IBM forays into Open source world with Lotus Symphony !!

"Here cometh the Big Blue"....*forums.erodov.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

IBM plans to mount its most ambitious challenge in years to Microsoft's dominance of personal computer software, by offering free programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

The company is announcing the desktop software, called IBM Lotus Symphony, at an event Tuesday in New York. The programs will be available as free downloads from the IBM Web site.

Main subdivisions of the Lotus symphony:

1. Lotus Symphony Documents

*www.imgx.org/pthumbs/small/2125/1.gif

2. Lotus Symphony Presentations

*www.imgx.org/pthumbs/small/2126/2.gif

3. Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets

*www.imgx.org/pthumbs/small/2127/3.gif

In the 1990s, IBM failed in an effort to compete head-on with Microsoft in personal computer software with its OS/2 operating system and its SmartSuite office productivity programs.

But IBM is taking a different approach this time. Its offerings are versions of open-source software developed in a consortium called OpenOffice.org. The original code traces its origins to a German company, Star Division, which Sun Microsystems bought in 1999. Sun later made the desktop software, now called StarOffice, an open-source project, in which work and code are freely shared.

Last week, IBM declared that it was formally joining the open-source group, had dedicated 35 full-time programmers to the project and would contribute code to the initiative.

Free office productivity software has long been available from OpenOffice.org, and the open-source alternative has not yet made much progress against Microsoft's Office.

IBM is also joining forces with Google, which offers the open-source desktop productivity programs as part of its Google Pack of software. Google supports the same document formats in its online word processor and spreadsheet service.

Quote:
"Three major players--IBM, Google and Sun--are now solidly behind a potential competing standard to Office," said Rob Koplowitz, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Open source is becoming a rage these days, at the same time companies like Microsoft are coming out with answers for the open source products.

Also IBM's open source involvement has not been trouble-free till now though. However the this alliance between Sun, Google and now IBM may give the tech world a successful product in the field of open source.

Source: I.B.M. to Offer Office Software Free in Challenge to Microsoft’s Line - New York Times

See the features of IBM's Symphony here: IBM Lotus Symphony

Originally posted by: Prash

Hah.. I remember those good old days when I used to work on Lotus in DOS :-D

Create high impact presentations by adding transition effects to your slide shows.

Add animation effects to the elements on your slides.

Create a custom slide show by hiding or showing specific slides.

Add tables, charts, graphics, and graphical text to your slides.

Using Lotus Symphony Presentations, you can create basic or enhanced presentations.

^^

the first version of powerpoint has been doing that ... gimme something new

iMav said:
^^ the first version of powerpoint has been doing that ... gimme something new

You just don't get it do you? It's not about something new. It's about an alternative to your inseperable sweetheart Microsoft's paid office!

^^ ya well use open office as is na yaar

iMav said:
^^ ya well use open office as is na yaar

Why are you so against any new alternatives?

coz they arent as good nor better than u know what

so why are companies like ibm wanting to waste resources when they wont be able to cut the ice .... rather use the resources some where lese .... like making the existing open office suite better rather having their won

Alternatives are always good for the consumers.Look how much pressure open office has put on M$ Office and the result M$ will have to keep their software as bug free as possible and also lower the prices just to prevent their existing customers from shifting to somewhat basic but free counterparts.

iMav said:
coz they arent as good nor better than u know what so why are companies like ibm wanting to waste resources when they wont be able to cut the ice .... rather use the resources some where lese .... like making the existing open office suite better rather having their won

shees... This closed mentally of yours is seriously not going to help you dude.. if you think that having more alternatives is a waste, then we all shouldn't waste money in any development of more products in the future at all!! Intel shouldn't have bought out the quad core processors, they should have just worked to make the single cores better!! what a logic!! Feel pity for your thoughts iMav.

And you are like a false palmist predicting that nothing will be better than MS office! Dude, open office developed into something absolutely competitive from nothing. Now if you think that development taken further won't make it better than MS office, then again I have to pity your blind MS fanboyism predictions! Lotus Symphony has just been released, and look who's saying that it won't be better than office when he hasn't even tried it out? What more of a worse comment than that!

