Gizmos Grabowski

IBM Ships Lotus Symphony -- Free -- & I Like It

IBM shipping the first release of the new Lotus Symphony doesn't get as much attention as Google changing a setting in Google Docs. Oh well.

Until today, the OpenOffice-based Lotus Symphony software had been in beta. I've been using it on my notebook computer that runs Vista. I'd like to use it on my desktop computer, but it run Windows 2000, and Symphony is limited to the XP and Vista varients of Windows -- as well as several varients of Linux.

The package consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, and PowerPoint-like slide program. The user inteface of Symphony is very handsome; I like it better than OpenOffice and Microsoft Office 2007. I did install it on my daughter's XP notebook computer, and she's happily creating a presentation on the Aztec Indians for her Civilization 12 class. Once I get the time, I'll try to install the Linux version on my dad's notebook computer.

Lotus Symphony 1.0 is a 200MB download from here (after creating an account).

Speed

The primary criticism of the OpenOffice line of software is its slow launch speed. Lotus Symphony launches pretty quickly, though not as fast as Microsoft Office. After that, it's faster. Here is what I have noticed: the Microsoft product might launch faster, but once it is running, it stalls each time a new command is selected. In contrast, Symphony doesn't do that -- so it ends up being faster overall.

Lotus Symphony: Old Software, Old Name

"Something borrowed, something blue..."

That pops into my head when reading of IBM offering Lotus Symphony. It's OpenOffice being offered under the recyled name of Lotus' office software package -- before it was bought out by IBM.

At one time, Lotus had the #1 spreadsheet -- running on DOS. They even worked to define a memory standard to help provide uber-large spreadsheets with RAM. The LIM EMS spec was named after Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft; EMS was extended memory specification, which allowed compatible programs to access RAM beyond the 640KB limit imposed by Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system.

Like WordPerfect, Lotus stumbled when the move to Windows was required, what with Microsoft using undocumented APIs to have their apps run much faster. Ah, the joy of having a monopolistic mindset. When office suits became popular (as a cheap way to get lots of software, not because they worked together), Lotus bundled 1-2-3 with the acquired Ami Pro word processor and so on.

But the bundle never got traction, and Lotus eventually sold itself to IBM. Many years later, the name re-emerges.

I downloaded the "new" Lotus Symphony to see what it was like. (Before downloading, you need to register with IBM, which is a pain.)

My first two attempts to install it were a failure:

-- I accidentally tried to install it on my primary computer, which runs Windows 2000. This software apparently works only with Windows XP and Vista.

-- I copied the install file to my Windows Vista notebook computer, and re-ran the install. Still no go. There is no evidence that the program exists. I've left a message on the painfully-slow Lotus Symphony support forum, so we'll see what happens.

Update

Lots of people are reading my request for help at the Symphony forum, but no answers yet.

In the meantime, I figured out the problem. I re-installed the software, and found that the IBM_Lotus_Symphony_w32.exe file is only an executable unzipper that deposits the Setup.exe file in the same (busy) folder. You'd think IBM could figure out how to write a dialog box that tells you to run Setup.exe next, instead of being silent.

Ran Setup.exe, installed Symphony correctly. And wow! It looks nice. Someone really worked on the user interface; until you start using the software's menus and right-click menus, it doesn't look like OpenOffice at all.

One immediate GUI problem, though. There is a prominent Open button, but it should be relabeled New, because all it does is create new, blank documents.

develop it, release it, abandon it

As a two-time victim of Adobe dead-ending software, I hold no hope out for NoteTab. Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion describes it:

Adobe Labs is working on a concept project called NoteTag that allows users to capture notes during meetings and assign tasks within those notes to individuals. NoteTag can turn the notes around and post them to a blog or del.icio.us and tag them.

I bought Adobe PageMill, which the company later lost interest in. (I now use Nano WebEditor.)

I still use Adobe PageMaker, which the company also lost interest in a few years ago. Unfortunately, I am too efficient in using PM to ever think about cross-grading to something else. (I tried Quark Xpress for one book project; it was dreadful.)

I espect Adobe to do the same for NoteTag: develop it, release it, abandon it.

Atlantis Word Processor Updated

Atlantis is the word processor I prefer to use. It's cleaner and leaner than Word and OpenOffice, and I like its interface better that some of the other low-cost word processors. Its primary fault is that it doesn't handle tables; for that, I switch to OpenOffice.

Rising Sun Software released an update to Atlantis this week, with the following new stuff. The one that excites me the most is numbered lists. That's because I use numbered lists as a quickway to count stuff, like the number of commands in AutoCAD.

Here's some of what's new:

- New Spellcheck Engine -- the previous one was too slow.
- Control Board -- might be useful for complex documents.
- Power Type -- I find these irritating.
- Lists -- finally, numbered lists!
- Multiple Selection -- could be useful for making formatting faster.
- New Color Palette -- no interest to me.
- Better support for pasting from Web browsers -- I trust this means preserving the formatting.
- New operations on fields and pictures -- I'll have to check this out.

More info at atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/news.