Although acceptance of the open source desktop has lagged adoption on the server, IBM hopes slower adoption of Microsoft’s latest operating system and the economic downturn elevate its prospects. IBM, like Sun, is trying to drive more sales of the open source Office suite against the more ubiquitous Microsoft Office and gain steam as Google Apps takes hold. But more significantly, Big Blue has to tell ordinary consumers. Techies know that OpenOffice exists and may need to be told that IBM is now shipping its own flavor.
It's not a bad idea, but my take is that IBM must dig deep and invest heavily in marketing and advertising to drive more general consumer acceptance about its open source Office.
Still, IBM’s Lotus Symphony – based on OpenOffice - was announced only a year ago and only recently shipped in June. The announcement at LinuxWorld coincides with IBM’s 10-year anniversary of investing in Linux. The company did something similar at its LotuSphere 2008 in January, by partnering with distros and adding an e-mail client to the mix.
It's a small step forward but Big Blue must reach out to the masses to win this game.Īt LinuxWorld, IBM announced that Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat have agreed to work with their PC partners to deliver a Linux desktop based on Lotus Notes and recently released Lotus Symphony by 2009.
#Lotus symphony for windows 10 software#
IBM is enlisting the help of the top three Linux distributors to help its desktop Office and messaging software gain ground.