StarOffice adhered mostly to the PowerPoint (pre 2007) convention, increasing usability. Here again, Lotus Symphony’s default page showed that annoying, rather large vertical toolbar. However, the failings of that UI is also present in the fact that most commands are not exposed to the user with most being two to three levels deepīoth programs sport a basic spreadsheet UI that is virtually generic. StarOffice had the Office 2003 interface working for it. Aesthetically, it was pleasing….until you realized that the default visible buttons were inadequate for anything other than the most basic of editing tasks. Taking an inordinate amount of screen space, on the right side of the screen no less, was a vertical toolbar a la Windows Vista’s Sidebar. My first thoughts on seeing the Symphony UI: clunky. Lotus Symphony took a while to install, the non-standard installer not helping as well. Each VM was pristine, and was patched with the latest updates. I tested each office suite in a separate x86 Windows Vista™ virtual machine with 2 GB of RAM each. Plus, Kevin Tolly reviews Lotus Symphony (and likes it, too). check out two more reviews: OpenOffice fan James Gaskin reviews Lotus Symphony (and likes it). CostĬurrently, Lotus Symphony is free, while there is a cost of about $70 US per annum for StarOffice._Įditor's note.
#LOTUS SYMPHONY NOT LAUNCHING TRIAL#
After entering my favorite bugmenot credentials, I acquired it, for the cost of a free 90-day trial as well.
#LOTUS SYMPHONY NOT LAUNCHING REGISTRATION#
Sun though, required registration before allowing a download. StarOffice was similarly not very visible from the default Sun landing page, however, it was only two clicks away. At a cost of free, and without the expected registration hassles, I downloaded the software. Lotus Symphony is available for downloading from IBM’s website, though you would need to Live Search the name to get to the download page said page being well hidden from prying eyes. I also limited myself to three modules of StarOffice, in order to be fair to the three modules currently in Lotus Symphony.
![lotus symphony not launching lotus symphony not launching](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/2/9/a/8/highres_267070664.jpeg)
Straying off the ranch, I have been testing IBM’s Lotus Symphony, the latest incarnation (in name only) of the DOS-era integrated program of the same name.įor this test, I focused on two aspects, usability and compatibility, as being more important to my constituency than others, since most companies considering any of these programs would probably be doing so with a current inventory of documents already saved in the Microsoft Office format.Ĭoncurrent with this test, I also tested StarOffice, version 8, from Sun Microsystems since it is the suite the Open Office project is based upon.