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48 Comments

• Monty G. said on Feb 4, 2012 6:51 PM:

  What a tragedy. IBM has abandoned the best, in my opinion, word processor and companion products in Smart Suite and provided no effective transition to their existing product. As a result I have just finished my first successful porting to Microsoft Word 2010. I hate to be tied to Microsoft, but with IBM providing no way to port stuff from SmartSuite to their second rate substitute I am left with no other alternative. Many of my documents are archives to be left to those who succeed me and I cannot afford to allow my information to get orphaned because of IBM's unwillingness to provide a way to continue using files created by SmartSuite.
  

• Guest said on Feb 6, 2012 4:58 AM:

  I also want a good Lotus Approach alternative in Symphony and if possible a way of porting Lotus Approach docs to it ...
  

• Chuck said on Feb 8, 2012 4:13 PM:

  I love it! The future s open source and IBM, Apache and Oracle are leading the way - if you want to be tied to thousands of dollars in constant upgrades, major bloat, inefficient programs and Microsoft's monopoly then by all means migrate but for the life of me I can't understand why - unless you doing incredibly complicated word processing Symphony can handle anything thrown at it, spreadsheet is more problematic yet but improving - I agree the biggest drawback to open source suites right now is a viable alternative to Outlook and Approach, but imo every government agency should be required to go to open source sw and away from tax dollars spent on MS - and smart business people would look very,, very hard at open source alternatives.
  

• GrahamB said on Feb 9, 2012 4:10 AM:

  Hmmmm. I've been an avid user of Lotus 123 spreadsheets for almost 20 years. Now that I'll soon be unable to use it (XP to Windows 7) I'm not too happy about losing productivity by using Excel :) I will probably need to resave my dozens of .123 files in .xls format by using open source LibreOffice but sadly for me, LibreOffice seem to be having problems in generating address labels from a database/spreadsheet. So open source isn't providing all the solutions when we most need them. Ever feel like banging your head against a brick wall?
  

• Petre said on Feb 9, 2012 2:07 PM:

  Finally, a clear picture from IBM on the future plans regarding this excellent office suite.
  
  I look forward to trying Apache Open Office - the IBM Edition.
  
  Until then I'll stick to Lotus Symphony 3.0.1 which is one of the best office productivity suite.
  
  Two more questions still need to be answered - is it going to be a 64bit version of the software? and second - will IBM continue providing support for the Linux versions?
  
  No matter what I refuse going back to Microsoft's operating system and office suite.
  

• Another Smartsuite user said on Feb 9, 2012 10:08 PM:

  @GrahamB,
  
  Smartsuite is supported and will work on Windows 7 .. See this link from IBM http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21411413
  

• Guest said on Feb 10, 2012 7:21 AM:

  Symphony is without a doubt the best free office bundle out there. I would hate to see it scrapped.
  

• Kirk said on Feb 11, 2012 2:41 PM:

  One feature that I hope that they will no get rid of is the multiple tabs which allow me to quickly jump between different open files which can be word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation. This integration between the different programs and the ability to move quickly between them by using the tabs is nice. ON other suites I have to open different separate programs to access word, or excel, but with Symphony it is all in one program. Nice.
  

• Kirk said on Feb 11, 2012 3:08 PM:

  One feature that I hope that they will no get rid of is the multiple tabs which allow me to quickly jump between different open files which can be word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation. This integration between the different programs and the ability to move quickly between them by using the tabs is nice. ON other suites I have to open different separate programs to access word, or excel, but with Symphony it is all in one program. Nice.
  

• Sheldon Britton said on Feb 11, 2012 6:22 PM:

  Re: "IBM's plans for the future of Lotus Symphony combining the best of Lotus Symphony with the new Apache OpenOffice Project..."
  
  Question: Will It Run On The The IBM's OS/2 Warp Operating System (eComStation) Which Will Not Be Going Away Any Time Soon.
  
  http://www.ecomstation.com/product_info.phtml
  

• Sheldon Britton said on Feb 11, 2012 11:37 PM:

  Also, Will "Apache OpenOffice IBM Edition" Sail In "The Cloud" In Addition To Being That Of A Client Product!
  

