Filed under: Windows, Linux, Office, IBM, Freeware
IBM updates free office suite, launches Lotus Symphony 1
by Brad Linder Jun 15th 2008
Unlike OpenOffice.org, Lotus Symphony is not open source software. While IBM is providing it for free, Lotus Symphony is based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.4, which is the last version of OpenOffice.org that had a license allowing developers to modify the code and keep the changes private.
According to Linux.com, IBM hopes to target the enterprise market with this software. The goal is to provide Lotus Symphony as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, while charging $25,000 per year for support. Of course, if you know how to use word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation applications, you probably won't need to spend the money. But you also might not find much in Lotus Symphony that isn't already available in its open source cousin, OpenOffice.org.
So what's new in Lotus Symphony 1? Here are a few highlights:
- Critical crash and freezing issues have been fixed
- Improved performance when creating new documents, spell checking presentations of spreadsheets, redrawing a presentation page, saving PPT files, and performing other actions
- Improved interoperability with Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, and SmartSuite documents
- Added support for 4 more languages, bringing the total to 28
thanks Hessel Olijve!
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