Office 2010 kicks ass

jigglywiggly@3dslice.net Nov 19, 2009 6:46pm GMT

Ok symphony is garbage, and open office is fairly good now, I do not mind using it, however Office 2007 is just better. And now that the public beta of office 2010 came out, I am amazed. It's so fast, it launches incredibly fast. Too bad there is no wine/crossover support, but it runs great on my 64bit Win7 desktop.

I would love to use it on my netbook, but if there is no Wine/Crossover support, it has left me with Office 2007 and Debian. Sure it's not a huge difference, but it would be nice to have.

Microsoft

adam Nov 10, 2009 8:04am GMT

I don't understand why IBM doesn't just contribute to OpenOffice rather than make a crappy knock off. Symphony is based on OpenOffice 1.0 code which has been grately improved in OOo 2. Think of the synergy if IBM and the OpenOffice community worked together.


<a href="http://www.cartucho-r4-ds.com.br">r4i</a>

open source floss and gpl wtf

man_one Nov 01, 2009 7:54pm GMT

I know I'm late to the party, but please understand that large organisations have bulk. Meaning they move slowly yet surely towards their goals. So when u see so many "IBM employees" posting here about contradictory stuff it means IBM has been doing this for a longer time ... So I guess MSO has got its days numbered when a super-behemoth like IBM moves shop.

All youse whiners go somewhere where we dont have to hear you. Those of us who wish to make a difference want to work on making that difference.

Powa' to OOo and FLOSS and the GPL. for everything else there is $$$.

Symphony != OOo

another ibmer Oct 15, 2009 2:52am GMT

It's a good strategy by IBM to market Symphony as "based on OOo" because many have heard/seen/used OOo and liked it. Symphony is based on OOo 1.0 which was crap. Which makes Symphony crap. If you haven't used/seen Symphony, please do not assume that Symphony is as good as OOo. I would agree that Excel is better than OOo, but OOo is free and works in most cases. Symphony does not work at all. My team was forced to use Symphony for some presentations this summer, but Symphony crashed so often we had to use a trial version of powerpoint to get anything done.

Like it or not

evil1dwk Oct 14, 2009 3:43am GMT

You can say what you want about office and or openoffice/symphony. It doesn't matter. It's a blow to microsoft where it's going to hurt most, their collective wallets/purses. There are currently 398,455 IBM employees according to their website http://www.ibm.com/ibm/us/en/. That's upwards of 300,000 users that will no longer be legally purchasing a license for a microsoft product.

That's a huge account to lose and a big chunk of money. To publicly announce it just adds insult to injury. It's also a great way to get advertising for their own product.

Say what you want about IBM but they are a big reason many opensource projects exist. They are a huge supporter of Linux and the opensource community in general. They hold more patents than microsoft and are a large reason microsoft didn't pursue patent violations against linux vendors. Between Novell's unix patents and IBM's extensive patent portfolio microsoft thought better of pursing lawsuits of their own instead leaving the battle to SCO to lose.

mso/openoffice etc

roy Oct 03, 2009 9:26pm GMT

Dear Sirs,
compatibility is always an issue when different people use different programmes. Open Office 3 still has problems with Word when it comes to graphics, e.g., try filling out an application form and have it reproduced as originally written once it has been opened in an alien format.
IBM are not the greatest organisation, after all they did encourage billy boy in the first place, but all funds will be gratefully received.

Roy.

Symphony and ODF and OO

Curmudgeon Sep 27, 2009 3:13pm GMT

M$ saves and supports ODF starting with Office 2007.

Three settings in OO Fix the settings permanently.

I sit here looking at 368,222 data records, the ONLY reason I still am using EXCEL for some jobs (Data Migration mostly)

Most all IBM customers are demanding and spec'ing ODF Format documents, driving the change also.

I'd rather use open office

Becky Sep 24, 2009 11:15pm GMT

Open office is faster, less buggy.

visio and office

rubybiz Sep 21, 2009 1:07am GMT

With ten years of accounting and tax I've been a user of OpenOffice since it first came out. For over ten
years I have watched users (including my own family) demand Office until I installed the new OO 3 version and did one thing. Goto to Tools--->Options--->LoadSave--->Documents and default the three (word processing, spreadsheet and presentations) to MS extensions. This will solve 99.99999% of your problems. For Visio-download Dia. On the other hand, if you want speed and more capacity (spreadsheet) use odf as your extension.

ibm

montoya Sep 19, 2009 10:21pm GMT

another ibm's buggy product.

