I haven't tested this yet, but it is my understanding this is a repackaging of an older version of OpenOffice.
John B. On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 9:43 PM, chris yarger <[email protected]> wrote: > Resuming an old rivalry, International Business Machines Corp. is > launching a software giveaway that takes aim at Microsoft Corp. on the > office desktop. > > Today, IBM plans to post on the Internet a package of its own software > with applications that square off against components of Microsoft's > ubiquitous Office suite -- a word processor to rival Word, a > spreadsheet to go up against Excel and business-presentation software > as an alternative to PowerPoint. > > The IBM package, called Symphony, can be downloaded free of charge. > The home edition of Microsoft's Office lists for $120 on Internet > retail ... > > source > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119007597680930576.html?mod=googlenews_wsj > > > > > > Desktop Application > > WINNER: IBM Lotus Symphony > Lotus Symphony acts much like Microsoft 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. There are plenty of individual applications out > there, but most office productivity suites at the moment are, more or > less, Office clones. > > Symphony consists of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation > applications. Based on the Open Document Format standard, Symphony > saves all documents by default to that format. It can open and edit > documents created under OpenOffice and other applications that also > follow ODF. Symphony can also open and edit all Office documents saved > in the older .doc format. Documents created in Office 2007 with the > newer .docx (.xlsx and .pptx) formats can't be opened under Symphony. > > The Office 2007 installation here at the Test Center by default saves > documents in the Office 97-2003 format (in the interest of > backward-compatibility) so there were no problems editing files > created in Symphony under Office 2007, or vice versa. The Test Center > found Symphony a snap to use, and switching to Symphony after years of > using Microsoft Office was painless. > > source > http://www.crn.com/it-channel/212202127;jsessionid=4W3C1FZ44DU1AQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?pgno=8 > > > Symphony homepage > > > http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home >
