Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

StarOffice 6.0

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the first-hit-is-free dept.

Lawrence Teo writes "News.com, Infoworld.com, and eWeek are all reporting that Sun's StarOffice 6.0, which will be released on May 21, will cost a measly $75.95. That's less than a quarter the cost of Microsoft Office. Details are also available at Sun's own StarOffice 6.0 website." Sun's press release mentions the new features, although if you're familiar with openoffice.org, you've got a pretty good idea of what StarOffice has to offer. An anonymous reader also points out that Sun has effectively one-upped Microsoft's various schemes to get its software into schools by making an unlimited donation of StarOffice to China's Ministry of Education.

5 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. pre-order here by Jonny+Ringo · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can already pre-order it here

  2. "Next-gen" office from Microsoft, also XML-based by SteelX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow. Hot on the heels of Sun's press release, it looks like Microsoft is also planning their so called next-gen Office which is also supposedly based on XML. That zdnet article is pretty interesting.. it has some comments from Gartner about both Office.NET (ugh! I'm getting .NET-phobia) and StarOffice.

  3. Re:hmm by Innominate+Recreant · · Score: 5, Informative

    That was a consideration. Sun's decision to charge is based on research that showed enterprise users were not adopting StarOffice 5.2, the previous version of the product, in a significant way because they questioned Sun's commitment to a product it was giving away for free and which did not come with support and training.

  4. Differences between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org by SteelX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seems that there are a lot of "Why StarOffice, and not OpenOffice.org?" posts out there. To make things easier, here's where you can find the differences between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org.

  5. Re:I don't find that on the web site. by comcn · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the General FAQ:

    Q. What are the differences between StarOffice 6.0 software and the OpenOffice.org 1.0?

    A. StarOffice 6.0 softwre is a commercial product aimed at organizations and consumers while OpenOffice.org 1.0 is aimed at users of free software, independent developers and the open source community. StarOffice includes licensed-in, third-party technology such as:

    • Spellchecker and thesaurus
    • Database component (Software AG Adabas D).
    • Select fonts including Windows metrically equivalent fonts and Asian language fonts
    • Select filters, including WordPerfect filters and Asian word processor filters
    • Integration of additional templates and extensive clipart gallery

    In addition to product differences, StarOffice offers:

    • Updates/upgrades on CD
    • Sun installation and user documentation
    • 24x7 Web based support for enterprises and consumers
    • Help desk support
    • Warranties and indemnification guarantee Training
    • Professional services for migration and deployment

    ...so you get the standard OpenOffice + a few extra goodies + the standard free software money-maker, support.

    As for me, I've installed OpenOffice 1.0 (I'm a TeX sort of chap), buy I can see this being great for businesses.