IBM releases free office software [BT broadband office]

IBM releases free office software

Posted 3 October 2007 at 8:42AM by Simon Dickson in IT systems and support

Old name, new product (ish) - IBM has just released the first beta version of IBM Lotus Symphony, its new office software suite based on the same Open Document Format used by established open-source product, OpenOffice.org (which we've been very nice about previously).

It improves on OpenOffice in a few respects: it's a bit prettier for one thing, and uses the now-ubiquitous tabbed interface model to show multiple documents in the same program instance. On the downside: it's an extra 30MB to download, and once it's installed, it's noticeably slower to fire up. But that's not all. You'll also have to go through numerous hoops to register with IBM's website first; and if my experience is anything to go by, the download server isn't coping with demand, delivering the file at a snail's pace.

And I'm afraid it gets worse. When I installed Symphony, it overwrote all the 'file association' settings I already had on my system. All the files which should have opened by default in OpenOffice were now tied to Symphony instead, without asking my permission to do so. Frankly, this is unforgivable - especially for the first release of a beta product. Surely, in all likelihood, the only people trying Symphony will be early-adopters who already have OpenOffice on their machines? As I write this, I'm furiously trying to restore the settings which IBM felt entitled to overrule. Furious, in both senses of the word.

Meanwhile, OpenOffice has just released its version 2.3, with a few extra features and fixes. There's no tortuous sign-up process, and it even allows you to download via peer-to-peer systems - which usually means downloading at your maximum speed, especially when there's high demand for a particular file. They are just getting it so right where IBM so far, I'm afraid, haven't.

Tags: ibm, open source, OpenOffice.org, symphony

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Comments

1. At October 4, 2007 4:30 PM, Duncan Jones wrote:

Well Well Well! I have only today downloaded OpenOffice 2.3 for the first time and the comments above have never had more impact. I had to take work home on a portable hard drive only to find that they were MS Office documents and I do not have MS office on my home computer. I tried IBM Lotus Symphony but in the writer's words the download was tortuous - having given up I downloaded Open Office FREE with no hassle whatsoever and it opens my MS Office documents beautifully. Job done and back to work to get the credit from my boss!!!

2. At October 8, 2007 4:11 PM, Anjanesh wrote:

Welcome the the Opensource Revolution !

3. At October 8, 2007 6:17 PM, Tanvir Ahmad wrote:

I started using Openoffice when I was uni and it's one great handy tool. My tutor wanted the paper send to him as PDF and I couldn't find a free tool to do the job. Then found OpenOffice and the end result was perfect.

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