the original use of the name "Symphony." The original Lotus desktop spreadsheet product was called "1-2-3." "Symphony" was the name of a follow-on product which was an integrated office suite that included a 1-2-3-like spreadsheet, as well as a word processor and a database. IBM's use of the name is correct.

[davebell55]

response

Boy, do I remember Symphony. Damn, had to be one of the hardest programs ever to actually use. Darn near had to be a programmer :) Dave

[Fake Donald Trump]

The original "Lotus Symphony"

was not free either, and it was a follow up to Lotus 123 in 1985. It was one of the first software bundles if you ignore Appleworks and other all-in-one programs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Symphony

The first incarnation of Lotus Symphony was an integrated software package for DOS that was developed by Lotus Development as a follow-on to its hugely popular spreadsheet program, Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus Jazz on the Apple Macintosh was a sibling product.

Although 1-2-3 had originally been billed as an integrated product with spreadsheet, database and graphing functions (hence the name "1-2-3"), truly integrated products such as AppleWorks started to become popular, and so Lotus tried their hand.

Symphony is a DOS program that is loaded entirely into memory when started. Using ALT-F10 the user can alternate among the five "environments" of the program, each a rendering of the same underlying data. The environments are:

* SHEET, a spreadsheet very similar to 1-2-3
* DOC, a word processor
* GRAPH, a graphical charting program
* FORM, a table-based database management system
* COMM, a communications program

[ppgreat]

Less copying, more innovation

Word processing and spreadsheets and presentations, oh my!

Since the way we do business has been co-opted by a Microsoft
mentality of how to do business, the only thing that is going to
unseat MS is a non-Office suite of services that people will jump on
board with because it truly makes one more productive and isn't
tied to a whole bunch of other MS apps and servers.

[oxtail01]

IBM? didn't they give away the farm?

IBM basically gave away the farm when they gave DOS away and it's successor, Windows to MS. They failed miserably trying to recapture the market with PS/2. MS screwed everyone by withholding vital info for transitioning to Windows and dominant DOS players such as Lotus 123 and WordPerfect and DBase and Foxpro basically lost out. Unless someone can come up a way of breaking the lock between the operating system and the office suite that MS sells to corporations, no amount of free software is going to have a significant impact. MS dominates thru monopolistic practices, not thru innovation. And unless corporate IT departments have the guts to break away from MS, it really don't matter much. You think IT guys will risk their jobs to do so? Unlikely!

[paulej]

This is not entirely correct

Microsoft had several versions of Windows out before Windows 3.0 finally caught on. Further, they worked hard trying to get people on board with Windows and many of the major players didn't think it was worth the investment. While Microsoft has always been cited as having the advantage of knowing the APIs, etc., I do not believe it is entirely fair to say MS screwed them.

You tell me: why is it that the world switched from WordPerfect to Word for Windows? WordPerfect was the dominant word processor-- everybody was using it. Then, within just a couple of years, people switched over to Word for Windows. Do you want to suggest that people could not get programming manuals? I had them. Why didn't WordPerfect? The answer: they did not feel it was very important. They lost.

Lotus 123 is another case of executives being foolish. Do you know what Lotus was busy doing when Excel took over the market? They were arguing with Borland over "look and feel". They, too, failed to focus on business. The net result was that both Borland's Quattro Pro and Lotus 123 lost the market to Microsoft.

There is something all businesses should remember: be complacent and you lose. Microsoft has done some "dirty" things (e.g., put drive compression into Windows, forcing Stac Electronics out of that market), but I believe they truly created a better office suite than the competition, and that's why they won that battle.

Even today, Microsoft continues to improve on Office-- they're not complacent, because they know they can lose their market any day.

Microsoft has even gone to the extreme of providing developers with documentation and "style guides" to help them produce consistent, good-looking applications. Did Lotus listen? No. The last version of Lotus I used (granted 8 years ago) did not follow the recommendations and the user interface was horrible, with some options shown with icons, some with word, spacing in dialog boxes inconsistent, etc.

Say what you will, but Microsoft does produce some very good products. What is most important is the fact that the products look good, are intuitive, have all of the necessary features, and are easy to use. Microsoft usually does well in all categories.

[Commander_Spock]

Never Say Never!

"Unless someone can come up a way of breaking the lock between the operating system and the office suite that MS sells to corporations, no amount of free software is going to have a significant impact. MS dominates thru monopolistic practices, not thru innovation..." Try to remember what was really one of the causes for OS/2 not holding its own in its time - a "dearth" of applications; and, now that IBM Lotus Symphony is for free then what is next for OS/2 - Freedom too or what? This must bring an "apocalyptic" feeling on the Redmond Campus!

[PragmaticIdealist]

Open-source OS/2

Now that would be interesting. I wonder if it would get much uptake?

[PrivettP]

If IBM has competing software to office that if free, I don't have a problem trying or using it on my Mac