Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

rfithen reviewed v1.3 on Nov 23, 2010

Comments: 2. Does it skip installing additional products? nay* While this product does not install any 3rd party products; it does use the “QuickStart” tray icon by default. (Similar to OpenOffice.) It can be turned off. 03. Does it install correctly? aye* One exception, you have to manually associate Microsoft Office extensions. Either by the options menu, or you operating system. This does not affect the initial install; but does affect the hit the ground running’ functionality. 9 of 10 ayes. I prefer this over LibreOffice. Why? because one can open an Excel SpreadSheet, Word Document, and PowerPoint Presentation all in 1 Window.

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Full review at: http://rfithen.blogspot.com/

garretthylltun reviewed v1.3 on Jun 12, 2009

It is a very nice suite which offers a clean and to the point interface offering just enough of what you would typically need to use instead of tossing a ton of toolbars and buttons in your face. Seemingly rock solid and stable as well, but it suffers greatly from one drawback which is that it is so so very slow.... In comparison to say OpenOffice, it takes near 5 times longer to load Lotus Symphony.

But if you have a superior top of the line PC and don't need all the extra features and functionality of most of the other office suites, then Lotus Symphony maybe just what you've been looking for.

H2O_lover reviewed v1.3 on Jun 11, 2009

197MB

And this makes sense,... how? Comparing to OO, MSO, or something else?

cpb reviewed v1.2 on Nov 17, 2008

206mb.

thefallenlight reviewed v1.2 on Nov 6, 2008

Nice user interface is just not enough. Slow, demanding on system resources, based on an outdated technology (OO.o 1.x). If it is supposed to be a replacement for Lotus Smartsuite then it is a huge step back.

Banquo reviewed v1.1 on Sep 6, 2008

I like the program but the process of downloading it is just horrible. Hey IBM, making your products a hassle to download is a real turnoff to people. Having to register, and then actually find the link you want...try waking up and joining us in 2008. Give users a simple way to download the version they need and stop requiring them to fill out forms.

cltx99 reviewed v1.1 on Sep 2, 2008

For the average human, it's really nice and also intuitive. I like it.

mytake4this reviewed v1.1 on Sep 1, 2008

Compared to OO Portable, the tabs for open spreadsheets is a plus. It seems to take longer to load on my computer than OO Portable, and for what I use it for mainly, the spreadsheets, I still prefer OO. You can pre-load into memory with Symphony, and it opens in about the same time frame as OO, but what's the use. The OO Portable is as fast without pre-loading for the initial spreadsheet to come up, then afterwards is the same speed as the Lotus using the optimized setting for 1GB of memory computers. I customized the OO toolbar the way I like it, find it attractive enough. Don't need Excel. Don't see how Symphony is all that much different looks wise, though as mentioned before, the tabs are nice.

anomoly reviewed v1.1 on Sep 1, 2008

Not impressed. Was like pulling teeth just to down it. During install wanted DNS access and then upon it's slow startup it then wanted to be a server too. Doesn't even have a check for update option and it didn't ask me if I wanted it to put an item in my startup folder either. It just did anyways.
While this seems to be portable as is OO, albeit about 65MB larger than OO, it is not as responsive as is OO which btw does not ask for dns or server abilities just to run. And OO is faster imo.
Granted I did not test the compatibility between document formats. If there were reason to say it IS better than OO, spell it out next time. Not impressed at all. I won't even mention the ton of crap it left in my reg upon uninstall.
And for those who have trouble using OO, maybe you should lay off the pc altogether-rediculous.
BASIC is the best word for this. OO is way more powerful in a smaller package and has much more behind it than just a logo (ibm).

netean reviewed v1.1 on Sep 1, 2008

I loathe openoffice, it's ugly and bulky and slow. Yeah it's free, but if it's a pain to use who cares.

Symphony is based on Openoffice IIRC. but looks nice, looks simple to use, has a good overall design philosphy. 90% of most word processors features are not used by most user, symphony works with that, but only showing you the most basic features until you want or need something more - then it's there for you.

