看到一則叫〈IBM 棄 MS Office 選用 OO.o〉的文章

36萬IBM僱員被告知停止使用Microsoft Office，轉而使用基於Open Office的軟件Lotus Symphony。IBM 同時還要求用Open Document Format格式保存文件。Lotus Symphony最初是Lotus公司開發的辦公軟件，於1992年宣佈停止開發。IBM在1995年收購了Lotus，直到2007年它才重新激活 Symphony，推出了基於Open Office的IBM定製辦公軟件。據報導，IBM的33萬僱員已在使用Symphony，其他人預計在未來10天內完成遷移。

英文原文：
http://slashdot.org/story/09/09/13/205253/IBM-Policy-Switches-From-MS-Office-To-OOo

看罷這篇文章，我想起的第一個問題是：「為甚麼 IBM 這麼遲才使用自家開發的 Lotus Symphony 和 ODF？」

我覺得官方的理由，我也不會知道。我只是在想：
１．IBM 的員工都習慣了 Micro$oft Office，和大部分地球人一樣。
２．使用 M$O 就會使用 .doc，不懂得使用給 M$O 轉換 .odt 的 plugin。
３．Symphony 開發進度緩慢……比 OOo 更緩慢……有很多臭蟲……或者翻譯也未完成……
４．沒有支援的隊伍，使用有問題不知可以找誰。
５．IBM 開發這個產品只是為了內部使用？不然怎麼 Symphony 採用專屬授權？為甚麼不使用 GPL？
６．Slashdot 文章的標題錯了，IBM 並不是轉用 OpenOffice.org，它不會的。之前 IBM 打算收購昇陽時已經有評論員指出這個尷尬的問題。現在 Oracle 收購了昇陽，OOo 是不是 Lotus Symphony 的競敵？

我們常常以為，IBM 是一家很支持「開放原始碼軟體」的公司，例如說 IBM 釋出很多原為專屬軟體的「開放源始碼」，對 Linux 的貢獻不亞於 Redhat 等企業。事實上，您看看 IBM 的高階伺服器在用甚麼專屬軟體就可知一二，對 IBM 來說，「開放原始碼軟體」只是包裝出來的「潮流」，我相信 IBM 連 Eric S. Raymond 所說的「盡快釋出，盡快修復」的原理也是不相信的（更不要扯甚麼自由軟體了），不然，在 IBM 釋出這些原始碼之後，並沒有提及將來的維護？

上面提起的六個觀點，本來不見得是值得表揚的事，可是媒體卻偏偏說成 IBM 使用了 OOo 和 ODF，既然 IBM 的員工這麼多，這政策一定能造成一些影響……

我呸！自由軟體社群一早就採用了 Linux、OOo（或更自由的自由軟體）及 ODF 文件了，Slashdot 上的英文原文文章作者還在說「”It’s frequent that we hear of a country or city or company switching from Windows to Linux, but it’s rare that we hear of one third of a million employees being told to use Lotus Symphony (IBM’s OO.o variant) over MS Office, and also to use the Open Document Format when saving files.」好像在說使用 Lotus Symphony 這個專屬軟體比轉用 Linux 更令人驚喜似的。事實上，我想到多一個觀點了：

７．IBM 的員工的 Lotus Symphony 是在 Window$ 上面跑的。

這又算不算是「IBM 七宗罪」？

IBM Lotus Symphony 近月已經推出 1.3 了，可是我卻一點興趣都沒有，我想就算它免費，自由軟體社群裡真的會用的也不多，那麼，我寧可它賣點錢，然後在金錢方面「施捨」給自由軟體界好吧！

Chciałbym się podzielić znalezionym programem biurowym bazującym na kodzie Open Office stworzoną przez firmę IBM. Znajduje się w nim edytor tekstu, arkusz kalkulacyjny i soft do tworzenia prezentacji. W prezencie IBM dodał przeglądarkę opartą na silniku Mozilli

By 

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Program jest całkowicie darmowy, ale IBM wymaga zarejestrowania się na jego stronie.

Zapraszam do testowania

Szacun

Spalding

With these free office suites, text editors, e-mail programs and information managers, you can keep on top of your work without spending a thing.

IBM Lotus Symphony is the descendant of the original Lotus software created in 1984, when Lotus was an independent company, battling Microsoft for office-suite supremacy. (We all know how that fight turned out.)