• Stepan Kveton said on Feb 17, 2012 3:38 AM:

  Is there anything one can do to have office suite based on lotus expeditor? Because Symphony is the most usable office suite I've ever seen.
  

• Sheldon Britton said on Feb 20, 2012 2:35 AM:

  Interesting Reading From: http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/
  
  Re: "LibreOffice 3.5.0 was recently released for the "tier 1" platforms. After the news broke that legacy OS/2 code was removed, Mensys reported that there would be no OS/2 version, which is unfortunate. The OS/2 code is still present in Apache's OpenOffice, and there are plans to update to the latest version "fairly soon," perhaps even with some Java integration. Unfortunately, OpenOffice is largely irrelevant now, with everyone switching to LibreOffice, except for IBM, who has announced that they are discontinuing the Lotus Symphony fork in favor of Apache OpenOffice (most of the other forks joined together to form LibreOffice). Thanks to Sander Nyman for the IBM info...."
  

• Sheldon Britton said on Feb 20, 2012 2:38 AM:

  Again, Re: Unfortunately, OpenOffice is largely irrelevant now, with everyone switching to LibreOffice, except for IBM...."
  
  Can Anyone Say What Informs The Judgement Of Persons Making Such Statements Like The One Above With Regards To The Future Of Lotus Symphony/Apache OpenOffice.
  
  Thanks.
  

• Jay Martin said on Feb 20, 2012 12:24 PM:

  The marketing department at IBM is really spinning this one hard. Perhaps, too hard.
  
  The Eclipse version is going away, no matter how much IBM denies it and we will all be moving over to OpenOffice, hopefully updated by then.
  
  We installed Lotus Symphony 3.0.1 and quickly became fond of the file tab system and the sidebar menus- two particular items not available in either LibreOffice or OpenOffice. We do, however, see quite a promising future for the integration of the database tool in those two forks and we look forward to continuing extending that.
  
  No, OpenOffice is not irrelevant now.
  

• Andy said on Feb 25, 2012 8:09 PM:

  @Sheldon Britton
  
  The reason that some believe that OpenOffice is irrelevant is because LibreOffice does not use as free a license as Apache has. LO is under a more restrictive license that does not allow the source to be pulled back into OO but LO can use code from OO. That combined with the fact that most of the developers that had been working on OO are now working on LO suggests that OO will have a hard time ahead. LO really should merge back with OO but the egos in LO will not likely do so.
  
  As to an OS/2 version... the work is currently being done for an OO version, however, the ptb in the LO fiefdom decided to remove all the work that had been done in OO for OS/2 from LO.
  

• Sheldon Britton said on Feb 27, 2012 11:24 PM:

  @ Andy; Re: "As to an OS/2 version... the work is currently being done for an OO version, however, the ptb in the LO fiefdom decided to remove all the work that had been done in OO for OS/2 from LO...."
  
  Thank you very much for your comment regarding "the work (that) is currently being done for an OO version for OS/2 Warp. And, what the "LO Fiefdom" has no clue about; and, perhaps... just perhaps because they have not yet started discussion with the economists and bankers is the fact that there cannot be found in either Excel; or, LO by design an @ function that will allow us to calculate an Economic Rate Of Return (ERR).
  

• Bonnie Sult said on Feb 28, 2012 8:43 AM:

  I have been a Smartsuite user for nearly 20 years and I do not know what I would do without it. I worked for IBM previously and they did deploy Lotus products when I worked for them. There is no reason that they would not now continue to deploy as they state building toward the Apache suite. I will download Symphony however I have also found Open Office which I find to be a reasonably good alternative to MS Office. I do not want to be tied to Microsoft and I will not give up my Smartsuite until I have a viable alternative. I hope Symphony will do that.
  

• Guest said on Mar 6, 2012 12:57 AM:

  I have always loved the Lotus Smart Suite. I never had any problems with it. Now, that I have had to purchase updated computers .... with Microsoft Windows 7 - yuck - I found that my copy of the Lotus Smart suite would NOT download onto the computer. When I tried again, with something else related to Lotus, I "found" somewhere on this computer is my Lotus Smart Suite "MB" information. Where though is a question. I cannot retrieve it. Any ideas anyone, and I will be soooooooo grateful. I don't like the Microsoft Office, and am afraid I will have to go to it.
  