I Pity your fanboyism iMav. really..

well all im saying is that if u want to compete with some 1 like as big as MS why come up 5-6 different versions rather come up with 1 solid 1 ... theres open office then there is this lotus better than that take up 1 project and compete

dont pity my fanboyism .... use ur brains to understand what im trying to say ....

ur talking abt quad core ... dude quad core brings something new its a new technology its better not like this lotus suite that does the same bloody things that open office does

iMav said:
well all im saying is that if u want to compete with some 1 like as big as MS why come up 5-6 different versions rather come up with 1 solid 1 ... theres open office then there is this lotus better than that take up 1 project and compete

This is one thing that is a bit non-existent in the OSS world for you closed source dudes. Competition is really not necessary in the OSS world, becasue no one is making profit out of one selling more. Competion is there in the true spirit of it to make it better, but not to compete with someone else for glory! So a million alternatives is not going to make any difference! You choose what you like. Simple as that rather than being left without options and end up being forced to choose something you don't like. Very evident MS thoughts reflected in your comments iMav.

nice to see this initiative from IBM

i dunno why some ppl cry for features when even 1/4th of the features are not utilized. but still they either wanna buy the costly suite or pirate it! i fail to understand some ppl's mentality!

exactly! comptt. is non-existant in the OSS world. its all about alternatives!

@HiH: making better :lol:

lotus is better than what :?:

and we all know who makes sure that u cant choose what u like and have to use hardware; software; operator of a baldy's choice

@infra: 1/4th of features might not be utilized by u doesnt mean others dont

iMav said:
ur talking abt quad core ... dude quad core brings something new its a new technology its better not like this lotus suite that does the same bloody things that open office does

What is this, one of your new predictions that it won't have anything new? For the love of God, first try it out and comment on it rather than talking like someone who has used it for a million years with no knowledge of it!

ya right making single cores better :lol:

ab yaar aapko main kya bolun ... if u think a single core can be made to work as good as quad core ... ur up for the top honors in technology

... single core as good as quad core :lol:

iMav said:
@HiH: making better lotus is better than what and we all know who makes sure that u cant choose what u like and have to use hardware; software; operator of a baldy's choice

@infra: 1/4th of features might not be utilized by u doesnt mean others dont

Lotus is the de-facto all-in-one office application. 9/10 respectable organisations would be using lotus notes and lotus domino server. Dude.. we are talking about IBM. All of their software are so "in" the market. Heard of their Websphere, Tivoli and Rational suite of software? You never know when their office suite gains similar popularity!

iMav said:
@HiH: making better lotus is better than what and we all know who makes sure that u cant choose what u like and have to use hardware; software; operator of a baldy's choice

@infra: 1/4th of features might not be utilized by u doesnt mean others dont

seriously yes! i hafnt seen a single person who's using more than that in powerpoint (be it for personal use or for corporate). again, yes i'm not claiming that everything does that. see my post i'm talking about "some ppl".

nobody is comparing the products to powerpoint here. thats the whole point! and the fanboys fail to get it. why is every new product treated as a threat to MS products? do they feel so insecure abt MS' products? nobody here said that this new suite from IBM will wash away MS office! then why fight? i didn't see anything provoking here too!!! its just an alternative to the paid suite thats it!

seriously some ppl will never change! their perspective is flawed....

iMav said:
ya right making single cores better ab yaar aapko main kya bolun ... if u think a single core can be made to work as good as quad core ... ur up for the top honors in technology ... single core as good as quad core

Can't differentiate between sarcasm and truth!!.. sad fanboys

theres a fundamental issue with OSS supporters ... if they come up with something and if its said to be not as good then will speak of monopoly, drm and now they say its not abt competition ....

u want to come up with something better please do so and OSS can do that if they come together

... as i said make something better be innovative ... making a free alternative isnt innovation ... make something better than what is existing ...

sarcasm :lol:

... single core:quad core:

pen office:lotus :lol:

... there is no analogy

iMav said:
theres a fundamental issue with OSS supporters ... if they come up with something and if its said to be not as good then will speak of monopoly, drm and now they say its not abt competition ....

u want to come up with something better please do so and OSS can do that if they come together ... as i said make something better be innovative ... making a free alternative isnt innovation ... make something better than what is existing ...

Who's talking about innovation? Who told that this is something innovative? What are you upto iMav, are you trying to say what you think we are thinking?

Like I said in the beginning. This is not about competition or innovation. It's just another alternative wheather you like it or not. Go use your sweethearts office if you don't want to use this! Who's forcing you and who is even asking you? This is just an alternative as of now!

iMav said:
... as i said make something better be innovative ... making a free alternative isnt innovation

plz point me where is this suite termed as an "innovation"!!!???!

iMav said:
... make something better than what is existing ...

it is a free suite which does all that most ppl want from the paid suite. thats it and i think, its no less than "making something better".

@HiH: im gonna use office 2k7 for sure .... but i wud love to use something better which i think only MS can come up with ... whilst ur lotus as u said is an alternative it will only remain an alternative to open office ....

