IBM Lotus Symphony better than OpenOffice
On Linux, there is no MS Word ... oftentimes I'm plenty happy with something simple such as Abiword, but every now and then somebody / some site requires a document in word(.doc) format.
Abiword can deal with basic word document but it can't handle many of the advanced features.
The main option until now was to use OpenOffice ... but it seem it has become more and more bloated and slow overtime and lately mine doesn't want to save .doc files and crash while opening some of them.
There now is a new alternative:
IBM Lotus Symphony and it seem to be a winner because:- It's faster than OpenOffice, not super fast(based on eclipse), but definitely faster than OpenOffice.
- It seem to be lighter and simpler to use (nice UI).
- It works on almost all platforms (Linux, OSX, Windows) which is a big plus.
- It seem the compatibility with other formats is VERY good (PDF, MsWord, OpenOffice, RTF etc...).
- It does Text processing(~Word), Spreadsheets(~Excell) and Presentation(~Powerpoint).
- Plugins: Various plugins can be installed/developed, for example there is an "export to html" plugin that does a VERY good job.
Download
Just go to
http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home and proceed to "download".Pick the installer for your platform.
You will have to sign-in / register with IBM (free) which is a bit of an annoyance.
Installation & Use
- For Windows and OSX just run the installer.
- For Linux just install the package using your distro package installer (example gdebi-gtk on debian/Ubuntu)
Linux 64 bits Installation
Unfortunately there is no 64 bits package to download, so installation on a 64 bits Debian based is a bit more tricky:
- Download in your home folder the Lotus Symphony 32 bits package
- Install the 32 bits compatibility libraries:
sudo apt-get install libstdc++5 ia32-libs
- Install manually libxkb
cd ~ mkdir libxkb cd libxkb wget "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libx/libxkbfile/libxkbfile1_1.0.5-1_i386.deb" sudo dpkg -X libxkb*.deb . sudo cp usr/lib/libxkbfile.so.1.0.2 /usr/lib32/libxkbfile.so.1
- Install Lotus Symphony
cd ~ sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture symphony*.deb
On the first run it asks to accept the License in an xterm window (hu?) rather than a proper UI Window.
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Title: Re: My 2 cents.
Hi, we're currently evaluating the 2 solutions as candidates to replacing MS Office solution on around 5K PCs.
Here's our perception of it:
* It's faster than OpenOffice, not super fast(based on eclipse), but definitely faster than OpenOffice.
WRONG! Symphony is bloated, and much SLOWER than OO.
> Overall, OO and Symphony seem to be as fast. The only real problem seems to be with the presentation tool which is very slow to display the previews of the slides in the left toolbar in both OO and Symphony even on a standard PC.
* It seem to be lighter and simpler to use (nice UI).
NO COMMENTS
> The UI is in fact a little different in Symphony than OO. The contextual toolbar feature is nice to use.
* It works on almost all platforms (Linux, OSX, Windows) which is a big plus.
So does Open Office!
> AGREE
* It seem the compatibility with other formats is VERY good (PDF, MsWord, OpenOffice, RTF etc...).
It is BETTER with Open Office!
> Wrong in the case of excel compatibility, Symphony has a beginning of compatibility with excel macros. IBM claims a 80% compatibility with excel macros. The fact is you have a chance that your excel macros work in Symphony, they never work in OO 3.3
Also the styles seem to be handled in a better way by Symphony.
* It does Text processing(~Word), Spreadsheets(~Excell) and Presentation(~Powerpoint).
So does Open Office!
> AGREE
* Plugins: Various plugins can be installed/developed, for example there is an "export to html" plugin that does a VERY good job.
Open Office has a MUCH larger collection of add-ons.
> Right, Symphony also doesn't seem to be compatible with OO plugin :-(
Title: My 2 cents.
* It's faster than OpenOffice, not super fast(based on eclipse), but definitely faster than OpenOffice.
WRONG! Symphony is bloated, and much SLOWER than OO.
* It seem to be lighter and simpler to use (nice UI).
NO COMMENTS
* It works on almost all platforms (Linux, OSX, Windows) which is a big plus.
So does Open Office!
* It seem the compatibility with other formats is VERY good (PDF, MsWord, OpenOffice, RTF etc...).
It is BETTER with Open Office!
* It does Text processing(~Word), Spreadsheets(~Excell) and Presentation(~Powerpoint).
So does Open Office!
* Plugins: Various plugins can be installed/developed, for example there is an "export to html" plugin that does a VERY good job.
Open Office has a MUCH larger collection of add-ons.
Sorry, it doesn't convince me that Symphony is better.