Re: IBM investment in i - can open source software help sales?

IBM's Symphony is built on an old version of OpenOffice. The current
version of OpenOffice performs much better.

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 10:49 AM, Jim Steil <steil@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The Symphony name has been resurrected by IBM for use in their version
of OpenOffice. I downloaded and installed it when if first was
available (not sure if it was a beta or not) but was not impressed. In
my opinion, they put a wrapper on top of OpenOffice that did nothing
more than give us an unfamiliar interface and slow it down
significantly. Sorry I couldn't be more positive about it, but that was
my first impression. It was so slow that I didn't keep it around long
enough to get a second impression.

-Jim

Doug Palme wrote:
> Wasn't Symphony a word processor back in the middle to late 80's /
> 90's......I recall using a WP called symphony back then on DOS....
>
>
>
>
> From:
> "Aaron Bartell" <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx>
> To:
> "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date:
> 05/07/2008 06:35 PM
> Subject:
> Re: IBM investment in i - can open source software help sales?
>
>
>
>
>> I am curious: have you (or anyone) compared Symphony to OpenOffice?
>>
>
> Haven't yet, though I did read an article about it in a recent
> IBMSystemsMag.com edition - I think it was Kim Green that wrote about it.
>
> Don't know if I will every use Symphony, but I am excited about it because
> of the fact that IBM is behind it will make it "more safe" for
> corporations
> to start adopting it.
>
> Concerning compatibility issues, I had those with the .docx format in M$
> Office 2007. OpenOffice can't open .docx files, but OxygenOffice (based
> on
> OpenOffice) opens them just fine. Hopefully they will implement the
> OxygenOffice capabilities back into the base OpenOffice.
>
> Aaron Bartell
> http://mowyourlawn.com
>
> On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 4:57 PM, Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>> I've used OpenOffice for several years, starting back when it was Star
>> Office on OS/2. I've had almost zero compatibility problems. Less, in
>> fact, then clients that use Microsoft and have problems when ever a new
>> version comes out and the boss gets his brand new machine and sends
>> memos to his staff that they can't read.
>>
>> I am curious: have you (or anyone) compared Symphony to OpenOffice?
>>
>>
>>
>> Aaron Bartell wrote:
>>
>>> And now they are giving away Lotus Symphony (OpenOffice based) :-)
>>>
>>> I think this will be a VERY attractive avenue for businesses as most
>>>
>> users
>>
>>> don't use more than 5% of the functionality of their Microsoft Office
>>> tooling. I have been using OpenOffice for about 1 year now and will
>>>
>> never
>>
>>> go back to buying Microsoft Office.
>>>
>>> Aaron Bartell
>>> http://mowyourlawn.com
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 3:11 PM, Pat Barber
>>>
> <mboceanside@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> This reminds me of the first demo IBM/Lotus gave us a
>>>> few years back on Lotus Notes.(AS/400 BP's)
>>>>
>>>> The guy opened the session by saying...
>>>>
>>>> "You folks can NOT make money selling Lotus Notes,
>>>> so you will need to plan on selling service agreements to
>>>> make your revenue stream."
>>>>
>>>> I think every single IBM pc ever sold after that had a
>>>> free copy of Lotus SmartSuite.
>>>>
>>>> I often wondered how in the world did they plan on
>>>> getting those billions of dollars back on the purchase of Lotus
>>>> giving the software away for free.
>>>>
>>>> They are still working on that plan.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I'm sorry I misinterpreted you. FWIW, I think that this move toward
>>>>> selling support/services rather than selling software is a trend
>>>>>
> that
>
>>>>> will only continue to increase. If IBM i doesn't play well in this
>>>>> area, it can only be harmful to the i community.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L)
>>>>
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>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>> --
>> ---------------------------------
>> Booth Martin
>> http://www.Martinvt.com
>> ---------------------------------
>>
>> --
>> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
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