Lotus Symphony 3.0 now available

October 21 2010

Earlier today, IBM Lotus released Symphony 3.0, a major new version of the OpenOffice-based desktop productivity editors.  Symphony 3.0 features major improvements in usability, integration, programmability, and compatibility.

Image:Lotus Symphony 3.0 now available

One thing hasn't changed from earlier versions of Lotus Symphony -- it's still free.  While Microsoft somehow thinks it's OK to conceive of new ways to gouge customers for Microsoft Office, we believe that desktop productivity -- at least the model of installing discrete applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations -- should have commoditized long ago, and freed company budgets from the thousands of dollars per user paid in the last ten years to continue to use -- yep -- a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool.  There's no sense in having the corporate world pay for all of Microsoft's money-losing consumer businesses -- and I've been proudly and entirely Microsoft-free for 18 months now.

Some of the new features include VBA macro support -- one of the main barriers in users switching from Excel; creation of business cards and labels; nested tables; multi-monitor support for presentations; a new chart engine and more.  For a full list of new features, click here.

The new version has taken a while to percolate.  We went through a line-by-line effort to move to the OpenOffice 3 codebase, and in many cases, improve upon it.  We continue to contribute back work to OpenOffice.org, and we will be basing the next version of Symphony (a 3.x release in 2011) on some of that work.

In parallel, there is increased attention to an effort we announced at Lotusphere 2010, IBM Project "Concord".  Coming soon via LotusLive Labs, "Concord" takes the focus up a level to the collaborative nature of document editing, instead of revolving around the document itself.  Capabilities include concurrent editing, sectioning, live tables, in-line comments and more.  Watch for more on "Concord" soon.

To download the new version of Lotus Symphony, visit symphony.lotus.com >

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus Symphony  Add/View Comments [36]

Post a Comment

  1. 1  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/21/2010 2:11:26 PM

    and for the haterz who have come to complain about having to register to download, I've read your comments elsewhere. If you are really so unhappy about it, the Symphony license is one of the few IBM software products where you can freely redistribute the software. Set up your own download/mirror and have at it. We just would like to have a relationship with our customers, not just an anonymous hook-up.

  1. 2  MIke Brown http://www.browniesblog.com | 10/21/2010 2:26:26 PM

    Ed,

    I've not had to register to download. Yes, I had to put in a name and email address, but I didn't have to use an IBM ID or anything.

    Where does IBM stand on the LibreOffice fork (if that's what it becomes)? From your comments, it looks like you guys are sticking with Oracle, at least for now.

  1. 3  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 10/21/2010 2:58:39 PM

    Great. We've been running the Symphony 3 betas and look forward to it.

    Is there a wiki article of upgrading the 1.x in Notes 8.5.2 to 3?

  1. 4  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 10/21/2010 3:07:11 PM

    Congrats to the team on getting v3 out the door: macro support will be a very popular feature I'm sure.

    I don't think the "haterz" comment was warranted though, sorry.

  1. 5  Chris Warner http://kaiserpermanente.org | 10/21/2010 3:15:59 PM

    Just wanted to call out that the Symphony page is a Domino app. Love it. Now, if only Domino Designer could be free. ;-)

  1. 6  luis benitez http://www.lbenitez.com | 10/21/2010 3:26:56 PM

    You don't need an ID to download, simply click on the link to the right: "Proceed without an IBM ID"

  1. 7  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 10/21/2010 3:41:05 PM

    Found someone whose already done upgrade w/in Lotus Notes w/update site:

    :-)

    { Link }

  1. 8  Steve  | 10/21/2010 3:41:35 PM

    Ed, Downloaded and installed. Any chance of getting it to interface in with the Notes Client 8.5.1 FP5 or does it have to be standalone?

  1. 9  Dave Hay http://portal2portal.blogspot.com/ | 10/21/2010 3:43:54 PM

    @5 Am I being dumb, but I thought that Domino Designer was already free, as of earlier this year ?

    "...Use Domino Designer, a free product, to build applications that are run locally..."

    { Link }

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/21/2010 5:00:50 PM

    Re @3/@8 -- a plug-in installer for Symphony 3 on top of Notes 8.5.1/8.5.2 will be released in November.