Still, just because Lotus lost the war and was eventually bought by IBM doesn’t mean IBM Lotus Symphony isn’t good software. In fact, it’s surprisingly slick looking, with pretty much all of the features you could want in office software. It has a word processor, presentation software and a spreadsheet. All three support Microsoft Office file formats, as well as many others.

In addition, quite a few plug-ins are available to provide extra features such as the ability to export charts from the spreadsheet as graphics files.

Download IBM Lotus Symphony | Price: Free

Here’s probably the best way to save on productivity software: Use the free OpenOffice.org instead of paying $300 or more for Microsoft Office. In OpenOffice you get a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program, a database, a drawing application and math software, all full-featured.

Think free means underpowered? Think again. This is a surprisingly powerful package that does just about everything that Microsoft Office does. You can even open and create files in various Office file formats — and, of course, you can work with other file formats as well. Not only that, but this suite even works with Office’s markup mode, so you can use it when collaborating with people who use Office.

The interface is functional, but that’s the best you can say about it. Though it’s somewhat crude looking, it still gets the job done. It isn’t nearly as polished as Microsoft Office. It also doesn’t have a ribbon like that of the latest version of Office. Depending on what you think about the ribbon, that’s either very bad or very good.

Download OpenOffice.org | Price: Free

At 150MB, the regular OpenOffice is a hefty download; it consumes even more space on your hard disk when installed. What if you’re looking for something lighter — say, something to run on a netbook? Or how about taking the whole OpenOffice suite with you on a USB flash drive that you can use on any computer?

If that sounds more like your style, you’ll want OpenOffice Portable, a considerably slimmed-down version of OpenOffice. It’s an 87MB download, but it looks and feels much like the full-blown OpenOffice suite.

Note that you may run into some problems. When I installed the software, it didn’t install a desktop icon or show up on the Start menu, so I had to manually navigate to the program’s folder to run it. The default folder it installed didn’t work either and I could find no uninstall routine for it. Opening the application or creating files in it is significantly slower than performing the same action in OpenOffice, too. Still, if you’re willing to put up with all that for the sake of saving some disk space, it’s worth a try.

Download OpenOffice.org Portable | Price: Free

Without a doubt Microsoft word is the best word processor money can buy but not all of us cannot afford it, also most of the people who buy Microsoft word never use all the features it offers. Hence Here is a list of best free word processors available in market for download.

1. Abiword: Without a doubt one of the best freeware word processor available. Abiword can read and edit almost all the coomon documet formats like MS word documents, open office documents, rtf files, txt files etc. Also Abiword is multiplatform it can run on windows, linux, solaris etc giving user the flexibility to run on any operating system. Another major plus point about Abiword is its ligh weight and quick startup , it almost starts in an instant so you are not pestered by annoying splash images at start and can jump into work right away. Give it a try and it will be liked for sure. Abiword can be downloaded for free here.

2. OpenOffice.org Writer: Probably the best MS word alternative known to most people. It has almost all the features that MS word can offer and a common man can use. Very simple to use and an elegant interface are an added advantage. Only disadvantage i can think of is that it is slightly slow to start with that annoying splash, which will bog down a few potential users. But for users looking for a complete word processing package to replace MS word Openoffice.org Writer is the best choice. Try it here.

3. Google docs : For all the online lovers word processing cannot get better than this. Although the product is in beta stage it mimics almost all the most used features of MS Word. And with offline functionality of google docs ( with google gears ) it can be used without internet connection which makes it one of the best competetor in word processing market. The biggest plus point for google docs is availaility of documents on the move ( atleast where ever internet is available ). Also google docs can read and import all the common document types. Give google docs a try and you will love it. Try Google docs here.

4. IBM Lotus Symphony : Relatively unkown in office suite market IBM lotus Symphony is attrating good share of attention these days. This office suite based on openoffice.org includes a writer with very good features and support for all the common document types. The interface is much smoother and betterl organized than openoffice writer. Try it out here.

5. Zoho Writer: Zoho office was one of the first complete online office suites available, and as with all the other online office tools its still in beta stage. But dont let this beta stop you from using it, zoho writer is probably the best online writer available and in my personal opinion beats google docs fair and square. It even supports offline editing just like google docs. For all those willing to give it a try its right over here.

