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jada
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 Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2025 10:42 pm Post subject: Lotus Symphony for Linux Beta 2 |
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Publisher's Description:
Lotus Symphony is comprised of three applications - Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets and Lotus Symphony Presentations. These intuitive software tools, which support Windows and Linux desktops, are designed to handle the majority of office productivity tasks that workers typically perform. It supports multiple file formats including Microsoft Office and Open Document Format (ODF), and also can output content in PDF format.
more at betanews |
I liked beta 1 and now I am going to download beta 2!
IBM Lotus Symphony BETA
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tlmiller
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Joined: 01 May 2025
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Location: MD, USA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2025 11:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I hated beta 1, but I'll download beta 2 anyway.
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JP
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jada
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Location: Sun City, CA 92585
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2025 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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| JP wrote: | I wonder if a lot of the old Lotus loyallists will give this a spin, and maybe switch from Micro$hsft Office, That would be splendid   |
You don't have to wonder, they will 
The great thing is, it runs on windows and linux. It's perfect because it has also futures what the openoffice don't have. |
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masinick
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Joined: 03 Apr 2025
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Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2025 5:14 pm Post subject: Is the second Beta a lot better than the first one? |
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| jada wrote: | | JP wrote: | | I wonder if a lot of the old Lotus loyallists will give this a spin, and maybe switch from Micro$hsft Office, That would be splendid |
You don't have to wonder, they will
The great thing is, it runs on windows and linux. It's perfect because it has also futures what the openoffice don't have. |
If I remember right, the fonts on the Linux version of the first beta test of Lotus Symphony were terrible, and the code seemed to use some underlying features from a really old version of Open Office with a Lotus framework around it. I think I also installed it on an XP system and tried it there once or twice, and it actually seemed to run a bit better there.
Any update on what has been done in subsequent work and how it runs in the Beta 2 instance? For me, I did not see anything particularly compelling in it that would cause me to prefer it over Open Office, but it could be that newer versions will be vastly improved. What features does it offer on top of OO features?
What are your thoughts on what has been going on with this development effort? |
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crouse
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Joined: 17 Apr 2025
Posts: 11833
Location: Iowa
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2025 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Would prefer that they just contributed to openoffice myself........ instead of borking it trying to integrate it into old code.
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masinick
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Joined: 03 Apr 2025
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Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2025 8:42 pm Post subject: I agree |
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| crouse wrote: | | Would prefer that they just contributed to openoffice myself........ instead of borking it trying to integrate it into old code. |
My testing did not indicate a very good initial beta version. The code being used is old, the functionality appears to be a regression compared to Open Office, and it seems, overall, to be a fork in the road. Unless it can demonstrate significant value added, I question its usefulness. |
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tlmiller
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2025 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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| ^^^couldn't have said it much better myself.
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Pet3M0ss
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Location: NW corner of Montana (Libby)
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2025 1:01 am Post subject: |
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My biggest ditto is Crouse's comment.
The suite is supposedly SLED and RedHat compatible which may mean tweeking issues.
KOffice actually supplies my needs for now (though I seem to crash it a lot).
Open Office, with a lot of the "auto" things disabled, has been very functional for me. It is a little strange to see a spreadsheet with Chinese characters and Tibetan fonts all on the same page, and all the Win folks never know the difference from M$ when I send them things.
Symphony will serve as an irritant to M$ and increases awareness to alternatives. It will have to deliver something besides nostalgic relief to get me excited. Google, if it continues their online development, will keep gathering steam.
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jada
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2025 3:48 am Post subject: |
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Linux need some "professional" applications. Sorry to say this, but when I see what problems I have to solved in the last days, I was going to buy a Laptop with Vista, M$ Office Acrobat Pro, just for keep someone quiet.
IBM is doing the right thing  |
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BrionS
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2025 4:41 am Post subject: |
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How about the size? Has the beta 2 shrunk at all? The first beta was gargantuan and like most everyone above I didn't find it at all compelling to use over OpenOffice.org.
OO.o loads faster, is slightly smaller overall (and can be downloaded in discrete parts from APT repos I believe). The only think I really wish OO.o would get rid of is the Clippy alternative (the lightbulb) -- anyone know how to kill him permanently?
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JP
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2025 5:04 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | IBM® Lotus® Symphony™ is a set of applications for creating, editing, and sharing word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Designed to handle the majority of tasks that end users perform, the Lotus Symphony tools support the Open Document Format (ODF), enabling organizations to access, use, and maintain their documents over the long term without worrying about end-of-life uncertainties or ongoing software licensing and royalty fees. By using tools that support ODF, customers are not locked into one particular vendor for their productivity tools. ODF helps provide interoperability and flexibility.
With Lotus Symphony, end users create, manage, edit, and import documents in ODF. However, Lotus Symphony tools can also import, edit, and save documents in Microsoft® Office formats or export those documents to ODF for sharing with ODF-compliant applications and solutions.
There are three applications that make up the Lotus Symphony tools: Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, and Lotus Symphony Presentations. These applications offer a complete set of features and can serve as an end user's daily office productivity solution. For many customers and organizations, the Lotus Symphony tools are a viable alternative to purchasing, deploying, and managing typical vendor-proprietary productivity suites.
Lotus Symphony is based on OpenOffice.org Technology and supports the ODF standard, ISO 26300 |
(Emphasis Mine)
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BrionS
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2025 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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I know it's based on OO.o, but it's far more bloated that just OO.o and quite frankly the latest version of OO.o is more functional that Lotus Symphony (or so it seems).
So my question stands, did it shrink at all (like back down into the realm of OO.o)?
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JP
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crouse
Site Admin
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Posts: 11833
Location: Iowa
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2025 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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| If they would have simply ported Lotus Smartsuite instead of forking OO, they probably would have had a winner. I loved smartsuite, and the integration it had. Some cool toolbars for the desktop were possible with SmartSuite, address book, notes, etc. All have been replaced on my Linux machine by other apps, but an integrated setup like they had would be nice. KDE apps come close, but Kaddressbook does nothing for me.
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