  1. 11  Chris Conran  | 10/21/2010 6:43:26 PM

    Noted with some concern that the "new features" document lists the "Ability to import SmartSuite files." as being disabled in Symphony 3 Releases.

    Given that the major reason we still install Symphony with Notes is because we have a large catalog of Smartsuite files created over many years that still need to be able to be opened.

    So what will happen with all those 123, Freelance and WordPro documents?

    Can this ability be enabled again, or does "disabled" mean "not available at all"?

  1. 12  Eric Otchet  | 10/21/2010 9:12:37 PM

    @11 Chris.. For Smartsuite there are 2 options. Smartsuite can save content in the MS Office formats which can then be opened/edited in Symphony 3. You can also still use Symphony 1.3 to open the Smartsuite content. We never had the ability to save in that format. In addition, there are some tools that will batch convert Smartsuite formatted content into the MS Office formats .. Check out this link for more information { Link }

  1. 13  peter b  | 10/21/2010 11:46:44 PM

    Ed - I'm not one of the haterz.

    I want Symphony to succeed and that's why I think you should make it as simple as possible for people to get it.

    The rego page is enough to turn off people who are curious but not yet committed to getting the product.

    When I click "Proceed without an ID" I expect the download to start, since I've chosen the non-ID path.

    Please don't hate me. ;)

  1. 14  MIke Brown http://www.browniesblog.com | 10/21/2010 11:53:03 PM

    @13,

    So, you have to put in a name and an email address. They don't even have to be real ones.

    Is that such an imposition?

  1. 15  Lasse  | 10/22/2010 12:23:40 AM

    Hello Ed!

    When will we get .ods support to Notes export and import? Import/export is still very useful feature but the outdated Lotus 1-2-3 support makes it cumbrous to use.

  1. 16  Chris Conran http://www.abs.gov.au | 10/22/2010 12:31:42 AM

    @12 - Thanks Eric for the reply.

    We have removed Smartsuite from our environment because it no longer has a future as a product. We standardised on OpenOffice/Symphony for our future document creation - particularly because Symphony was available as part of the Notes client. This allowed us to bring forward "working" Smartsuite attachments by being able to open and convert them when necessary.

    We have many, many Smartsuite attachments (1-2-3 in particular) in thousands of Notes docs in hundreds of Notes databases that have been created over the last 17 years or so we've been using Notes & Smartsuite. The majority of these may only need to be read (they have historical significance), but some proportion of them will be "working" documents that will need to be opened and converted at some time in the future - even just to recapture their historical nature. We do not need to save back to Smartsuite formats.

    As a Statistical organisation, information is a resource even if it's many years old.

    Batch converting this number of attachments is also likely to be prohibitive for us as well, not least that they are embedded in Notes documents that may have ACL and/or reader restrictions.

    If Notes 8.5.x/9.x moves to embedding Symphony 3 (which I expect it will) I don't think we also want to install Symphony 1.3 on client PC's as well - "just in case" (and assuming it will co-exist).

  1. 17  Andrew Tjecklowsky  | 10/22/2010 3:12:22 AM

    @10 Ed, could you please inform us when this plugin-installer is available? When we first saw this blogpost we were happy because several of our customers are currently running OpenOffice as we are waiting for the 3.x codebase to be available inside the Notes client. It's a little dissapointing then to read that we have to wait until next month.

  1. 18  Sean J  | 10/22/2010 7:21:03 AM

    Slightly off topic but, Symphony and Notes are Eclipse based and required Java...

    Given that Apple will no-longer be providing updates to Java on OS X, classifying it as 'deprecated', will IBM be providing its own JVM to allow future deployment Notes, Symphony, etc on the Mac plaform?

  1. 19  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 10/22/2010 9:02:03 AM

    @18 I’m assuming you're not serious. The same week Apple announce something about possibly not building any more JVMs for OS X, you're asking IBM if they will step up? Good grief.

  1. 20  Bilal Jaffery http://www.Bilal.ca | 10/22/2010 11:26:27 AM

    @18 Speechless.

    I would be intersted in learning more about users' experience with our v3 vs Open Office release now.