• Guest said on Mar 10, 2012 4:36 AM:

  If this statement does not indicate that the IBM dump Symphony then im not sure which statement would...
  
  Clearly it means that tons of money were spent on a project that is now being abandoned?
  
  Why there was not a decision right from the start to support OpenOffice project?
  
  Lotus Symphony is not just the core which is basically the same as OpenOffice - it is the Graphical user interface, addons, pdf converter and so on. All this is going to be thrown out of the window. Great! And this has to motivate all the programmers and people working on such projects when a stupid decision literally over night can ruin the entire project like this...
  

• Imar Korichi said on Mar 10, 2012 9:46 AM:

  J'utilise Lotus 123 depuis 1987 et SmartSuite depuis 1996, j'utilise toujours SmartSuite Millenium sous XP et j'en suis pleinement satisfait . Depuis 2011, je me suis remis à IBM Lotus Symphony 3 qui est à mon avis un concurrent très sérieux de la suite Microsoft Office 2007 et même 2010 si on pouvait seulement lui ajouter Lotus Approach ou un équivalent. Je ne compte pas abandonner Symphony qui satisfait à mes besoins, merci à IBM d'avoir fait cette fleur (et quelle fleur !!) aux utilisateurs de SmartSuite qui se sentaient abandonnés (j'en fais partie).
  

• Guest said on Mar 13, 2012 9:16 PM:

  What is the matter with you people at IBM?
  
  Has all the great people, at IBM retired or left the company?
  
  IBM started off as a great company, Now they are just a shell of its former self. Everything that made IBM great they trashed it. They killed OS/2 Warp support and delevopment thank goodness for serenity, keeping that wonderful operation system is alive. Now they have killed another wonderful program like smartsuite. By the way, was a excellent program for OS/2 in which again they killed support and now its out dated. IBM should just close it doors or get out of the computer business. You have no vision for the future, there have been nothing great from IBM in a long time. When will IBM grow a pair, and start being a competitor again ?
  

• glue said on Mar 14, 2012 10:07 AM:

  [Continuing my comment] From business point of view this is madness because you invested your time/money to help copetitive product. GPL makes this impossible (without violating license of course).
  
  Also another case a lot of people are involved in code writing, translations etc witch are not employed by some company and if you take the code/translations (Apache license allows this) and close the code, sell the product. I don't want to give my spare time (translations) to third party company that would like to sell to me my own work.
  
  I have to say I don't really understand IBM in this case. If product is free of charge, why is there a need to have a Apache license?
  

• glue said on Mar 14, 2012 10:07 AM:

  @Sheldon Britton "LO is under a more restrictive license that does not allow the source to be pulled back into OO but LO can use code from OO. [...] LO really should merge back with OO but the egos in LO will not likely to do so."
  
  You don't understand the basic principle of GPL license protection. This has nothing to do with egos. Lets take an example: Red Hat and Suse invest there developers time (they are paid!) to develop LibreOffice product. If license would be Apache then some third party (e.g. IBM) could take the code and modify the code, close the code and release/sell product to there customers witch in case means that there work is in competition with the time/money Red Had/Suse invested into LibreOffice.
  

• Sheldon Britton said on Mar 19, 2012 11:30 AM:

  @ Glue, re: "You don't understand the basic principle of GPL license protection. This has nothing to do with egos. Lets take an example: Red Hat and Suse invest there developers time (they are paid!) to develop LibreOffice product. ...
  
  What on God's Greening Earth does "understanding the basic principle of GPL" got to do with computer applications allowing users to perform the tasks at hand; or, unless we are talking about forms of "lock-ins" here where this "basic principle of GPL license protection" that you are talking about is concerned. And, why pay for something when you can get a far better alternative like the IBM's Lotus Symphony/Apache OpenOffice for free.
  

• Ajay said on Mar 22, 2012 10:44 AM:

  Symphony in my opinion probably has the best interface of any office suite out there. Contextual sidebar is brilliant. Specially for wide screen monitors which are very much the norm for desktops and laptops today. For the first time in past 10 years i'm able to create documents that look like the way I want them to. I found Symphony handles font kerning and spacing better than MS Office in many instances. And documents in tabs are pretty useful when working with multiple documents.
  
