The IBM tools, dubbed Symphony, are available for download free of charge online and will provide access to documents, spreadsheets and presentations on machines supported by Windows and Linux desktops, according to IBM. Customers who purchase the latest version of IBM’s Lotus Notes will also receive Symphony.

Symphony will also feature optional, fee-based support for businesses, Ed Brill, a business unit executive for worldwide sales at IBM/Lotus, said at a Tuesday launch event in Manhattan.

Symphony is based on the open document format (ODF), which allows for the open standards favored by IBM but generally shunned by Microsoft. IBM last week joined OpenOffice.org, an open source project founded by Sun Microsystems in 2000, to which IBM will be making code contributions.

Source: PCMag.com

Since IBM is joining forces with OpenOffice.org my questions are:

Will IBM’s joining of the party help OpenOffice actually penetrate the Office app market? (to a serious extent)

Any predictions as to how long this venture will last?

Finally will Microsoft’s earnings be hurt because of OpenOffice’s success?

OpenOffice has definitely “stayed the course” I was using OpenOffice and Abiword for a few years before I went back the evil side.

“NORTHERN Rock has turned to the Bank of England as the “lender of last resort” after difficulties raising cash from the wholesale markets.

The move is expected to spark fresh concerns that the impact of financial market turmoil is having a deeper impact on some banks than previously thought.

A £4.4 billion relief fund offered by the BoE yesterday was drained by banking giants in less than an hour as they struggled to secure finance.

The BoE pumped the extra cash into the system in a bid to ease soaring overnight inter-bank borrowing interest rates.

But the move did not help Northern Rock’s share price, which fell 5 per cent yesterday.”

Source: Scotsman

The same thing is happening over in the States as well with Countrywide (America’s largest Mortgage lender) getting bailed out by numerous players and its still apparently not enough. However, the mortgage/credit crunch crisis is moderating a bit lately. The question is how bad will this get in the UK and the rest of Europe? Will France and Germany have equal trouble?

o