Back to the future ?

OOPS IBM did it again !!
IBM is a great software company and produces probably the best server softwares; however, when it comes to desktop software or the software for common people IBM goofs up badly.
We have seen many instances like the (in) famous Lotus Smart Suite, Lotus notes and IBM java.
Some people like the Lotus software and some might also use IBM java, however, they do not form a sizable number. Lotus is only used in enterprises, hardly any home users use it. IBM software for common people lacks badly in user friendliness and sometimes features.
When IBM announced Lotus symphony, based on OpenOffice, my first question was why re-brand?It would have been much better to simply support OpenOffice. I got my answer a little later; IBM has taken the code base of OpenOffice 1.4 ( against the current OpenOffice version 2.3), modified it and is launching it as Lotus Symphony. Its like old wine in a new bottle. Unfortunately, unlike old wine people do not prefer old software.

Quoting from the PCWorld report about this
"according to an OpenOffice.org official. John McCreesh says Symphony's shortcomings are less a reflection of its OpenOffice foundation and more a result of its reliance on obsolete OpenOffice source code."
He even goes to the extent of comparing Symphony with a dog
"Symphony "runs like a dog and has a pretty amateurish appearance," blogged McCreesh, who is OpenOffice.org's marketing project lead, late last week during the organization's annual developer conference in Barcelona. This "does beg the question as to why a company of IBM's stature should take software well past its sell-by date, and try and pass it off as a new product."

Well, I would say that if someone has to face mighty MS Office, they better release a strong product, with comparable features and good performance.