Lotus Symphony

Last fall IBM introduced their Lotus Symphony product (re-introduced really). This time around Symphony is a reworked version of the Open Office suite of business applications (word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation) integrated with the Eclipse application framework. I’ve been a huge fan of Eclipse since it first appeared as a replacement for the IBM Visual Age development environment. Eclipse has since grown into a multi-purpose framework for developing cross-platform applications.

So, why am I writing about this? Well, I’ve become increasingly frustrated with Microsoft Office and I’m at the point where I think it’s time to make a fresh start. Given the amount of time I have invested in learning Office, that’s not a decision made lightly. Symphony is still in beta release so my hope is that IBM will listen to user feedback and make an office suite that meets my needs.

As I go about my learning process I’m going to post my experiences here. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some useful information for others making the transition. Stay tuned…