This is qhat openoffice should have been like 5 years ago.

nanek921 reviewed v1.0 on Jun 16, 2008

The Best MS Office Alternative, though it is still miles behind MS Office itself. As long as you have a newer computer (dual core anything with 1gb Ram) this is a great free set of office apps. I think the interface is much friendlier than Open Office or Sun Office, while offering the same basic productivity.

Ian C. reviewed vBeta 4 on Feb 6, 2008

Significant speed improvement in this version, just about as fast as OOo now. I think maybe I'll uninstall OOo and Star Office.

@gcbetaman
I agree with you on that point, registration is kind of a pain (although most huge companies with free products do this now: Sun, Vmware, etc ), but shouldn't you at least give it a neutral score if you didn't try it. I did forgot my account info from the beta 3 download, no easy way to retrieve it, so got one from dontreg.com. :)

edit: Gonna keep OOo around for a while since this doesn't support databases yet.

horsecharles reviewed vBeta 4 on Feb 6, 2008

I fully support and/all freeware Office suites.

I have this installed on one system, with no complaints.

gcbetaman reviewed vBeta 4 on Feb 5, 2008

The lengthy registration required to download this application suite is NOT working. I've tried twice, and it's still a no-go. As badly as I'd like to try this out for my company, this perhaps shows you how much IBM really cares about this product.

Ian C. reviewed vBeta 3 on Dec 29, 2007

This thing is amazing, however as of this version only worth a 3 seeing as how it hangs my system completely for several seconds while loading, and then still takes a while after that before it's ready to start going. Other than that, I'd say it outshines OOo in every way. It already has tons of templates available on their site. The interface is much nicer looking, very unified, doesn't look as thrown together. Eagerly awaiting the next version, or a new computer.

waxwing reviewed vBeta 3 on Dec 25, 2007

Slick like most IBM stuff. Still a little slow compared to OO but they claim it's going to get better. Very good help forums supported fully by IBM people. The guy that complained you have to register didn't take the time to read through the instructions, very minimal and quick.

Skyfrog reviewed vBeta 3 on Dec 24, 2007

Works very well, my only complaint is what you have to go through to get it. They force you to register and provide tons of personal info. Of course you can just fill in fake stuff like I did. F you IBM.

crashoverride reviewed vBeta 2 on Nov 25, 2007

Been using OO for quite sometime and I have to say that this may replace OO for me. It's speedy, stable, and has a much more intuitive interface than OO. I'm definitely looking forward to the final release of this.

teseglet reviewed vBeta 2 on Nov 15, 2007

Been an OO user and liked it much but was too bland in appearance. I took this Beta for a spin and was frustrated that Symphony was sooo slow. Then I remembered I tweaked OO with this:
File/Preferences/Productivity Tool/Memory/total cache size/128MB/Apply
I did the same to Symphony and response time has vastly improved in all aspects.

AlainF reviewed vBeta 2 on Nov 7, 2007

OK,
I'm a Smartsuite user (WordPro, 123 and Organizer).
Also using MS Office 2000 and OpenOffice.

Tried Symphony Beta 1 and now Beta 2.
- Speed is still horrible.
- Look is the same
- After uninstalling still live more that 200 key in the registry.
- the import of .lwp and .123 is better. But can't save in those format.

Open a Writer document and after a WordPro document. It's still a lot faster to access normal function in WordPro. The tool bar is a lot better in WordPro, in particular the one at the bottom.

So at the end I have the same conclusion. This product doesn't improvement my daily function.
Since Symphony is basse on OO, I don't see anytime soon when they will be able to incorporates some of the advantage of Smartsuite in it. Like tab division with a document like WordPro.

IBM should opensource Smartsuite. OK, all the development are gone. Ok, almost no one at Lotus know the code of Smartsuite right now. Even there argument that some code is proprietary should be a blocker.

