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

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)
>>>>
> mailing
>
>>>> list
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>> --
>> ---------------------------------
>> Booth Martin
>> http://www.Martinvt.com
>> ---------------------------------
>>
>> --
>> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
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>>

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