IBM switching to Symphony

Osho Sep 19, 2009 2:24pm GMT

This is pretty good planned movement by IBM to move to their own product and call it switching to Open Office. Nice strategy by IBM to promote their product. Atleast they can enforce in their offices.

Please grow up and stop bashing products and companies. Lets work on making the products better and useful. Once made useful and easy, they will find their place in the market.

Not a throw out.

bimbo Sep 18, 2009 2:28am GMT

IBM did not throw out Microsoft. They simply put more weight on using ODF. Moreover, they're pushing for their flagship product Symfony. This is business strategy.

It's good that a big organization stress on the importance of using Open Standards. I hope that IBM with other players will soon collaborate more often of improving and extending the ODF specs.

XL will be missed

Mr. Common Sense Sep 18, 2009 2:02am GMT

A 50MB speadsheet when rows are limited to 64,000 ???
Break that up into multiple files or use a real database!

Heavy duty graphing:
Probably if you need heavy duty graphing to understand your data you should leave data analysis to someone more qualified; likely someone with Analyst in their title.

Suspicious comments

Jose_X Sep 18, 2009 12:04am GMT

I've only used oocalc a few times, but it has been sufficient. For heavy duty stuff, as someone else said, you wouldn't use OO or MSO.

I have a feeling there are a few Microsoft people posting here.

XL will be missed

Mihalis Veletas Sep 17, 2009 6:29am GMT

Well, you folks can say whatever you want, but OO Calc, IMHO is not up to XL standard. At least for the engineering work that I do, and I do expect a lot more from my spread-sheets than most users do. I have used spread-sheets as big as 50M, and I rely greatly on XL's simple graphical capabilities.

OO Calc lacks the speed and ease of use, especially when it comes to graphing data of XL. Its not there. Not even close. Some users claimed that OO Calc is where XL 98 was, but, its not even there.

So, I'm a tough nut to crack. I'm stuck on the dark side.

But how can you turn me over to the good side?

Well, give me as simple a graphing function as XL, and I'm there.
The speed issues I can live with, but the poor graphing, no way.

I am specifically flabarghasted by the lack of multiple selection of non-contiguous ranges when creating plots, and the need to double-click on a plot to edit it.

I have faith in the open source community, so I expect that one day both of my coserns will be addressed.

OpenOffice Calc is GOOD software

Ohio CPA 27954 Sep 17, 2009 1:44am GMT

I have been a CPA for 18 years and a CFO for 8 years so I think I know a thing or two about spreadsheets. I have used Lotus, Excel and OpenOffice Calc during this time. I have used OpenOffice Calc exclusively since 2005 when version 2.0 was released. I use Calc nearly every day and I can tell you that it works just fine and is full featured! I save nearly all my spreadsheets in xls format except (1) very large spreadsheets where I want the compression offered by ods format and (2) spreadsheets where I want the same page format automatically applied to all sheets/tab -- a feature not offered by Excel.

Kind of sad, really

Alan Sep 16, 2009 10:01pm GMT

Whether this report is actually true or not, it's kind of sad that they haven't done this already. You'd the think VENDOR and DEVELOPER of Lotus Symphony -- the folks who market it as an alternative to MSO for the rest of us -- would have been using this since it went stable. Do you think Microsoft employees use Corel Office? Does Novell run its infrastructure on Windows and Active Directory?

If IBM were trying to sell me on Lotus Symphony, I'd better not lean over the sales rep's shoulder and see Excel on his laptop. "Eat your own dogfood" is the oldest rule of software vending.

Wonders how many of these people are really IBMers...

Storm14k Sep 16, 2009 6:56pm GMT

Its kinda funny that all this negativity towards IBM pops up around this article that may not even be true. Now all of a sudden IBM sucks and Open Office is not much better than vi. Meanwhile I watching average people on a college sports forum of all places talk about how they use Open Office without a problem. They don't miss anything.

