More on the Lotus Symphony and desktop productivity roadmap
February 5 2012
Just after Lotusphere, IBM released Lotus Symphony 3.0.1. This new version of Symphony features several incremental enhancements and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the OpenOffice-based desktop productivity market.
In my earlier blog entry, I indicated that our energy around the next release of Symphony is combining with the open-source community around the Apache OpenOffice project. Rather than continue Symphony as a separate fork, we plan to contribute the Symphony codebase into the project that should be released later this year as Apache OpenOffice 4.0. We've hired developers with deep expertise in OpenOffice; I'll be blogging about them later this week.
Unfortunately some headlines in the press created the impression that this merged effort with Apache somehow signaled IBM backing away from the desktop productivity space, and Symphony specifically. To be clear, Symphony 3.0.1 is the current release and will be until the Apache OpenOffice 4 release is done. At that time, IBM will distribute an IBM edition of OpenOffice, with extensions to integrate it with our other collaboration products, and with IBM support in exactly the same way that we support both embedded and stand-alone Symphony users today.
IBM ourselves are in the process of rolling out the upgrade to Symphony 3.0.1 to all 400,000 desktop users internally; we will upgrade to the OpenOffice 4 release once it is complete. All the file compatibility and investment in Symphony just carries forward into that new release, and in our internal work effort the contributions individual IBMers are making to OpenOffice 4 are in the same mindset and energy level we have had in building Symphony.
To help clarify the roadmap and strategy, we've posted a couple of resources.
1) Here is Eric Otchet's Lotusphere presentation; Eric works for me as the Symphony product manager. Eric is signed up as a committer on the Apache OpenOffice project, along with many other IBMers.
2) We've also posted a buzz entry on symphony.lotus.com, featuring an FAQ about the future of Symphony, the Apache OpenOffice project, and more.
Also, my colleague Rob Weir has written on the topic, and as mentioned, I'll have more to say after my visit to Hamburg during the week ahead.
Post a Comment
- 2
Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 2/5/2012 3:56:19 PM
Ed, thanks for clarifying.
No axe to grind here at all. I think IBM committing to supporting an OpenSource productivity suite is a great move.
However, I'm confused about the position re: OpenOffice re: LibreOffice. Can you talk us through why the decision has been made to commit to OpenOffice versus what seems to be the much more popular LibreOffice fork?
- 4
John Head http://www.johndavidhead.com | 2/5/2012 5:58:03 PM
@2 Stuart, do you see LibreOffice out at customers? I don't. My customers are either using Symphony or OpenOffice.org. I think LibreOffice has done some neat things in the past year with their codebase, but I have yet to see a single organization use it. And yes, I am well aware, my customer base is very US heavy.
- 5
Gavin Bollard http://dominogavin.blogspot.com | 2/5/2012 6:24:22 PM
Glad to see IBM and OpenOffice providing a single united front. It would be good if LibreOffice could rejoin the fold (and if Google could also contribute).
Right now, establishing the NEW Dominant file format is of particular importance. I'm not convinced that the world should move to Office 2010 by default.
It would be good if the combined Open Community could start spreading the file format message before 2010 gets too deeply entrenched.
- 6
Alex | 2/6/2012 4:57:45 AM
Really nice but... Who, in the "real" world, is working with Symphony... ?
We (i.e. my company) have more than 30'000 worldwide external users (independent engineers, technical experts,...), to deal with, and the fact is: 99.99% of them are still preferring to work with MS Office...
- 7
Guillaume | 2/6/2012 6:01:22 AM
IBM (in France) is still using powerpoint for their presentation.... so as a customer it is really difficult to trust Symphony
- 8
Dusan Mataruga | 2/6/2012 7:22:00 AM
What about Lotus Symphony name? Is it going to disappear with OpenOffice 4? Is it still going to be called Symphony or something else?
I have noticed at Lotusphere, Lotus Symphony was the only Lotus product that did not have IBM as part of the name.
- 11
Eric Otchet | 2/6/2012 8:31:49 AM
@all,
In case you had trouble with the Ed's link in the blog to the Symphony Buzz page with the FAQ .. here is the correct link to use until Ed can update ..
{ Link }
- 12
Adam Osborne | 2/6/2012 1:02:30 PM
Hi Ed,
Does the plan include the ability to run OO 4 inside Notes like we can today ?
- 13
Eric Otchet | 2/6/2012 3:43:19 PM
@12 Adam,
No that won't be supported. There will be integration with Notes and other products in the portfolio available. For example if you choose File--Send -- In email from the OO menu .. it will launch Notes. We are also working on extending our LotusScript support to the Apache OpenOffice 4 implementations.
