IBM has announced that it too is throwing its hat into the free office suite ring by introducing a free word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation suite based on OpenOffice.org. IBM describes the software, called Lotus Symphony, as "enterprise-grade" office software, with collaboration capabilities like those in Lotus Notes 8. Lotus Symphony will be able to run on Windows XP and Vista, several Linux platforms, with "support for Apple Macintosh planned for the future."

"IBM is very pleased to be joining the OpenOffice.org community. We are very optimistic that IBM's contribution of technology and engineering resources will provide tangible benefits to the community membership and to users of OpenOffice.org technology around the world," IBM's Mike Rhodin said in a statement.

"But how does this differ from StarOffice?" you may ask. Parts of OpenOffice.org 1.x were integrated into IBM's software several years ago, which were updated with a new UI and accessibility enhancements for the recently-released Lotus Notes 8. The applications in Lotus Symphony are just standalone applications of the same versions that are available as part of Notes. Conversely, StarOffice is built off of the OO.org 2.x code with some contributions from Sun, and so the two are slightly branched from one another.

One more difference between StarOffice and Lotus Symphony is file format compatibility. IBM says that Lotus Symphony apps will support the Open Document Format (ODF) and PDF, as well as Microsoft native file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt). IBM does warn, however, that not all Office-created documents will open flawlessly, particularly those that make use of embedded macros or are encrypted.

The move comes as a direct challenge to Microsoft Office and its dominance of the enterprise market. While OpenOffice.org has never made much of an impact on Office's market share, IBM's repackaging and support of the free software solution could attract many more users over to the platform. Other free office solutions, such as Google's collection of apps, are also said to challenge Office, although some parties are highly skeptical that the free, basic applications can truly address the needs of enterprise customers. IBM hopes that it will have an advantage in the enterprise, however, with its good name and well-known support giving the product a boost above the competition.