Excel is dangerous

Microsoft Advocate Sep 16, 2009 5:22pm GMT

Anyone using Excel for anything more important than keeping recipes is risking their livelyhood. Excel (and probably OO-Calc too) has a number of fundamental flaws in its calculation engine, and there is NO WAY to validate results and their level of accuracy. In other words, if you use Excel to keep your books, for example, you may find at the end of the year that you are off by hundreds or even thousands of dollars, with NO way to find out where that difference originated. The risk for a very small business or individual may be fairly low, but again anything more serious is when you really should be looking for alternatives.

No such memo has crossed any IBMer's desk that I know of

IBMer Sep 16, 2009 4:07pm GMT

Since hearing about this on Slashdot yesterday I have asked around and looked on our internal website(s) and have found nothing supporting this claim.

inaccurate

nevermind Sep 15, 2009 7:08pm GMT

The post is a little inaccurate. 1/3rd HAVE NOT been asked to use lotus symphony. Old timers, who joined the company before have the license to use M$ office. However, anyone who joins new will not be able to use m$, and will have to use OO or Symphony.
Also, this is nothing new. As far as I know, this has been going on for some time in IBM (about a year???)

Does anyone really need IBM?

X-IBM-er Sep 15, 2009 5:57pm GMT

I worked for IBM for three years several years ago. Worst company ever! I can't stress that enough. I was not fired from IBM. I made the decision to leave. IBM has ZERO business sense anymore. Their board simply waits around for a hot new tech trend then they spend millions on advertising. Remember "On Demand" service. What crap. IBM sells service and that's it. Crap service, but service none the less.

Quick story:

When working for IBM. We would have cultural sensitivity days (cultural training is really what it boiled down to), but management called it "days". This is largely due to the fact that mangers for IBM are zombies with no real thought processes. For every tier one manger you have 2 or sometime 3 tier 2 and tier 3 managers. They "group think". Anyway. Cultural sensitivity days at IBM are where-in you (I) get to learn about other cultures, India and Brazil in my case. I commented to one of my fellow co-workers. "Interesting how they want to train us to be sensitive to the cultures that are being given our titles." Exactly 2 weeks after cultural b.s. day(s) the division right next to mine was axed. 30+ hard working people with kids and lives. Gone! They came to work on a Friday and lost their jobs that same day. I had been actively seeking employment in the previous months prior to this incident. A local web design firm made me an offer just a few days after the division was let go. I accepted and never looked back.

Yes IBM helps out Linux. Good for them. But why shouldn't IBM donate to charity/linux? It makes them look good in the eyes of others and is a huge tax write off. Plus what IBM invest pennies in they can then turn around and sell a yet to be named service for dollars. Quite brilliant actually.

IBM'er thoughts

gee Sep 15, 2009 5:08pm GMT

I am not sure where this report is coming from, I as well never heard anything about it. However it does make sense that IBM is moving that way, and it is very apparent they are. I am sure that IBM prefers its employees using their own products, as I am sure any company would.

The O word

Don Marti Sep 15, 2009 4:40pm GMT

So now IBM is depending on Oracle, new owners of Sun, for the infrastructure software behind its office suite. Any word from Oracle on their openoffice.org plans?

Some thoughts

The New Guy Sep 15, 2009 2:47pm GMT

I just recently started working at IBM.

Yes, Symphony was already part of my workstation while receiving it.
No, I did not receive such an email stating a need to quit using MS Office.

Yes, Open Calc does suck (I use some F/OSS on my desktop at home), though Gnumeric isn't bad. If you're using Ubuntu, you can probably install Gnumeric no problem if using a default installation with Gnome fairly easily.

In terms of an alternative for MS Visio, they'll probably just make you use Rational Rose. While I don't think Rational Rose is as clear cut as Visio, it certainly can do everything Visio can and can integrate with the other tools within Rational; however, it may be harder to use for some.

About web based project management software

Web Based Project Management Sep 15, 2009 12:14pm GMT

You have provided interesting information in your blog. We know that every company has their own way of managing work flow and projects, with their own objectives and desired results. There are many companies in the world provided online project management software service. People are used it for their different purposes and made their work flow easy and systematic.

Replaced Office, and...