@infra no is claiming that this is innovative i said that ibm shud have used their resources along with open office to make open office better and innovative rather than coming up with their own alternative to open office which is nothing new just another office suite like open office ...

read bhai read

iMav said:
im gonna use office 2k7 for sure ....

then what are you doing in this thread? its not about O2k7.

iMav said:
but i wud love to use something better which i think only MS can come up with ... whilst ur lotus as u said is an alternative it will only remain an alternative to open office ....

thanks for ur worthless expert views!

i thought some 1 as big as ibm wud have something better than office 2k7 but alas! ...

iMav said:
@infra no is claiming that this is innovative i said that ibm shud have used their resources along with open office to make open office better and innovative rather than coming up with their own alternative to open office which is nothing new just another office suite like open office ... read bhai read

it was you who was asking someone to come up wid something innovative? how do you know that it won't contain any features more than O

rg? haf you seen or compared the code? ibm was working wid OO team, so obvisouly they are not fools to repackage the same thing wid a new brand name!

iMav said:
i thought some 1 as big as ibm wud have something better than office 2k7 but alas! ...

yes, it did. its brought out a free alternative wid features which most ppl use.

you don't get the OSS philosophy of alternatives. you'll never understand. no point in feeding the troll!

yaar .... second post mein lotus k features listed hain .. they are frm lotus ka site ... kya naya hai ... same thing ... wohi mithai naye dabey mein

iMav said:
yaar .... second post mein lotus k features listed hain .. they are frm lotus ka site ... kya naya hai ... same thing ... wohi mithai naye dabey mein

lekin jo free mein bat raha hai. and you still hafnt seen the decoration on the mithai yet!

so we can't comment on it. all we know is that the mithai will come decorated wid IBM toppings in packed box distributed free of cost!

btw, this is a duplicate post. nucleuskore has already posted about ibm symphony yester: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68525

went to the download page for downloading. i see that XP, vista are supported on the windows platform. only suse and RH are supported as far as linux distro's are concerned none of the debian based distros are supported yet. and boy! look at the min. hardware requirements: 900mb and 1gb ram minimum!!! damn!! thats heavy and very heavy... its surely not openoffice.. there's much more to it... but imho, the minimum requirements are too much!!

iMav said:
@HiH: im gonna use office 2k7 for sure .... but i wud love to use something better which i think only MS can come up with ... whilst ur lotus as u said is an alternative it will only remain an alternative to open office ....

Yes, the rest of the world is full of idiots. People who try to use OSS are fools, as they are loosing the chance of using the "oh so great" MS products. MS rules. Others will bite the dust. One day all OSS people will understand what sin they have comitted by doubting the capability of MS. Im truly converted by the "oh so great" argument provided by iMav. I agree with whatever iMav says.

Can we please move on now?

Great news. Will give a try for sure.

@iMav

Here is a post by GX where he kept all his weapons down and felt helpless

I have given feedback to MS 2 times, first one was for the first 3 changes, then rest 5. All I got it in reply was "Thanx for the feedback, we would like to consider these changes in next version of our products. Please provide further feedback as applicable"

This is the from the Vista feature request thread !!!!

Now, it may be your turn lol

Try to remove the 'MS' specatcles you wear and see the beauty of real world and all alternatives

@iMav again

Please enlighten us the 'great' features only MS office has which are very essential to normal user / corporate user and missing in all other alternative office suites. We would love to hear that. Also, please include your experience, I mean in your office, you had to use MS office as the 'feature' you wanted is missing in all other alternatives. List them plzzzzz...

[Edit]

Oh, i forgot !! I am an IBM certified professional. I think time to become a fanboy lol.

M

Is it open source?
Otherwise too, more the competition better for the consumer. Even if they decide to keep their applications closed they should open up their file formats for better interoperability with other office suites who care to support their formats.

^^ Its based on the Open Document Format. So no worries there.

din said:
Here is a post by GX where he kept all his weapons down and felt helpless

I have given feedback to MS 2 times, first one was for the first 3 changes, then rest 5. All I got it in reply was "Thanx for the feedback, we would like to consider these changes in next version of our products. Please provide further feedback as applicable"

so what did u expect from MS .... u thoguht they wud ask gx from where did those "splendid" suggestions come and then they wud thinkdigit form and give each of a million dollars for the sugeestions :lol:

they took a note of it its with them now the developers will choose whether they want to implement them or not ....

din said:
Try to remove the 'MS' specatcles you wear and see the beauty of real world and all alternatives

i asked the same thing in different words and i was told that this is not for competing with office and this isnt anything innovative go thru the thread ...

din said:
Please enlighten us the 'great' features only MS office has which are very essential to normal user / corporate user and missing in all other alternative office suites. We would love to hear that. Also, please include your experience, I mean in your office, you had to use MS office as the 'feature' you wanted is missing in all other alternatives. List them plzzzzz...

google karlo yaar ....