- 14
Tripp W Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 2/13/2012 9:55:19 AM
Hi Ed,
Actually, I've actually had to install OO on a couple client workstations that chose to dump MS Office for LS simply because they could not open old WK and WP5.1 legacy files. Open Office has an add-on to install a file compatibiity/open component that can open just about anything old. If LS had ability to use it, it would have saved me installing both clients on those 2 workstations.
Overall, I think this is a great show of IBM wanting to play nice in sandbox and further the "main cause" per say. Keep working at the spin control, as this is really much better than just Lotus Symphony 4.
Of course there will be a few who say this shows IBM mettling, but I personally appreciate you supporting the open-source cause and obviously Lotus Symphony was benefited, as well.
Besides file open in LS, I still would love to see Ubuntu server as as supported Domino server distro.
- 15
Christos http://www.datatech.com.cy | 2/15/2012 2:29:31 AM
Ed, we are IBM ECM FileNet partners and for many years now the only office tools integration there is for IBM ECM repositories is for Microsoft Office. This prevents any IBM ECM customer to choose anything else but Microsoft.
Second point is that investigating if there is room for Symphony in several companies, I was amazed on how many people use Access (mostly 2003)for sevral uses. I can't believe there is no open source xbase available.
If OO4 includes something similar things will be much easier to get a market share from Microsoft.
- 16
mike http://www.tremblay-consulting.biz | 2/24/2012 4:38:22 AM
What sets symphony apart is efficient use of screen space through the tab feature. Is that particular feature going to be retained?
- 17
petr michalec | 2/25/2012 2:24:46 AM
Ed I'm sure that LibreOffice is "much more popular" for developers last days. Many of them have already moved from openoffice to libre office. I am quite surprised that IBM (with symphony based on libreoffice now) have declared to go with Apache open office which actually slowly dies.
We should stay with the developers not users since users keep with what they have now but will immediatelly switch even for a simple features.
- 18
Roland | 2/26/2012 2:56:38 PM
Especially for langugages like German, automatic hyphenation is needed urgently. E.g. in German language, words are much longer than in English language. The missing of a hyphenation feature in Version 3.x is a very disadvantage compared to Libre Office. For my oppinion, for Version 4.x hyphenation in various languages is directly related to the succes of this office suite.
-- Roland
- 19
Sully | 2/27/2012 3:17:55 AM
I like LS but the compatibility with my old WordPerfect files has disapeared. I must keep OOo 3.3 on my desk. I should like to have an application like Lotus Smartsuite Organizer (sorry I was an old user of LOTUS 123 ... once upon a time ...) included in the futur LS 4 or something like Lotus Notes. And I also try OS2 Warp 4. But this was the past. So I hope the best for LS 4.
- 20
Charles Stirling | 2/27/2012 10:14:14 AM
It sounds encouraging to move Lotus Symphony to an open standard. One other Lotus product, seemingly long forgotten is Lotus Approch which has a more sophisticated front end to databases than anything currently available. If anything could be done to move it or at least some of it to an open platform it would be very useful.
- 21
Alan http://www.rnkcpas.com | 3/2/2012 10:07:51 AM
I work in an accounting firm. We love Lotus SmartSuite, and many in my firm still use it (We use Lotus 9.8.2 Millenium Edition). However, we've been forced to purchase and migrate to Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 because accounting software vendors such as Intuit, CCH ProSystemfx, CaseWare International, etc. will only export to Microsoft Excel, Word, etc.. They will only write macros and add ins for Excel and Word, etc. Their programs will only launch Excel, Word, etc.. I assume this Microsoft lock-in situation is with many different industries, which is why the end users and companies haven't switched over to OpenOffice or LibreOffice I agree that since Oracle gave up its control and ownership of OpenOffice, a consolidation to one version of OO should be your number 1 priority. The number 2 priority is to make OO compatible with vendors who will only write for Microsoft Office. OO should contain code or simply if a file calls for the launching of Excel.exe or Word.exe, a prompt from OO should come up asking the user if he / she would like to open Microsoft or OpenOffice. OO should be modified / enhanced so that it can handing macros and add ins the same way as Microsoft, and then prompt the user to install it into Microsoft office or OO. Once this type of compatiblity exits, many, many more users will switch over to OO. This type of compatiblity is needed ASAP, if not sooner than that. That's why we haven't switch away from Microsoft, you don't understand the end user experience, and why Microsoft locks us into Microsoft only software.
Other compatibility projects that you guys can work on is to develop more standards. As an example, we love Lotus Organizer. It's a great program. But you and Microsoft should agree on a standard file format, so that any "organizer" program can access the same file layout and display the data the way the user or vendor wants to. Then you can check your calender in Lotus Organizer, Microsoft Outlook, Novell GroupWise, Google Calendar, etc..
