InfoWorld: Test Center review: Office killers pack some heat

July 15 2008

Head-to-head review of Lotus Symphony, Google Docs, Zoho, and OpenOffice.org...with Lotus Symphony receiving the top score of 7.8:

Lotus Symphony is the most polished of this particular pack of productivity suites. The word processor continues many of the complex formatting features that made Ami Pro a favorite of technical writers, and both the spreadsheet and presentation manager are full featured. Symphony's most significant weakness is its limited set of applications -- it's clear that IBM sees Symphony as an adjunct to Lotus Notes, which would provide e-mail, discussion, database, and other features. If you mainly seek great functionality in the "big three" applications, then Symphony is a great answer. ...

Can Symphony do all you need in a personal productivity package? If you require solid functionality in word processing, spreadsheet manipulation, and presentation creation for a Windows platform, and co-authoring those files isn't critical, then yes. Symphony's feature set isn't as rich as Office's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Straightforward, rich functionality for an individual or small group -- that's nothing to sneeze at.
Link: InfoWorld: Test Center review: Office killers pack some heat >

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus Symphony  Add/View Comments [5]

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  1. 1  Palmi  | 7/15/2008 3:37:12 PM

    - now all we need is for Lenovo to add this to ever PC - Laptop they make.

  1. 2  Lars Olufsen http://www.olufsphere.com | 7/16/2008 2:12:02 AM

    - and then we need everybody communicating with public services to request all documents in an open format that can be read without the need for expensive software.

  1. 3  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 7/16/2008 9:37:07 AM

    Ahhhhh, the good ol' days of Ami Pro (and later Word Pro). Still my favorite word processor of all time. I had it for both Windows and OS/2. I loved the tabbed documents, linked documents and "page walker" view.

    @1 - While Lenovo would be a huge preload deal; I would say IBM should be trying to work out preload arrangements with all OEMs.

    I also think it would not be a bad idea to have a low cost retail package of Symphony. Basically cover the costs of production.

    Then if the customer wants to purchase technical support, they can for a modest fee, and IBM can collect that revenue directly w/o any middleman.

    Another possible solution but it may lower the value of perception would be what I would call the "AOL model" whereby they try to get Symphony CDs thrown in to just about any technology purchase anywhere. (e.g. filler in an order from PC Connection, CDW, Amazon, etc.)

  1. 4  Mike Brown  | 8/26/2008 8:46:30 PM

    Sadly, Linux Format magazine awarded Sypmphony only 5/10. No URL, but I can PDF the hard copy for you, Ed.

    Amongst some legitimate points, they pulled up the Test Properties panel because offering ease of access to those properties decreases users' incentive to use proper styles within documents. Technically true, I guess, but a somewhat anal point.

    Cheers,

    - Mike

  1. 5  Mike Brown  | 8/26/2008 8:47:26 PM

    Ooops. That should have said, "Text Properties", of course.