Alexey Zimarev over Collaboration and UC

IBM Lotus Symphony is a free-for-download office application suite created by putting a tried-and-true open-source engine into a shiny chassis created by IBM. Under the hood, Lotus Symphony is based on OpenOffice.org 3.0, a slightly earlier version of the same office-suite code that powers LibreOffice. What you see on screen, however, is an interface that's been tweaked by IBM to make it by far the user-friendliest no-cost productivity suite, and one's that's friendly enough to rival the spacious and informative interface that Microsoft created for Office 2010 and that Apple created for iWork '09. I'm deeply impressed by Lotus Symphony. IBM obviously built it so beginners and office workers can get the most out of it without special training. Expert users who need to open files in a wide range of formats, including Microsoft Works, Corel WordPerfect, or Lotus WordPro, will prefer LibreOffice, because Lotus Symphony only imports Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org documents—but that's all that almost every office environment ever needs.