Pablo Daniel Villalba Sep 15, 2009 5:40am GMT

OK, Symphony replaced Office, and... when is it gonna make a product to replace Visio and Project? If it doesn't include a replacement for the other RELEVANT Office products and it just replaces only Word, Excel and Powerpoint... Symphony is still an office suit for kids, or better said, a below-standard-office-suite. According to what tools are needed for Project Management, Symphony and Smartsuite just covered a half of needs and I always had to go back to MS Office... maybe there would be an IBM's visio and/or project, sometimes... maybe...

no alternative to Microsoft Office

angry Sep 15, 2009 1:41am GMT

Microsoft Office might be too expensive , but Lotus, Open Office and New Office are pretty much useless. Somebody who is satisfied with vi for word processing might find them useful but they are already 20 years behind times so it does not matter to them.

Word Processors are Bloated

Faster Than Office Sep 15, 2009 12:41am GMT

All you really need is vi, sed, awk and troff. Your productivity will soar!

lol

bim Sep 14, 2009 11:50pm GMT

IBM = BDS = BIG DUMB SLOW

ODT format

fatape Sep 14, 2009 10:04pm GMT

If you look in the File->Save As dialog in Office 2007 I do believe there is the option to save as odt.

Just history re-visting itself

The Angry Technician Sep 14, 2009 8:14pm GMT

When I started at IBM nine years ago, the policy then was exactly what's being talked about now; you had to apply for an Office licence to install it. That policy only ended when Lotus SmartSuite was officially abandoned.

IBM have always hated paying other companies for software they use a lot, which was a major factor in the Lotus buyout (when they bought Lotus, IBM were one of the biggest users of Lotus software worldwide, if not the biggest). The real question is whether they can succeed in making Symphony an enduring alternative where they failed once with SmartSuite.

What Memo?

Yet Another IBM'er... Sep 14, 2009 4:59pm GMT

As many have already stated ...

I'm looking in my inbox ... no memo. Typically, if a major acquisition or business strategy goes out, the higher-ups will send out a mass email to everyone. Something as huge as this, I would expect at least a taped memo on my desk ("Did you get that memo?". I'm not high up on the chain - In fact, I think I'm near the bottom - But I would expect to hear something about this before this statement came out. This is malarky - made up, plain and simple.

That being said, I would LOVE if IBM moved away from Office and embraced Open Office document formats. I'm one of the guys who uses Open Office (not Symphony), and who always sends out .ODT format-ed documents, only to be told later I need to convert them to .doc. I mean, it makes sense to me - in a time when companies are either not hiring new employees or laying old employees off, and when expenses are scrutinized more than ever - why not use a piece of good, open, FREE software .... rather than pay the license fee for Office? The complaints against Open Calc are valid (Calc is not great), so holding onto Excel is probably a valid justification, but still ..... Thats just my two cents.

Not the whole history....

Yet another IBMer Sep 14, 2009 4:24pm GMT

In the IBM branch where I am located, Symphony has been highly encouraged as the choice to replace Office, but if you need Office you can contact your manager to get approval (if you can justify why you need Office).

The real history is that new laptops and desktop machines are not loaded with Office anymore, and the process to obtain an Office license has been seriously restricted and it is not easy as before, it's an strategy to give results in the mid/long term, not immediately. Anyway, there is a lot of people using Office in the workplace, we still have customers that prefer Office and lots of existing document that we need to use with MS Office.

Product name

Navdeep Sep 14, 2009 2:43pm GMT

They should choose a better name than ... symphony

What makes Excel so great?

IBMer Sep 14, 2009 2:25pm GMT

Just curious... What features of Excel do people like so much? The only reason I'm using excel right now is that I have a few Macros already written for it. If I had started with OOo or Lotus I could have written them just as easily for those platforms. In fact, I think I will with my next client project.

With statements like "Excel is god" I can't but help wondering why people are so passionate about a spreadsheet platform when they all do basically the same thing...

Excel is God. Calc & Numbers are peons.

tri Sep 14, 2009 1:33pm GMT

The problem is Excel. Excel is the gold standard for spreadsheets. Numbers on OSX is complete trash and Open Office Calc is terrible. If only someone could design a spreadsheet program that can compete with Excel, then I would get excited.

At last

Tim Sep 14, 2009 10:47am GMT

Firstly, "inferior product" and "next force every developer to use vi" - what's inferior about either? Personally I use a word processor to write documents, I don't use the fancy effects and I presume that IBM employees don't either. Vi also does everything that I need - why would I choose anything else? It is stable and has more features than any other text editor I have used.