@iMav

LOL, as expected !! Totally different answers

1. The answer GX received - classic example of how MS treat MVP or whetever. You will get the same answer as any other guy get - even if you are MVP / Blind supporter of MS / Employee of MS. They will never consider something that does not bring them $$$$$. Look at the thread and you will understand what I meant. Like how it started, how GX posts were and how "nice" his last post about the response from MS

2. MS spects and innovation.

I didn't see any one claiming 'innovation' anywhere in this thread. May be coz I am old, please show me where I missed the 'innovation' part

This is about a good alternative office suite and nothing about new / innovative. People who spend a huge amount of $$$ or using pirated softwares can sure use this one. That is the main advantage. And it support documents created in MS format too.

Thats the point I mentioned, Only MS products are good, only MS can make something good, only MS can compete in things - these kinda remarks are the best example of using the 'MS Spectacle' lol. Hope it clears the confusion.

iMav said:
google karlo yaar ....

Another classic example of immaturity !!

Look at your own post in the first page of the same thread

iMav said:
@infra: 1/4th of features might not be utilized by u doesnt mean others dont

That means you know (or you pretend you know !) there are some features only in "MS Office" and not in the alternative office suits. When you make such a remark, it is your responsibility to give proof of what you tell and it is not Googles responsibility !!! Do not contradict your own statements.

im not in mood to type long posts talking abt features and then u or some 1 else will scrutinize them i will counter it and blah blah u know the drill

as far as innovation point was concerned infra also asked me the same question and i told him ... go thru the thread u will find ur innovation query answered ...

@iMav

I understand, really understand

When you post something, give links, proof, details - let it be long, let it be descriptive. If I post like - Windows is bad, it is really bad - what will be your reaction ? You will sure expect me to give a reason for my post right ? I was asking the same.

Do not just post like - This is just crap, it does not have features which I really need - without listing the exact features you meant. I respect GX more in this matter as he post details and his justification most of the time.

Regarding innovation - Still I have no clue anyone mentioned innovation in this thread other than you !! You only started it !!

Try to download it if you are interested, then use it for a while, compare it with other office suits, then post details which will be helpful to other users.

If you are not interested at all, if you want to stick with MS office, no problems at all. No one is forcing you, but without using it, don't just start commenting on it, plzzz

go to the second post ... the features are listed ... i dont need to use it to comment on the so called features that it has .... i know those features since the past 8 years and as far as showing u what office 2k7 has over this lotus suite ... i think i will have to find the time to show it u

LOL

That was a clever way to divert the topic !!!

I was expecting you to list some features that is only in MS office, which are very essential for normal / corporate user (atleast your posts were all sounds like you know there are some)

Now you are asking me to check the features of Lotus Symphony

lol, man you are really funny

Meantime, I think we better stop this. No use in diverting the thread and topic.

stop this sh!t ppl.. stop feeding trolls and stick to the topic. almost all new threads eventually end up in the garbage bin. ppl forget what the actual/original post is all about.

dude 140 mb takes time to dwonload

in the meanwhile go thru this page: *www.merawindows.com/Forums/tabid/324/forumid/-1/threadid/14559/scope/posts/Default.aspx

Sorry for being immature for some time.

Going to check how the suit work and will try to post the details.

Peace

din after u try lotus suite do chk out the link ....

Thank you my friend iMav

I will sure check it

What I dont understand is why would a Free Office Apps be developed as a RAM hogger ??

Did any one till now Noticed its System Requirement ??

says Minimum 1 GB RAM... a free Office Apps developed on back bone of Open Office (which needs just 128 MB RAM) would need 1 GB RAM ???

Personally to me, its unexceptable...

^^^ yes, saurav. i pointed out the same thing!

I think they are using Java.

I worked in Java long back, I remember it needed more RAM to run Java apps.

I do not know whats the present situation (I do not work in Java ay more) and not sure in which lang these altarnatives are done (and why they are doing), but it s just a guess.

This is from another thread, but I think worth mentioning

kumarmohit said:
I tried it.

It has thi FFx like tab feature so you can open all the three things in one window,there is wordprocessing, spreadsheet and presentation, all in its own tab in single window. That makes it a killer app a

and it looks good too.

Wats more, not only is the software slow, its also being distributed from slow servers. Took me 5+ hours to download it.

its a news!more alternatives to MS softwares most welcome!

Software slow / server slow - but does it has the very essentials for a normal user or corporate user need ?

Then it worth the time to download, instaed of paying huge $$$$ or using pirated office suits.