  Hope all of the good things in 3.0.1 gets carried over to future versions. Would be sad to see the hard work of the excellent interface designers go unrecognized.
  

• gerald distill said on May 17, 2012 7:04 PM:

  with reference to "Guest" 13th March who basically said IBM killed off everything they made! and no vision for the future! correct me if i am wrong but in the very distant past pre everything apart from a basic operating system and a bit of ram didn't IBM chief guy say he could only ever see the need for one or two computers!! so they did not have vision then but it's strange that they are still a company IBM it's a pity that their vision in the mega depth of the distant past the vision should have been "only see the need for one or two computers PER PERSON" just think where IBM would be now! anyhow now gonna read the Symphony Apache OpenOffice pdf
  

• Guest said on Jul 5, 2012 2:03 PM:

  I doubt that this post will ever see the light of day, as I am not an IBM and Symphony sycophant. I was forced to use Symphony for a year when I worked as a contractor for IBM. Outlook, Word and Excel are superior to it in every way. I cannot tell you how glad I was that my next position was in a shop that uses Outlook, Word and Excel. Good riddance to Symphony.
  

• dean said on Jul 17, 2012 9:12 AM:

  IBM was know as the big Blue
  
  It is now known as the Dead blue
  
  Good products but no one to market them even their ads dont make sence.
  
  helllllooooooo IBM we are still on earth
  

• Dan said on Jul 18, 2012 12:12 PM:

  I continue to use Lotus WordPro 9.8 in Windows 7 -- it's simply the most productivity-enhancing word processor out there. The info box and easy way to use styles makes it incredibly productive, especially for my legal practice. Unfortunately I am often forced to convert documents to Word thanks to clients who need them in Word. But if I can use WordPro instead, I do.
  
  For those stuck with having to use Microsoft Office (like we often do -- and frankly Excel 2010 kicks butt -- you can get tabs for each open file by using the add-on Office Tab from ExtendOffice.com. After a week of using it, I forked over the reasonable $25 to buy it. It's a joy.
  

• Azmi said on Jul 27, 2012 11:31 AM:

  I have been using the 123 for more than 20 years and the OpenOffice beginning with 2.0. Looks like will going to continue to do so. I have installed the Symphony but suddenly found my screen is too small for it. Sidebar menus is good which however not available in OpenOffice. Microsoft Office is completely not my choice.
  
  One thing that made me to use the smartsuite is the InfoBox . Hopefully the OpenOffice 4 will have this kind of features.
  

• RPH "MR" ROBOTO STYX, 42-OSBOURNE-AKRON said on Aug 6, 2012 10:43 AM:

  For some reason there is a "coded" 4M going on here with GERMANY, Waldorf, Access Music, over LOTUS, FLAMINGO, and LEGO TOWERS. You may find it interesting becasue LOTUS is the keyword. As for Q RADAR, that appears to be right above the WHITE LOTUS in FREDERICTON. Lego towers, popping up all over. NO BS, on the level of tech, "mind readers" , "head voice AI". The sky is the limit.
  

• RPH said on Aug 6, 2012 10:46 AM:

  Oh, and BTW, when I was doing IBM LOTUS NOTES, admin, I was at ROYAL BANK of CANADA, 8th floor Royal Trust tower, under Jo.We.,,. Cu, Ch. They had TOKEN RING adapters, and I opened the WINDOWS 95, PPPoE, adapter to a laptop from WALMER RD, it may have been some kind of "Drill" or the biggest hack in Royal Bank history, I was just the 19 year old HEX crazed co-op geek. Check into it SAURON WATSON. Dont bother trying to come and murder me, or torcher me with soundwaves, you'll find that quite diffiCULT.
  

• RPH said on Aug 6, 2012 10:49 AM:

  as for AJ and his new "SCI FI BOOK" about how to murder me in code or whatever, this "unauthorized access" syntheizer code,. they know, and I think he's trying to use a "broadband communication" to give murder hit info inside this book. These UNB scum bags, need a firm kick in the EVERYTHING. They think they are the CIA, sending out little EASTER EGGS about murdering kids.
  