The use of MS Word et al does not annoy me, but the lack of compliance for open standards does.

Next step - force every developer to use vi

Why not? Sep 14, 2009 8:34am GMT

Reverting to inferior products as part of strategy as long as they are free....

Open Office! WTF

Rutherfoo Sep 14, 2009 7:30am GMT

It's stuff like this that makes me want to violently masturbate. I also like fat girls.

I am enforcing this

IBM Manager Sep 14, 2009 7:04am GMT

I am a manager within Software Group. We have received clear instructions to abandon Office and use Lotus Symphony. I am enforcing this rigorously. Right now just a few persons in operations are using Excel, and we are working on moving them to the new software too. Not everyone is happy about this, but I am not sympathetic.

Office 2010

I like Office Sep 14, 2009 6:22am GMT

Have you seen Office 2010? it looks amazing. Im using Office 2010 64bit and have not looked back.

Show us the memo

IBM employee Sep 14, 2009 4:37am GMT

I'd love to see the memo that supposedly directs IBM employees to abandon Word, because it hasn't come through my email box yet.

This would make my life much easier, because I'm the guy in my department sending open documents to my colleagues.

Replace MS Office? really?

Anonymous Coward Sep 14, 2009 4:30am GMT

Give me a replacement for Visio, then I will consider touching OoO

Woot IBM

roflcopter pilot Sep 14, 2009 4:11am GMT

I thing OS/2 is going to make a comeback!

Lotus is the biggest pile of $*$(*#@ in the world.

I wouldnt wish this software upon my worst enemy.

64 bit , no difference?

Joe c Sep 14, 2009 3:20am GMT

Ur kidding, right? Mac OS X snow leopard is much faster with 64 bit apps.
If ur not 64 bit yet, do it.

This is not true

IBM Employee Sep 14, 2009 2:58am GMT

Like some IBMers have posted here, this is not true. I have not received any notices of this move.

Of course OO can save as .DOC

Mskimon Sep 14, 2009 2:33am GMT

Click file -> save as and choose .DOC from the dropdown box.

OK, I get it... No 64 bit Ubuntu support

Colm Smith Sep 14, 2009 2:32am GMT

When did 64 bit Ubuntu become the standard by which we measure the operability of a software package?

Openoffice.org works perfectly on Ubuntu!

Read the previous posts before whining about your precious 64 bit Ubuntu!

Confused

Another IBMer Sep 14, 2009 12:44am GMT

As another IBMer from USA I can say that I have not gotten any notice of this as a policy change. It's possible that it's only been a switch in certain branches of IBM.

I will say that I would definitely welcome the change! I've tried out Symphony and it seems like good enough software. I'm an avid OOo user on my other computers and would love to see M$ be forced to recognize ODT formats.

...

Feer Sep 14, 2009 12:16am GMT

Pages
Numbers
Keynote
Get with it...

About those complaining for 64bit support

moondowner Sep 14, 2009 12:07am GMT

Yes there's no 64 package of IBM's Symphony, but of OpenOffice.org there is.

And as for Sypmhony, it can easily be installed on 64bit system, I've done that. You need getlibs, and few more additional package installs and preparations before you install Symphony, and It will work.

64bit

MD Sep 13, 2009 10:58pm GMT

People keep asking about 64bit. You don't have to use a 64bit version of Symphony or OpenOffice when running 64 bit Linux. And using a 64 bit version doesn't really impart any real advantage.

I, for one, am thrilled that IBM is making such a bold and forward-thinking move. All our 150 users have been using OpenOffice for many years now. The only catchy thing is reminding people to ask what format outside people want/need before Emailing a document. Personally, I send PDF's for most everything. Sometimes I will send a .doc, but only if I also send a .odt.

ibm

John Sep 13, 2009 10:23pm GMT

stupid, IBM is.

Too bad

Phil Sep 13, 2009 10:13pm GMT

Too bad people don't care about IBM and Lotus anymore....

64 bit Ubuntu....

dar Sep 13, 2009 10:07pm GMT

RE: Schpunty

There are instructions on their website on how to install it on 64 bit Ubuntu,

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/help.nsf/GeneralFAQ#15

I would have thought by now they would have come out with a 64 bit version.

