The latest version of IBM’s OpenOffice.org based office suite ‘Lotus Symphony’ has been released.

Lotus Symphony 3 boasts many new and enhanced features; benefits from the OpenOffice 3 codebase and introduces new sidebars for .

Utilizing the Eclipse framework Lotus Symphony offers a different user experience to that of traditional office suites.

Lotus: The LD

IBM Lotus Symphony is a free multi-platform suite of office applications consisting of:

IBM Lotus Symphony Documents – a word processor

IBM Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets – a spreadsheet program

IBM Lotus Symphony Presentations – a presentation program

The suite also has integration with IBM’s Lotus Notes product.

Files compatability

Being based on OpenOffice 3 Symphony supports most formats you can chuck at it including OpenDocument, Microsoft Office and OpenOffice and Office Open XML file formats.

Download

Lotus Symponhy is free ‘registerware‘ requiring you to enter your e-mail address and other info before being granted access to the download section.

Grab it @ symphony.lotus.com

The 32bit only .DEB installer, whilst named as being for ‘Hardy 8.10’, will install on later versions of Ubuntu. I installed it on Ubuntu 10.10 where it works without issue.

Annoyingly IBM don’t provide a native installer for 64bit users so, typically, a bit of hacking is needed to to get it up-and-running without issue.

Thankfully very awesome reader Dylan has packaged up a 64bit .deb especially for you – no fuss, no hassle. Thanks Dylan!