Hmm, deja vu...
I've been doing this job too long. I remember going to Lotus's launch of a whizzy application suite back in the 80s; spreadsheet, WP etc. Now let me think, what was it called? Ah yes, Symphony :-). Supposed to be a mega follow on for the all-dominant (then) Lotus 1-2-3, never really cut it.
Maybe this is in the same vein as old rock groups reforming for one last blast. You've gotta hope that the new Symphony takes off better than the original, it's about time there was some decent competition for the MS suite. I use both (MS at work, OO at home 'cos I'm too tight-fisted to pay for MS), and get reasonable interoperability, so who knows?