Lotus Symphony joins OpenOffice and Google Docs

IBM has become the latest company to release a free suite of office software, providing yet another rival to Microsoft Office.

Lotus Symphony, which includes the same products featured in Lotus Notes 8, brings together word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software.

The programs allow users to create, manage, edit and import documents in the Open Document Format (ODF).

The suite can also import and edit Microsoft Office documents and save them as ODF files.

The move follows IBM's entry to the OpenOffice group, in which the company added Lotus Notes technology to the OpenOffice suite.

CapGemini recently started selling Google Docs alongside its Microsoft and IBM office suites.

Google Apps also extended its free range of online office tools today by adding a simple presentation feature as a rival to Microsoft PowerPoint.