Fuente: diarioti

IBM anuncia la nueva versión 1.3 de Lotus Symphony, la oferta de software gratuito basado en el formato abierto ODF para compartir y crear documentos de texto, hojas de cálculo y presentaciones.
Lotus Symphony permite acceder a este tipo de herramientas de manera gratuita, una alternativa para aquellas empresas que necesitan ajustar costes en el actual clima económico. Además, la nueva versión Lotus Symphony tiene capacidad para importar archivos de Microsoft Office 2007.
La nueva versión incorpora mejoras en la herramienta DataPilot Table que facilitan la identificación y el análisis de los datos, mejora la combinación del correo y la capacidad de imprimir sobres, entre otras innovaciones.

Nota: Más información sobre IBM Lotus Symphony en wikipedia.

IBM Lotus Symphony è un software di produttività di business e personale.
Per comprenderci, il software IBM Lotus Symphony è in realtà un prodotto simile a Microsoft Office e OpenOffice. Consente di creare, modificare e condividere documenti, fogli di calcolo e presentazioni.
E’ disponibile per i sistemi operativi Windows, Mac e Linux.

Für ein gutes Office-Paket muss man heute kein Geld mehr ausgeben, die kostenlose Konkorrenz kann mit Microsoft schon lange mithalten. Von reiner Textverarbeitung bis zu kompletten Office-Suiten ist inzwischen alles gratis zu haben. Die hier vorgestellten Alternativen sind alle kompatibel zu MS Office und können die Microsoft-Formate lesen und schreiben. Die Mehrheit der Programme läßt sich sogar auf USB-Sticks installieren und steht so auch unterwegs zur Verfügung.

AbiWord AbiWord ist “nur” ein Texteditor, bietet aber alle Features die man von so einer Software erwarten kann – per Addon auch mit deutscher Rechtschreibprüfung. Wer auf Tabellen und Präsentationen verzichten kann, und nur eine solide Textverarbeitung such, liegt mit AbiWord richtig.

Download (Windows, Linux)

portable Version

Softmaker Office Softmaker Office 2006 ist an MS Office 2003 angelehnt, und bietet neben der Textverarbeitung Textmaker noch den Excel-Klon Planmaker.

Download (Windows)

portable Version

IBM Lotus Symphony Lotus Symphony ist IBMs Versuch, dem Konkurrenten Microsoft die Kunden mit Gratis-Software abspenstig zu machen. Die Office-Suite bearbeitet Texte, Tabellen und Präsentationen.

Download (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Open Office Open Office ist vom Funktionsumfang klar die Nummer eins unter den kostenlosen Office-Lösungen. Mit dabei sind u.a. Textverarbeitung, Tabellenkalkulation, Präsentationsprogramm, Datenbankverwaltung, ein Formeleditor und ein Vektorzeichenprogramm.

Download Windows, Mac, Linux

portable Version

While Change is coming to the U.S.A. tomorrow, it is with some anxiety that change is coming to the Office productivity suite that I use during my day job at IBM.

The IBM WebSphere division is shifting to using IBM Lotus Symphony, based on OpenOffice.org, documents in future presentations to IBM executives at several decision checkpoint meetings.  We can continue to use Microsoft Office as we have in the past, but presentations to these standing meetings must be delivered using IBM Lotus Symphony.  It’ll be interesting to see how long we can maintain two versions of each file, PPT and ODT, before breaking down and working solely off the ODT file.  I can probably hold out for 1 month.

As far as I can tell, this is not an IBM wide shift.  But considering the level of chart and deck sharing that occurs at IBM, the decision will expose a lot of IBMers, inside and outside of the WebSphere division, to Symphony (and OO.o).

It’s not that I have anything against OO.o or Symphony.  I’m simply 10x more productive using a tool that I have over 10 years experience with.  But, if change is coming, best be in front of it, than being dragged along for the ride.

I guess I’ll never get to try Office 2007

Hi guys, today I am going to give you a review-based-on-experience of me after using IBM Lotus Symphony. Just so you know (if you still don’t know what this software does), this software is used in day to day office job such us word processing, spreadsheet and presentation. Yeah, just like Microsoft word, Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Power Point. The only different is this software is made by IBM.
Ok, here is my opinion after using the software for quite a while now:

1. I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but the load time for opening the software seems taking a little bit too long.

2. Nice graphical interface, I think they’ve done a good job making it. More importantly, they’re better than the open office one.

