lekkimworld.comsymphony

LotusLive Symphony now available on Greenhouse

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:13:59 GMT

As shown at Lotusphere conference earlier this month the artist formally known as Project Concord is now available to the general public as LotusLive Symphony. LotusLive Symphony is the IBM productivity suite but 100% web based without any required client install. Just like Google Docs or Microsoft Office 360. For now only document and spreadsheet functionality is available.

Given that I only played with it briefly it looks very promising and interesting. I especially like the way that it has been integrated directly into Lotus Connections on Lotus Greenhouse and as such functions as a natural extension of the Files feature of Lotus Connections.

Too bad no presentation functionality is available. I would have loved to do my Lotusphere Comes to You presentations from there... :-)

Properly signed XTAF dictionaries now available for Notes 8.5.x

Fri, 28 May 2010 11:50:46 GMT

The wait has been long but I just got word (via Christian Henseler) that IBM yesterday released properly signed XTAF dictionaries for Notes 8.5.1. In case you're wondering "XTAF dictionaries" are the common dictionaries shared by Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime and Lotus Symphony. Additional language dictionaries has been available for a while but the Eclipse feature wasn't signed so it was troublesome to install on client machines. The Eclipse features are now properly signed and they are easy to add to an update site and roll out using a widget catalog.

The bundle you need to grab from PartnerWorld or Passport Advantage is "IBM Lotus Notes XTAF Dictionaries 8.5.1 for Windows and Linux Multilingual (CZHE3ML)".

Open Office / Lotus Symphony will be in trouble

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:16:21 GMT

Oh no! Microsoft have realized that free is a very good price and when Office 2010 is released in June of 2010 Office 2010 Starter Edition will be free. Zero cost. Finally every computer sold will be able be have a valid, licensed, version of Microsoft Office. The Starter Edition will be add supported. Just how many adds and how these will be displayed I don't know.

Office 2010 Starter Edition will be released simultaneously with the rest of the Office 2010 suite, Sharepoint 2010 Server, Office 2010 Web Edition and Office 2010 for Windows Mobile.

I see this as a very wise ploy by Microsoft and Starter Edition will be a treat to the free productivity suites that are currently free. The release looks like a very interesting release and will pose a great and real threat to Google Apps on the web and Open Office and Lotus Symphony as the productivity suite. Of course one could put the opposite spin on the story and see it like Microsoft is reacting to the success of the open source and free counterparts.

For more information on Office 2010 Starter Edition listen to Windows Weekly 133: A Fish Called Windows.

Lotus Notes version to Lotus Symphony version map

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:43:16 GMT

Major props to John Head for providing me with the below info - and from memory!! :-)

Notes 8.0.0 --> "IBM Productivity Editors" (pre-Symphony)
Notes 8.0.1 --> Lotus Symphony 1.0
Notes 8.0.2 --> Lotus Symphony 1.1
Notes 8.5.0 --> Lotus Symphony 1.2
Notes 8.0.3 --> ??
Notes 8.5.1 --> Lotus Symphony 1.3

Lotus Symphony in-depth product comparison white paper

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:12:26 GMT

Received this from a colleague today and thought I would shere. The link takes you into PartnerWorld so I guess you need an account for that to read the document. Although it says "share this paper with your prospects" I don't know I may post an unprotected version.

Lotus Symphony in-depth product comparison white paper
This new white paper provides you and your customers with a broad, detailed comparison of Lotus Symphony 1.2, Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and OpenOffice.org 3.0. Share this paper with your prospects so they see how Lotus Symphony is the obvious alternative to proprietary office productivity software. Available at no charge, Lotus Symphony is helping businesses control software acquisition and upgrade costs everywhere, supporting over 28 languages.

Lotus Symphony in-depth product comparison white paper

Upgraded to Notes 8.0.1

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:23:00 GMT

Did my upgrade to Notes 8.0.1 Standard today without any serious issues. Only thing I noticed was a strange password dialog (no option to change location) on my initial login to Notes after the installation. After that initial login the client went into "provisioning mode" where it looked as though the Expeditor underpinnings installed and uninstalled a large number of plug-ins. This was probably replacing the Lotus Productivity Editors with Lotus Symphony (beta 4).

Nothing else worth noticing - all in all a very uneventful upgrade. IMHO there's no reason to hold of upgrading. Besides getting Symphony Beta 4 which is nice I'm now also a happy Sametime 8 user.

Lotus Symphony mentioned on the Windows Weekly podcast

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:35:00 GMT

I listened to the Windows Weekly podcast today (episode 36) and Lotus Symphony was mentioned (from 28:55-32:30). The podcast is from the TWIT network. Besides being a very positive review, although they mention that it's still beta 1, they also mention that it's the same technology used in the Notes products. Very nice.

Some quotes:

"I'm excited!"
"But unlike openoffice.org and Star Office this Lotus branded suite is actually nice looking. It really is!"
"There's already in this early version a certain clarity and polish that doesn't exist in Open Office"
"It works on Linux AND Windows"
"For most people Office is a daunting purchase"
"It already is, as you said, more polished than anything Open Office or Star Office has ever come out with by far!"

Windows Weekly episode 36: The News from Redmond