Re: [libreoffice-design] Take inspiration from Lotus Symphony ?

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> Hi,
> I am currently wondering which office suite I should recommend to my
> customers : Symphony or LibreOffice.

> As far as I can tell there is no difference between the two in terms of
> performance.
> But in term of interface and usability it's a different story.
You may need to elaborate a little on the level of experience in generic doc writing concepts of 
your users. Symphony is a beginner's product wich has been largely emasculated for any but basic 
users. It takes the traditional Lotus approach of imposing their nanny knows best interface design. 
I know, because my company mandates it internally and it sucks. Most folk are desparate to hang on 
to MS office licenses (on Windows) or Open Office/LibO (if they're on Linux)
> After using Symphony for few days, I found that the interface being more
> inviting, you are more likely to "play" with the settings and thus
> discovering more efficient ways to work.
I'd possibly agree for beginners but I wouldn't then extrapolate that observation to assert better 
usability.
> I spend a lot of time training and explaining to my customers where to
> find which option in OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
I certainly agree there. Open Office usability also sucks, in specific areas. In my view there 
should be much more emphasis in this forum on strategically improving the intereface and maybe some 
tactical fixes in the short to medium term, rather than the current emphasis on promotional 
graphics, important though that is!
> So my dilemma is as follow : should I recommend using LibreOffice to
> benefit from the rapidly evolving features, or should I recommend
> Symphony for it's nice interface ?

> Another way to ask the question is : Will LibreOffice's interface evolve
> toward a Symphony' style in the near future (3.5, 3.6 ?) ?
As you might have guessed, I wouldn't agree with your assessment of symphony's superiority.

One other thought. Lotus don't appear to have any worthwhile experience outside Windows and their 
products are buggy and slow on Linux and don't play well with linux native package management.

Thanks

Noh
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