3. Huge file. Yeah, more than 400 MB in my hard drive. (I only got 40 GB of hard drive space so it definitely kills me).

Ok, that’s all. Hehe…
Well, this software is nothing compared with Microsoft’s but since it’s free, I’ll be a good alternative.

IBM Lotus Symphony

En esto de las suites de oficina se abren cada día más alternativas de uso gratuito que fácilmente satisfacen nuestras necesidades diarias. El caso particular de Lotus Symphony de IBM es el que me ocupa hoy.

Hace ya algún tiempo que IBM tenía en el mercado una suite llamada de esta forma que era para DOS que no corrió con mucha suerte, y que ahora renace como una entrega gratuita bien integrada y fácil de usar. IBM Lotus Symphony está basado en el núcleo 1.1.4 de Openoffice con un shell desarrollado por Eclipse Rich Client Platform cuya primera versión estable salió el 30 de mayo del 2008 (actualmente esta disponible la versión 1.1), y que esta integrada por las aplicaciones Symphony Documents, Presentations, y Spreadsheets (editor de textos, presentaciones y hoja de cálculo respectivamente) que además incluye un navegador de internet. La primera impresión del programa es bien recibida ya que tiene una interfaz novedosa pero de fácil entendimiento. Incluye una barra de herramientas sencilla, pero con todas las opciones a la mano y del lado izquierdo se encuentra una barra de propiedades de texto, de página o de celda, según sea el caso, que fácilmente nos permite modificar nuestra escritura sin demasiadas complicaciones. He de decir con toda honestidad que quizá para algunos esta suite no sea tan poderosa ni cuente con las herramientas para tareas complejas, sin embargo para el uso cotidiano de la mayoría de nosotros que usamos el editor de texto para escritos sencillos con adornos nada elaborados, que ocupa las presentaciones básicas para tareas simples o que elabora una hoja de cálculo sin demasiadas complicaciones, esta es una solución ideal, fresca y que cuenta con el respaldo de un gigante de las computadoras: IBM.

Una cosa que me parece muy interesante y útil es que las aplicaciones se abren como separadores dentro de una misma ventana. Así podemos tener varias hojas de calculo, presentaciones o textos reunidos dentro de la aplicacion sin tener la barra de tareas saturada por múltiples ventanas abiertas al mismo tiempo, simplemente hacemos clic en el separador que queremos trabajar y listo. Finalmente IBM Lotus Symphony utiliza ODF como formato para guardar sus archivos (compatible con Openoffice), tiene el soporte para los formatos de Microsoft hasta la versión 2003 (no tiene soporte para el nuevo formato Office Open XM, ni planea hacerlo) y además pueden guardarse archivos tipo PDF creados en la suite.

Si lo que se busca es una suite ofimática sencilla, con soporte al nuevo estardar de documentos abiertos, interfaz novedosa, IBM Lotus Symphony es la respuesta.

Nota reciente: Acaba de ser lanzada la versión 1.2 de esta suite.

Motivado por criticas construtivas feitas por pessoas que viram meu post sobre Linux disponibilizando uma apresentação em PPT, resolvi criar este post bem básico, sobre ODF. Espero que colabore para que leigos conheçam o padrão e ajude na sua adoção. Desde já estou aberto a críticas e sugestões. Boa leitura!!!

Cada vez mais nós (governos, contribuintes, empresas, etc) estamos deixando de armazenar documentos em papel e armazenando em meio eletrônico. Isso é fato. O grande problema que surge neste contexto, é que a forma que uma pessoa armazenou o dado, pode não ser acessível para outro devido ao seu formato. Hoje estamos numa situação como ilustra a figura abaixo:

Documentos sendo criados pelo aplicativo X, só são lidos pelo aplicativo X, documentos criados pelo aplicativo Y, só são lidos pelo aplicativo Y. Se o governo trabalha com o aplicativo X, e você retira este documento do governo, logo tem que ter o aplicativo X para poder abrir o mesmo!

Outra situação é, se o fabricante do aplicativo X efetua uma atualização nele. Os documentos criados a partir dos aplicativos atualizados, podem não ser abertos por todos que tem a versão não atualizada do aplicativo X, sendo assim, serão forçados a gastar dinheiro e tempo com a atualização do mesmo.

Tendo em vista esta situação, por que não criarmos um padrão único que possa ser aberto e alterado por todas as aplicações do mercado? Eis que surge o ODF!