To summarize, put all data into a universally accepted standardized format, and then software vendors and developers can all use the same database to create whatever apps they like, or display the data any way they like, and users can choose the viewing programs that work best for themselves, and not be locked into one vendor, i.e. Microsoft. That would help end the illegal Microsoft Monopoly.
Because of this illegal Microsoft Monopoly, we must use Microsoft Office. Therefore, our computers must use Microsoft Windows, and the illegal Microsoft Monopoly continues.
If software vendors would write code, in say Mono.net, rather than Microsoft.net, then the program code without modification (or very little modification), would not only run on Microsoft Windows PCs and servers, but it would also run on Linux desktops and servers, it would run on Android, on BSD, on iOS, on Mac OS X, on Solaris, and on Uxix operating systems. It would even run on PlayStation 3, Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
This is how you build an open platform. These are the strategies to grab hold of and produce great software. Then the end user can decide if they want to do their work on a Windows PC, a Mac, a Linux desktop, a tablet, a phone, etc..
I'm not a programmer, so I can't implement this universal compatibility strategy, but you guys and girls can. Just Do It!
- 22
Alan | 3/2/2012 10:25:00 AM
That was Unix, not Uxix. If you guys would have put in a spell check, then this spelling error could have been avoided. And when I launched your link from my GroupWise email, if I was given the choice of which browser I'd like to view the link in, I would have opened Mozilla Firefox, which I believe has a built in spell checker.
Why don't I make Mozilla Firefox my default browser, you ask? Well, because when I go online, say for support, some venders will ask me to open up an Internet Explorer browser, because their software may not be compatible with other non-Microsoft browsers.
- 23
Andrew http://n/a | 3/2/2012 11:47:59 PM
Ed, you may not have read this one:
{ Link }
- 24
Mel | 3/3/2012 11:19:03 AM
@21, Alan, I agree with you, and I'm sure everyone else does too. The main problem is MS isn't going to let that happen. As far as OpenOffice goes, they have great support and compatibility with everyone else, but MS is the ones that were forced to start supporting the 'OpenDocumentFormat', which the newer versions of MS Office have, but obviously won't use them by default. So in reality, as far as documents go you should be able to interchange these days. As for the other software vendors you talking about I agree with you there also. But MS is paying them to only support their software, and that is why it is the way it is. Just like MS was paying schools and other establishments to use Windows. Kids growing up using Windows, will continue to use Windows, because most people want to stay with what they are familiar with, which is unfortunate. I'd love to say a lot more about that, but I want to start about something else. Alan, there is actually a ton of support you can offer to the open-source community. I run a small business, and I have totally switched over to open-source software. Normally there is always something out there to take the place of that proprietary software you are using. I'm not sure about accounting software, but I'd imagine there is software out there to take it's place you just have to look for it. You should all switch over to using Linux or open-source project. As far as things being compatible with Firefox almost everything is compatible with Firefox these days, except for MS support, and some of their 3rd party software vendors. But if your using open-source software, you won't need to worry about that anymore. Anyway what I was saying was, just because your not a programmer, doesn't mean you can't contribute if you want. You can help write documentation, do software testing, get a BitTorrent client, and download and seed various Linux distributions. Many of the distributions will have a page on their website that has all the information you need about the areas your able to help and contribute with. Open-source software and communities are the greatest thing since strawberry cheesecake. There are plenty of Linux distros out there that are aimed at folks coming from Windows, who need a good Linux OS to be compatible with many things out of the box. Linux Mint is a great example, it's not the most popular distro, even over Ubuntu, because it's ready to go out of the box for many things, whereas Ubuntu isn't. Zorin OS is another good one. There are plenty, and a great website to find the perfect distro for you and your company is 'distrowatch.com'. There are other great open-source projects other than Linux, many of them are still in development and need some time to become ready for everyday use, but are definitely great alternatives, or will be at least. I'm also big into multi-media in my spare time, and there were programs that I loved that were only for Windows, but I ended up finding alternatives that are available for Linux, so I'm good to go now. I don't ever use Windows anymore. If you are keen on those accounting programs that are only for Windows, then you and all of your people should email the companies of that software, and tell them you would like them to add support for Linux. I know I'm bouncing around, but something else about contributing to the projects, if you don't have spare time to contribute, you can always donate money to them, that is the only way they make their money, and obviously maintaining these projects are very expensive. Anyway hope this was at the very least encouraging for you to take the leap and maybe you can do some research and find what your looking for...
Brilliant news Ed. Thanks.
Is there any follow up from my question at "Ask the Dev's": When will Lotus Notes support import/export ODS files from a View, as 1-2-3 WK4 is no longer supported by any current Spreadsheet application (including Symphony)?"
Thanks mate.