IBM Lotus Software "Tired of Feeding the Machine?"

[rearden215]

I had the original Symphony back in 1985 and if this reiteration of tired old Lotus code is anything like the original iteration of tired code...... arrrrgghh.

And, yes, this is probably one of the most boring ads I have ever suffered through, regardless of the product being shilled.

Long Live Lotus Agenda!

[KakarottoCL]

what a BORING video.. is this supposed to beat MSO?

[karin2cross]

Symphony is FANTASTIC! So long MS Office, I'm a new Symphony evangelist!

[OsseoVideo]

I downloaded Lotus Symphony. I actually like it better than MS Office.  Not just the price, the interface is more intuitive plus I can run it on Windows/Mac/Linux. Cool!

[DudleyMMoore]

FYI, Microsoft office Premimum, costs $26.71 for a seat for academic use. Doctors at university hospitals are paying $26.71, down from $31.20, for what endusers are paying $324.99. They will earn $100,000/yr at least, after their internship.

[aussiebear22]

Just because some people can afford something, doesn't mean they should fork out money for it. ie: $26.71 per seat is still paying.

Microsoft's business model relies on software licenses and agreements. Its their bread and butter.

This is why IBM has released Lotus Symphony for free. This is why Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is considered a big threat to MS.

IBM now also sells support contracts for Lotus Symphony, but it is your choice if you want it. MS doesn't offer this option.

[DudleyMMoore]

Not my point at all. I would rather M$ charges based upon what is Reasonable. Microsoft business model relies on shipping crap, and having people debug their junk. I hope that FOSS software makes M$ nervious enought to improve their products. In looking for the better product? I like Symphony. It took a bit of work to speed up java, and If I needed it for work, I would of course have my company pay for it.

M$s only option is pay for junk and pay for support.

[aussiebear22]

You don't have to hope. The existence of FOSS alone makes MS nervous. (If you read their 10-K financial statement for 2007 financial year, they mention open source being a problem to them).

They really are freaking out, as they have no response. (They've tried FUD and such, but its been ineffective.)

The real fight comes to who controls the protocols, formats and standards. (MS isn't making it easy. Especially with their nonsense that is OOXML).

[DudleyMMoore]

Excellent. I *like* fear.

They do have a response, and that is to market their new pay as you go online office. they can do less, ( i.e. shipping and marketing ), and even do less debugging ( starting from scratch again...) but then you come up with basically what Symphony or Zoho is,

without Java...er... without Suns Java.

Of course MSs java runtime is utter junk, and despite Suns java having horeendus speed problems, with their updates, its still better than Mico$oft junk

[aussiebear22]

Sun has one advantage over MS. They have open sourced most of Java under the same license as Linux. (ie: GPL v2).

They're currently working with Red Hat people to make it completely open. (There are bits left that are proprietary, and time is needed to write replacements for them).

[figsworth]

Never mind about businesses feeding the Microsoft machine - I could not believe what my kids' school district is paying for Office for EVERY single computer. My six year old son can use Open Office at home (or Symphony I guess) - why the @!#$ does he need MS Office at school? That's my tax money! Wish the public would wake up.

[wongthawan86]

yeah is free but trial version 30 day's!!!

[upyoursHoboSapiens]

You're wrong. Symphony is not a trial app.

It's permanently free - like Open Office.

[leo17434]

I'll believe their dedication to free software when Notes is free.

[pixologic]

tried Beta 2, slow(since it's built on Java) and lack features.

[DudleyMMoore]

Try completely deleting Java from your system, and reinstalling a fresh copy. Makes it much faster. ( you can also tap the Java intrepreter for a higher processing priority... :)

[atomkarinca]

It's amazing that a major company is making free software and it's cross-platform.

[Phobos11]

you mean, like Sun Microsystems, right?

[Vnix]

IBM + Linux support = Epic Win.

[cutlerfan]

IBM is so cool!

[Gweeep]

freeware , FTW