IBM Lotus Symphony

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TheAsterisk!
Posts: 406
Joined: Tue 10 Feb 2009, 08:52

IBM Lotus Symphony

#1 Post by TheAsterisk! »

Lotus Symphony is a free-of-charge office suite derived from OpenOffice.org that you can download from here- there's a big download button off to the right- but IBM does make you register to get to the download.
The current version (not the beta) is based on a fairly old version of OO.o, and while it has a word processor, a spreadsheet editor and a presentation maker, there is no database or formula editor like you might find in newer versions of OO.o.


I prefer Symphony's interface over OpenOffice's, so I decided to give it a shot and install version 1.3 straight from the Ubuntu *.deb package that IBM offers.

It works, but it has it's quirks.

The file /usr/bin/symphony, which is the easiest way to launch the suite, is a symlink to an executable buried within a confusing mess of directories. Trouble is, that executable isn't actually set to be executable once it's installed, so you have to go and set the permissions yourself (the file in question is "/opt/ibm/lotus/Symphony/framework/shared/eclipse/plugins/com.ibm.productivity.tools.standalone.launcher.linux.x86_1.5.0.20090908-0900/IBM Lotus Symphony").
Once you do that, though, the suite runs perfectly well, assuming you either launch it from the command prompt by typing "symphony" or make a desktop shortcut manually.


I've actually managed to repackage the whole thing neatly into both an SFS (for Puppy 43x) and a PET, but I hesitate to distribute those packages since IBM does make you register to download.

I'm pretty sure I can, though, distribute a small PET that just has a *.desktop file to give the suite menu entries. If you want that small PET, it's here, and an md5sum is here if for some reason anybody wants it.


PLEASE NOTE that I have not tested the newer package, which should still be a beta release of version 3. I've only tried running version 1.3.
Also please remember that I have only tested this in Puppy 431.



The hardware and software requirements for Lotus Symphony 1.3 should be about the same as they are for OpenOffice (though I've run OpenOffice and Symphony on 128 MB of memory, so the 'official' requirements of either might not be completely accurate). Java is highly recommended.

So, there's yet another office suite that Puppy users can install and run, if they so desire!
Last edited by TheAsterisk! on Wed 21 Dec 2011, 13:51, edited 9 times in total.

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DC
Posts: 360
Joined: Sun 30 Apr 2006, 15:07
Location: Maidenhead, England

#2 Post by DC »

Hi,
I found the windows version of Lotus Symphony imported all my old Lotus 123 files much better than normal Open office (sheet formatting).
I'll have a look again time permitting :D

thanks for the update

DC

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TheAsterisk!
Posts: 406
Joined: Tue 10 Feb 2009, 08:52

Symphony 3.0

#3 Post by TheAsterisk! »

A very similar situation is true of Lucid Puppy (I've used version 511) and Symphony 3.0 as was true of Puppy 431 and Symphony 1.3. (You might get it to work in 431, but I haven't tried it.)

The executable to actually be marked as executable:
"/opt/ibm/lotus/Symphony/framework/shared/eclipse/plugins/com.ibm.symphony.standard.launcher.linux.x86_3.0.0.20101015-2340/IBM Lotus Symphony"

This time, the symlink "/usr/bin/symphony" seems to point at nothing, so that'll have to be made to point at the executable named above.

You can use the same *.desktop pet package from the first post if you want.

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