Open Document Format (ODF)

O Open Document Format, é uma especificação desenvolvida pelo comitê técnico Open Office XML da OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standars) baseada em XML, que, pode ser utilizada para criarmos o contexto ideal ilustrado pela figura abaixo:

Dessa forma, não dependemos mais de nenhum fabricante ou do software que alguém utiliza para podermos trabalhar com um documento. Qualquer aplicativo compatível com a especificação do ODF vai ser capaz de manipular documentos neste padrão.

Uma relação entre as extensões dos documentos salvos em aplicativos MS com os documentos salvos em ODF é:

Então, uma apresentação salva num aplicativo compatível com a especificação ODF, vai ter a extensão ODP. Uma planilha salva no mesmo aplicativo, vai ter a extensão ODS, e finalmente um texto salvo, vai ter a extensão ODT. (P = Presentation, S=Spreadsheet e T= Text)

Mais detalhes sobre ODF podem ser obtidos aqui http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office#overview

A Infowester tem uma matéria bem detalhada sobre ODF aqui http://www.infowester.com/odf.php

Iniciativa para incentivar ODF

Uma ótima iniciativa no Brasil e no mundo é a Aliança ODF. Seu site em português é ODF Alliance no Brasil.

Esta Aliança “atua globalmente para educar os elaboradores de políticas, administradores de TI e o público em geral sobre os benefícios e oportunidades do OpenDocument Format, visando garantir que as informações, registros e documentos governamentais sejam completamente e nativamente accessíveis através de diversas plataforma e aplicações, mesmo quando a tecnologia muda.”

É muito legal divulgar este Link e cadastrar sua empresa na aliança, passando assim a utilizar ODF no seu dia a dia a fim de colaborar com a adoção de um formato único e não “caindo” nos problemas de incompatibilidade de documentação citadas no começo do post ou ainda ficando nas mãos de uma fornecedora.

Algo bem importante a ser citado é que empresas grandes incentivam ODF, dentre elas IBM, RedHat, Google, Sun, Novell, Oracle, etc.

Softwares para trabalhar com ODF

Como esperado, o Microsoft Office não salva documentos utilizando este padrão, portanto eu sugiro abaixo dois aplicativos, GRÁTIS, que trabalham com ODF e são ótimos!

O primeiro é o IBM Lotus Symphony, que agora em sua versão 3 está em português, seu site é http://symphony.lotus.com, tem um manual de instalação bem detalhado, eu utilizo ele.

O segundo é o Open Office, mais amplamente utilizado. Pode ser baixado de http://www.openoffice.org/.

O Open Office tem uma “localização” brasileira, é o BR-Office. Pode ser obtida aqui http://www.broffice.org/.

Mais…

Existe um outro formato, o OpenXML, que é uma proposta da ECMA(http://www.ecma-international.org/) e Microsoft, que “disputa” com o ODF para ser o padrão de mercado. Podemos encontrar facilmente em inúmeras páginas, pessoas fazendo uma guerra entre OpenXML e ODF e transformando isso em um IBM X Microsoft, algo que é totalmente errado. Meu escopo aqui não é falar sobre essa “batalha” e bem entrar em algo mais técnico, meu foco é simplesmente apresentar o padrão para leigos. Talvez futuramente eu escreva algo mais técnico com algum comparativo.

Uma ótima leitura, é um post do grande mestre Cézar Taurion em http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/ctaurion?entry=odf_em_2008, ele fala sobre ODF e as perspectivas para 2008.

Outra pessoa que falou algo interessante sobre ODF é Avi Alkalay, seu blog: http://avi.alkalay.net/2007/12/odf-ooxml-liberdade-de-escolha.html

Então é isso! Espero ter esclarecido um pouco e dado alguns pontos de referência.

Agora, use e divulgue o ODF!

The OpenDocument landscape just a got a little bit more interesting this week.

Earlier this week Google Docs announced its new presentation product. CommonCraft produced a brilliant “Google Docs in Plain English” video to accompany the launch.

On the heals of Google Docs, Lotus released IBM Lotus Symphony suite of free software tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Read the Buzz press release “IBM Releases Office Desktop Software at No Charge to Foster Collaboration and Innovation” to learn more.

Software written using the OpenDocument standard can read and write Microsoft Office Suite documents. The universal file format of OpenDocument ensures “long-term access to data without legal or technical barriers”.

Google Docs in Plain English (2 min. 50 sec.) courtesy of CommonCraft.