LIVE NOW: Lotus Symphony 3 Beta 2
I’ll keep it short and sweet. This evening, I noticed the package in a private beta FTP site, was eager to get the news. I have just been informed that IBM Lotus Symphony’s latest beta 3 is out! It just opened up. Grab it ASAP!
IBM Lotus Symphony 3 public beta is an open, free of charge, Microsoft alternative for office productivity editors. This newest version marks the largest enhancement of Lotus Symphony since it’s first public beta in September 2007, with a whole host of user interface improvements throughout the suite.
Lotus Symphony 3 Beta 2 introduces support for Visual Basic Macros, OLE Objects, and embedded audio/video as well as delivering business card and label templates commonly used. Users will also find enhanced support for and interoperability with Microsoft Office 2007 files and OpenOffice.org file formats.
Available for Linux and Mac environments as well.
Get it now: symphony.lotus.com
No alternative to Microsoft Office? We beg to differ
“What we are trying to do with Symphony is establish that there is an option in the market and companies don’t have to spend the money they spend for productivity suites,” says Ed Brill, director of product management for Lotus Software.
NetworkWorld.com has an article up today which outlines the latest upgrades that IBM has done to our 15 month old Lotus Symphony to compete with Microsoft Office, except that we are offering it for free.
“Symphony is not a product that we just threw out there,” said Brill. “We have been investing in an on-going basis.”
IBM plans to release Symphony 2.0 in 2010, the same timeframe Microsoft plans the next version of Office. Code named Vienna, the Symphony 2.0 software will be based on the most recent version of OpenOffice.
But for now IBM, which offers Symphony as a free download and the default productivity software in Notes/Domino 8, is adding a new set of drag-and-drop widgets that include integration with popular Microsoft backend software such as the SharePoint Server. The software also integrates with Google Gadgets and Lotus’s own Sametime and Connections platforms.
Due to popular demand, I’ll be working with Joyce Davis to highlight these widgets for Lotus Notes and Symphony widgets in full detail in the upcoming blog posts.
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