I finally got around to downloading Lotus Symphony for the Mac. Lotus made it available a while ago, so I decided to check it out. Symphony is now based on Open Office rather than the old code base, and, perhaps as a consequence, there are plug-ins you can download along with the software.

I downloaded the software out of curiosity. I have no intention of using it. You can no longer separate me from Apple’s Pages – the best word processor I’ve ever used, although I’m not enamored of Apple’s spreadsheet, Numbers. The point is that I just wanted to take a look.

According to IBM over 3 million copies of Symphony have been downloaded with the numbers rising every month. This doesn’t necessarily translate into millions of Symphony users, but it does indicate genuine user interest. Downloading free software from IBM is, imho, different than downloading from some Open Source provider simply because of customer confidence. So there’s a possibility that Symphony may achieve what OpenOffice couldn’t achieve (even if it has the same code base) and knock Microsoft off balance, or even off its feet.

Symphony is MS Office compatible, up to and including file formats for Office 2007. All of which is good for the user, but there’s another twist to Symphony. It offers additional functionality through plugins, imitating the software models of FireFox,WordPress et al. The Microsoft office apps were overburdened with functionality quite a while ago and it has become truly ridiculous, but it’s not all Microsoft’s fault. The fact is that one man’s word processor is another man’s legal document creator and yet another man’s desktop publishing software.

Plugins, not functionality overload, are the natural answer to this thorny little problem of context – a solution that Sun is also adopting with Open Office. Until recently Open Office had been a clone of MS Office, but it is now possible that it will evolve into a superior product. Given that it’s free, Microsoft ought to be worried – especially as we’re marching into a recession where budgets are getting shredded and many organizations are going to be attracted to inexpensive technology alternatives.