I love OpenOffice. I have been using it instead of Microsoft Office for over a year now, and I must say I am very happy with it.

Enterprise software for free? Apparently so. IBM has just releated a new enterprise-grade suite of office productivity applications, called Lotus Symphony. The free software that comprises Lotus Symphony includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, and business presentation applications that are clearly targeted at the capabilities of the popular Microsoft Office suite.

Symphony builds upon IBM’s recent decision to contribute software code to the OpenOffice.org community, while promoting the Open Document Format (ODF). Since Symphony is based on ODF, organizations can rest assured that they will be able to use and modify all of their documents for the long-term, according to Steve Mills, the senior VP of IBM’s Software Group. “With the Open Document Format, businesses will be able to unlock their information, making it universally accessible on any platform and on the Web in highly flexible ways,” Mills said.

I’m not sure I would try Lotus Symphony, as the whole “Lotus” name still gives me the heeby-jeebies. Maybe it doesn’t have that effect on you, so feel free to try it.

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