Open what they have and the community will fix it. Look at Firefox. It took some time to clean Netscape code and the first version wasn't stable. But look at the product now. By the way, I'm still using the Mozilla Suite with Seamonkey. Thanks again to the opensource community.

guru_v reviewed vBeta 2 on Nov 6, 2007

I'm all for this, as during the 90s I always preferred the Lotus look and feel to MS products. I do wonder why no database is here, since there is one with Sun and OO offerings.

guybrush2k reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 4, 2007

Ok people, this is a BETA. Not final product. In this way much things can be changed, provide feedback to developers under your considerations. On the other hand IBM don't advertise BETA products. When in final stage i bet a huge advertasiment campaign

Lsavagejt reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 4, 2007

Nice rig! It's a tad slow and I could do without the splash screen, but Office 2007 is a pig comparatively, and OpenOffice.org is just too plain.

Morfiene reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 4, 2007

For the naysayers out there, you seem to miss the point that this is a BETA. IBM is looking for feedback, I'm betting anyway, so when a final version does get released it will have an improved loader, uninstaller, import features, etc. So be patient and we very well see a very capable office suite. The UI is much more friendly than 2007. Microsoft could learn a few things here for sure. So let's hope IBM gets this right and we can be happy, overall patience all it could be worth the wait.

horsecharles reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 4, 2007

I second kbsoftware:

This product + download is not only extremely hard to find, it's extremely unpleasant to download... if things don't radically change, it's destined to stay a niche/obscure product. Only an out of touch geek would stick a product in the middle of a jungle practically unannounced... and expect the public to even know the product exists, much less be able to find it.

IBM's done the equivalent of opening a restaurant with little to no advertising, not even signage out front... + to boot a closed & locked front door which requires ringing a doorbell, then waiting eons for somebody to answer... then oeons to be taken to a table... then eons for the food to arrive...

zridling reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 3, 2007

Essentially an advanced shell on top of OpenOffice, I actually like it and did not experience the slow speed problems others mentioned. Neat features include: (1) placing formatting and positioning elements in a visible taskbar, or "sidebar" which can also be floated or hidden; (2) tabbed documents below the menu and dropdown toolbar icons; (3) an integrated environment, allowing you to open and view any type of document without opening another window; (4) a wordcount dialog that also counts foreign words to the default language; (5) features for long research papers and documents, and hey, stupid-simple TOC creation.

IT IS A BETA RELEASE as some keyboard shortcuts don't work and it doesn't remember to open in a maximized position. But if MS Office 2007 had taken this tack instead of that 1st grader ribbon, they would have saved 116 pixels of vertical screen space for each document. In all, this makes the 23rd office program or suite to use ODF as its native file format compared to [-1-] for Microsoft's failed MS-OOXML format.

harrywg reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 3, 2007

If you thought you had trouble down loading and installing, Just wait til you try to uninstall it!

I have a HP 2.8 Ghz dual proc with 2 gig of ram and it cranked at 100% for 1 hr 45 min using Revo uninstller. I don't know if it has hosed something yet.

Ulmo reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 3, 2007

Waouh ! I can drink my coffee before it's started.
Programming Language should be changed if they want to beat MS Office.
Here, we call this "a gaz factory".

AlainF reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 3, 2007

It's base on OO but version 1.X not 2.X.
It's very slow to load. Can't properly import Lotus Smartsuite files (.lwp and .123). Lot's of errors from the import that I tried. The UI is a welcome change compared to OO. But not as better as WordPro. Some feature of Smartsuite should have been included, like the tab division of WordPro. Color tab in the Spreadsheets like 123. Inclure a PIM like organizer.
After uninstalling, it left more then 200 key in the registry.

This product doesn't make any sence. They should have created an import filter for the Smartsuite with in Oo. Create a theme around OO not a new build.

kbsoftware reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 3, 2007

What an unpleasant experience to download, if they had any more steps required I think I would of pulled my hair out :)

guru_v reviewed vBeta 1 on Oct 3, 2007

Works well, certain things are different than OpenOffice, nice, because OO doesn't fit everyone. The people at IBM need to put their brand on a Symphony database.