  1. 21  Oliver Schulze http://tinymailto.com/oliversl | 10/22/2010 2:20:59 PM

    Very easy download steps, it detects your OS and Language, nice work! Worked well in Windows and Mac.

  1. 22  Ulf Stider http://www.Infoware.com | 10/23/2010 4:28:14 AM

    Congratulations to a very promising release!

    As an IBM business partner I quite often get questioned for detailed differenses and pros/cons between openoffice.org and Lotus Symphony. Please put such a sheet on symphony.com, it is really needed.

  1. 23  Randall Shimizu  | 10/25/2010 12:10:04 AM

    I prefer Open Office 3 to Symphony. OO 3 launches very very fast. I was very disappointed with how slow Symphony installed. The other problem is that Symphony was a big resource hog while installing. Symphony reminds me of OO 1.0. On the other hand OO is still much better then MS Office.

    Although Lotus Symphony is OSS it would be more helpful if Lotus released code during the development cycle rather than releasing code afterwords. This would encourage more developers to contribute and make the code better at the same time.

  1. 24  Kai Bruemmer  | 10/25/2010 7:33:41 AM

    Dear Ed, the download ist broken. If I try to access the download page, there is an error from www14.software.ibm.com:

    This service is temoraryly unavailable. Please try again later.

    message code: 40

    The same message occurs, when I go to Sign up for support on this page...

  1. 25  Colby Braden  | 10/25/2010 11:15:37 AM

    Getting same error

    "This service is temoraryly unavailable. Please try again later.

    message code: 40"

    anybody got an alternate download link?

  1. 26  Eric Otchet  | 10/25/2010 1:07:22 PM

    @24,25 The download problems have been corrected . The download site is now available ...

  1. 27  Tony Austin http://notestracker.com | 10/25/2010 10:30:57 PM

    Re @10 ...

    Ed, please let us have that plug-in installer for Symphony 3 on top of Notes 8.5.x ready ASAP.

    At the start of November rather than the end of the month? ... It can't be all that difficult to roll out (the zarazaga.net link provided in Tripp's comment @7 indicates so).

    How about aiming for a release of the plug-in on Guy Fawkes Day (5th November) -- with a "big bang" so to speak?

  1. 28  Kai Bruemmer  | 10/26/2010 3:27:58 PM

    @26 Thank you, it works now.

  1. 29  Steve  | 10/28/2010 11:32:31 AM

    I have to say, I'm not too impressed with the Mac version. Double clicking in between columns on a spreadsheet shrinks it to the smallest rather than the largest width of the column. That's a fairly basic function, it works correctly in Open Office for Mac. Also I just had symphony completely lock up my Mac, which never happens. Symphony crashed and lost the spreadsheet I was working on. It actually crashed as soon as I had clicked the File menu to save the document...so much for saving often. Truly disappointing, I'm going back to using open office, at least if it crashes it recovers what I was working on.

  1. 30  Steve  | 10/28/2010 11:36:11 AM

    Also it's very slow to open and takes upward of five seconds to bring up a new blank document. My MacBoook Pro is no slouch either, everything but Symphony is fine.

  1. 31  Randall Shimizu  | 10/30/2010 7:54:14 PM

    @30

    I believe the Eclipse RCP (rich client platform) is slowing down Symphony.

  1. 32  Sebastian Krohe  | 11/24/2010 2:53:13 AM

    Hey Ed, only one week untill Dezember - where ist the plugin or do you mean 2011? Looking forward to it

  1. 33  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/24/2010 10:35:49 AM

    It is available now on Passport Advantage. I need to write more about it

  1. 34  Michael Sigmund  | 11/28/2010 11:51:26 AM

    Hi Ed,

    you wrote in Post no. 33 that the Note plugin for updating Notes 8.5.2 with Symphony 3 would be available in Passport Advantage. I wanted to be brave and test it but I struggled with finding it. Could you post a link?

    Thanks

  1. 35  Gary  | 12/4/2010 2:13:34 PM

    Thumbs up to symphony. And v3 a big improvement on v1 in terms of functionality and more importantly stability.

    Big fan of the UI versus OO also.

    It is my primary office application suite these days.

    I must say I do find it a bit slow at starting up (on Win XP in particular).

    Keep good work up.