Friday, November 14, 2008
+ IBM Lotus Symphony
Symphony Sings As Office Clone
After months of beta testing, IBM (NYSE:IBM) released Lotus Symphony 1, its free productivity suite, earlier this month. Based on an older version of OpenOffice.org (1.1.4, while the suite is currently up to 2.4.1), Lotus Symphony has a slicker interface, uncluttered menus, and a number of user accessibility options that make it a more attractive option than Open Office. The Test Center has been trying out Symphony since the first beta came out last fall and has watched it become more stable and nimble. Symphony consists of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.
Lotus Symphony acts much like Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Office, which is good if you are looking for something to replace Office at a fraction of the cost (free!). It's not so good if you are looking for something entirely different from Office, but there aren't many free suites that accomplish that yet. Plenty of individual applications out there, but most office productivity suites at the moment are, more or less, Office clones.
The Test Center found Symphony a snap to use, and switching to Symphony after years of using Microsoft Office was painless. While Open Office was a nice alternative, Symphony looks and works much more elegantly while keeping the free price tag.
Rashid, F. (2008, June 12). Review: Symphony Sings As Office Clone. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from Channel Web Web site: http://www.crn.com/software/208403730;jsessionid=IO3OWGF2JRQ4UQSNDLPC
KH0CJUNN2JVN
After months of beta testing, IBM (NYSE:IBM) released Lotus Symphony 1, its free productivity suite, earlier this month. Based on an older version of OpenOffice.org (1.1.4, while the suite is currently up to 2.4.1), Lotus Symphony has a slicker interface, uncluttered menus, and a number of user accessibility options that make it a more attractive option than Open Office. The Test Center has been trying out Symphony since the first beta came out last fall and has watched it become more stable and nimble. Symphony consists of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.
Lotus Symphony acts much like Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Office, which is good if you are looking for something to replace Office at a fraction of the cost (free!). It's not so good if you are looking for something entirely different from Office, but there aren't many free suites that accomplish that yet. Plenty of individual applications out there, but most office productivity suites at the moment are, more or less, Office clones.
The Test Center found Symphony a snap to use, and switching to Symphony after years of using Microsoft Office was painless. While Open Office was a nice alternative, Symphony looks and works much more elegantly while keeping the free price tag.
Rashid, F. (2008, June 12). Review: Symphony Sings As Office Clone. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from Channel Web Web site: http://www.crn.com/software/208403730;jsessionid=IO3OWGF2JRQ4UQSNDLPC
KH0CJUNN2JVN
Labels: Tech Class
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