• RPH said on Aug 6, 2012 10:53 AM:

  BTW,. UNB, stands for UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK, where you will find all of what you need if you wish to be the force. I would imagine that you can be turned back into dog crap, after being able to shut down your power in burnaby with "my voice" so don't try to anger the NSA, just be GOOD, and keep on being GOVERNMENT oriented instead of MAFIA.
  

• RPH said on Aug 6, 2012 10:54 AM:

  and I've got 2 words for you to take to HEART REAL WELL
  
  RICE
  
  PATTY
  

• Mohd hussein said on Aug 27, 2012 4:51 PM:

  I need free soft ware in my Computer
  

• Gary said on Oct 6, 2012 10:37 PM:

  I fear that I have to join those people who laud the user friendliness of WordPro. In so many it ways it remains infinitely easier to use than other "more modern" word processors. The styles system is simply the easiest to format a document. I would seriously consider Symphony or Apache if they would let me continue to utilize the files I have created during the time that I have been using WordPro. (Is that really so hard for programers?) That would be from back when it was known as AmiPro until today. Yes, I have Word 10 on my computer and seem to have to use it more and more, but my choice remains WordPro.
  

• alvin ramon said on Nov 1, 2012 9:12 AM:

  Dear Sir/ma,
  
  Kindly assist me on this issue, i need a single IBM server that can support up to 400,000 users for daily production. please i will be glad to hear from u as soon as possible.
  
  Thanks for your co-operation.
  
  Alvin Ramon
  

• Adalquit said on Nov 15, 2012 11:16 AM:

  Perú (Cajamarca), Gracias espero ancioso novedades en software --especialmente hoja de cálculo-- gracias, gracias......
  

• Adalquit said on Nov 15, 2012 11:16 AM:

  Perú (Cajamarca), Gracias espero ancioso novedades en software --especialmente hoja de cálculo-- gracias, gracias......
  

• Adalquit said on Nov 15, 2012 11:16 AM:

  Perú (Cajamarca), Gracias espero ancioso novedades en software --especialmente hoja de cálculo-- gracias, gracias......
  

• Adalquit said on Nov 15, 2012 11:18 AM:

  Gracias de nuevo.
  
  Espero software en ESPAÑOL
  
  Cajamarca, Perú
  

• Wassup said on Nov 30, 2012 3:59 PM:

  Hi Alvin,
  
  I would probably recommend a Mainframe for so many users. They are best for producing 300,000 users daily.
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Wassup
  

• Roland said on Dec 22, 2012 7:18 AM:

  Hi,
  
  Best tool to convert from .123 to .ods?
  

• Sheri said on Jan 14, 2013 4:00 PM:

  I too have loved lotus from waayy back when Amipro and 123 were stand-alone. I purchased a compatible ReportWriter and created an invoicing system within a school district. Currently, I am using Smartsuite 981 to run a property management company. One data base does it all. The imbedded approach files make it so easy. Until we get 6 months into the year and the quantity of records make the loading and sorting of reports take too long. Also, the glitchy link between the two is a big problem and it will lock up approach in the file forever. I've learned how to recreate my work, but I shouldn't have to. I hate microsoft products, they just don't have the depth. Is there a lotus replacement that will accomplish the same ?
  

• Ginny said on Jan 16, 2013 11:15 PM:

  Forced to get windows 8 when the mother board died in my laptop, the computer guy was able to transfer all my files to the new laptop but to my horror he could not load my Lotus Suite 9.8.2. Fortunately I was able to download LotusSymphony BUT I can't get into any of my files. YIKE!!! Why IBM didn't you stop to think about all we lovers of Smart Suite that we would have tons of files locked up and we can't access them? Paaaleeeze design a program to make Symphony talk to Suite. Better yet bring back SmartSuite to make it work in windows 8 it was the best. I can't get into my files through Microsoft either. I hate Microsoft! Fortunately I have my old clunker with SmartSuite and I have loaded all my files back on it. Do you have an answer?
  

• Brian said on Feb 4, 2013 12:49 PM:

  eBay has a number of listings for SmartSuite when I looked a few moments ago. All listings were for less than $30, so you can pick up 9.8.1 or 9.8.2 and that will be able to read your files and allow you to save them in MS Office format which can be read by Lotus Symphony, LibreOffice, etc.
  

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