Interesting

Jill Sep 13, 2009 8:16pm GMT

Office is a waste of space. Good job IBM.
http://www.electroniccigarettesinc.com

ODF

Adam Sep 13, 2009 8:08pm GMT

Yes, yes, yes! It's time to make ODF the standard. Thank you IBM.

Symphony under 64-bit Debian/Ubuntu

Metztli IT Sep 13, 2009 7:57pm GMT

"Unfortunately, when I downloaded the package for Ubuntu from IBM's web site, there is no package for Ubuntu 64 bit architecture."

Sometime ago, prior to relevant instructions on http://symphony.lotus.com , I described a procedure to install an earlier version of Symphony, namely General Availability (GA) 1.0 under 64-bit Ubuntu -based on an 64-bit Debian procedure.:
http://www.metztli-it.com/blog/in...ymphony-ga-1-on-ubuntu-8-04-6?blog=4

Although now the IBM Symphony is at version 1.3, the procedure should work, as well.

Good luck.

document format

IBM-er Sep 13, 2009 7:27pm GMT

So we switched to OOo, but the customers are still running MSO. Now most often our customers require documentation in MSO *.doc format, and unfortunately OOo can produce *.doc, so we are still contributing to keeping document formats closed by not requiring that our customers use OOo. Now in certain cases it would require weeks if not months to certify OOo for use on customer computers (read: defence contracts, sensitive information).

So basically what we get is lower license cost and some more Open Source-related credibility.

OOo > Lotus Symphony

Civilian Sep 13, 2009 7:09pm GMT

Ehh..I quit Microsoft Office awhile ago (dislike the Ribbon!) and turned to both OOo and Lotus Symphony.
While I felt that Symphony had some pretty nice GUI features, OOo seemed more stable and faster than Symphony, and so I ended up going with OOo.
Nonetheless, yay IBM! Finally, a legitimate push for open-source software (Dell's Linux offerings hardly count) is being made!

my god what are you guys doing?!?!??!?!

meesmuse Sep 13, 2009 6:23pm GMT

are you guys crazy??!?!??!?!

u r ruining your family's future!!!! how will we have a unified standard, so carefully created by Microsoft over the years??!?!? so carefully nurtured so that everything is user firendly and nice. with this stupid linux and stupider IBM crap u r making a mess of the comouting world !!!!

* cries * im so sad.. how will my babies and husband have a job in the future (( u r uining EVRYTHING !!! * sobs *

It's happening, but 360,000 people can't change overnight

Jim Popovitch Sep 13, 2009 6:15pm GMT

For those IBMers with w3 access, look here:

IBM Lotus Symphony, with its Open Document Format (ODF), is a strategic part of IBM's transformation:
http://w3.ibm.com/articles/workin...eodt_symphony_help_desk_support.html

The installation of Symphony is required (not an optional install) because we are establishing ODF as the strategic file format for document interchange within IBM: (Published on 25 March 2009)
http://w3.ibm.com/ibm/resource/symphony.html

Let the numbers increase

hemanth.hm Sep 13, 2009 6:04pm GMT

Felt very happy after hearing this news, if huge giants like IBM make such moves no wonder slowly most of the proprietary will start supporting the open source and free software )

Just to reiterate

Wiebelhaus Sep 13, 2009 5:38pm GMT

Just to reiterate what Schpunty is saying.



64bit Support is a mus.

Somewhat true

Another IBMer Sep 13, 2009 5:32pm GMT

Like my collegue I did not got a internal memo about MSOffice being outlawed. But all official PC's did got Symphony installed automatically this summer as part of a Lotus Notes upgrade.

Personally I don't care much. If it is my choice, then I use OO, if I'm working for a customer I'll use MSO.

It's false

An IBMer Sep 13, 2009 5:17pm GMT

There's been no such mention of this, just logged in and checked my email to be sure. Sorry to dash the hopes of everyone, but M$ Word is still alive and well inside of IBM.

Yeah !

Yeah ! Sep 13, 2009 4:06pm GMT

Yeah !

Ubuntu 64 Bit not supported

Schpunty Sep 13, 2009 11:57am GMT

I've tried Symphony before and I like it.
Unfortunately, when I downloaded the package for Ubuntu from IBM's web site, there is no package for Ubuntu 64 bit architecture.
Bummer.
IBM, when will this be available?
It would be greatly appreciated.