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Review: Sun StarOffice 7
ValourX writes "Here's the Internet's first comprehensive review of Sun's new StarOffice 7 suite. With the ability to export to PDF and SWF and greatly improved conversion filters, Sun's $80 office suite is more than a match for the upcoming ultra-expensive Microsoft Office System 2003."
I believe the reason why they keep the database application in StarOffice "to themselves" and not release it with OpenOffice.org is that Adabas is commercial software and Sun had to license it. They can't turn around and open source it or releasing it with OpenOffice.org... at least without paying an ungodly sum to the maker of Adabas.
Probably for presentations; have a read only, run anywhere presentation format. A lot more people have Shockwave than even the viewer for PowerPoint. a lot fewer still have {Star,Open}Office.
From the API FAQ for OpenOffice.
"OpenOffice implements the API with UNO (Universal Network Objects). Currently there are language bindings for Java and C++. You can implement your own language binding, and in fact we are actively looking for a volunteer to create a C language binding.
Additionally UNO allows control from scripting languages and scripting environments (for example debuggers). Currently StarBASIC (VBA syntax compatible) can call on the API and there is a prototype written for Python integration. "
If OpenOffice can di it, I'd wager StarOffice can too. The StarOffice SDK should have all the details.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I am suprised that Sun's Star Office recieves so much attention from slashdot and the open sauce community.
Ability Office offers similar functionality in most cases, it can export to PDF, open all MS Office file types and doesn't use a ugly as hell windowing toolkit.
It can even be run on linux. Star Office is not very similar to Open Office at all, sun kept the best parts to themselves (database app) so why are they seen to be *cooler* to open source zealots then other perfectly good office sweets?
Also its cheaper than StarOffice, Ability only costs 69.95
Firstly, Star Office is built on the same base as OpenOffice.org and they do share code. But you are right about proprietary bits. Still this makes Star Office appealing to Open Source Advocates (though it may rankle some in Free Software).
Secondly, the simple fact you can make Flash presentations with this is one reason I am about to shell out $80 for it. I had been thinking of doing some Flash, but Macromedia wants something like $1000 just to do it and I would have to run Windows. This is $80 to do flash on Linux, plus have a nice office suite. That is a very good value to me.
But "If you are a student, researcher, staff, or faculty member you can download StarOffice for free." Also, "Academic and Research institutions, including Primary and Secondary (K-12) Schools, 2-and 4-year Colleges, and Universities" can get an unlimited site license for the cost of media and shipping.
The Adabas database application is not soemthing which can be replaced by BerekelyDB. They are very different things.
Adabas is a database application. It is like MS Access or Quatro Pro, or theKompany's Rekall app. It includes a database engine, which IIRC is called the same thing. (Adabas D or something) What is being discusse- and what is included with StarOffice- is a GUI-based db app like MS Access. You could replace Adabas in StarOffice with Bereley DB than you could replace Mozilla with wget.
However, it is possible that Sun could write a whole new database application using BDB as the backend; or, Sun could write a layer for storing word processing, spreadsheet and other kinds of documents in BDB, affording some cool features that we don't get with flat binary files (which suck).
Read the article. Just so you don't have to do all that work, I'll quote it-
"The database is incorporated in key components of the Sun Java Enterprise System, formerly known as Project Orion, and the Sun Java Enterprise Desktop System, formerly known as Project Mad Hatter, both launched on Tuesday."
No mention of StarOffice in that quote of products to use BDB, nor is it mentioned in the rest of the article.
Sun also uses Oracle, and there are articles which will confirm that. But that has nothing to do with StarOffice does it? (unless Adabas can access other database engines for backends, like how you can use Access as a front end to any ODBC SQL Db, etc etc)
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I believe that you're right.
Get it here. Free, but not Libre, I think. Read the licence.
See what I've been reading.
I'm not actually sure I understand the question. It doesn't take any more "tech savvy" to use an .swx file than it does to use a .doc file.
.swx file format the more tech savvy among your people will quickly discover that the .swx file format is nothing more than a zipped XML file; and thus easily extracted and converted even without an "app" to do the deed for you.
.swx file format is a complete nonissue.
You open the file with your app, and there ya go. Use is transparent to the user.
I started using StarOffice in my business ( and use OpenOffice and KOffice now) some years ago and have never looked back.
Should anything ever "happen" to the
In any case you could always take the tack I have. ASCII for all internal documents and RTF where needed for external documents. If nothing else it serves to concentrate the mind on actual content, rather than pretending to work by wasting the afternoon on pointless playing around with graphics and formating.
Presentation software is for presentations, i.e., sales.
Internally if anyone tries to show me a pie chart I know that:
A)They don't actually understand what they're talking about
B)Think I don't either
C)They are up to something
D)They have already wasted a lot of time I'm paying them for
So go ahead, take the step to StarOffice. You'll find that a few of your people don't even notice, it's that "MSey." The
But also don't be afraid to use even lower level standard formats, like plain ASCII. Doing so will open up a whole world of free and open possibilities.
Sometimes the technological "advancements" advance to the rear.
KFG
The only thing that I have found that word does easier is manipulate tables, but I am still learning OOo so I probably just haven't stumbled upon it yet. I'm still trying to get used to new menu structures so I'm sure I'll get it soon.
Now, OOo's Calc is MUCH better than Excel. Why would Excel choose to put hidden columns and rows in the HTML output?
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
There's a Slashdot article that talks about SAP-DB. And, there's a decent article by someone who installed it.
= 9J =
Is Ability open source? (OOo is, SO is not.)
OpenOffice.org is well known, has third party books available, and third party training. If you want a commercial counterpart, there is StarOffice. Seems to me like the best of both worlds.
There is one major feature of OpenOffice.org and StarOffice that don't seem to get as much play as they should in a forum like Slashdot. It is programmable in Basic, Java, Python. If you install the scripting framework then is is programmable in BeanShell (i.e. interactive Java), JavaScript, and others in the future.
The OOo document format is well documented . XML in a Zip file. The DTD is available. KDE has announced that KOffice will be standardizing on the OpenOffice.org document format. So in theory, a Windows user running SO or OOo could exchange documents with a Linux user running KOffice. (Not that both OOo and SO don't also run on Linux.)
Developer documentation is readily available, and also a large downloadable SDK. Third parties can develop new components that run within and seemlessly integrate into OOo or SO.
There are lots of resources for OOo.
Won
Too
Free
Fore
Phive
Sicks
Sevin
Ate
Nighn
Tin
Eleven
Twelve
Firteen
Foreteen
Fifteen
This is by no means an exhaustive list.
I have personally taken an interest in OOo and written a Java program (and other tools ) The java program draws Mazes on a running copy of OOo, but the java program can be run on a different computer, over the net. (Win -> Linux, Linux -> Win, etc.)
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
OpenOffice does include some kind of MS Access like database forms interface that connects to JDBC, ODBC... Probably soon native MySQL support. I haven't dug far into it but it should be good enough to build basic forms visually and actually make them do stuff. Very nice!
Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
Here's my experiences working with the latest OpenOffice RC (I believe that is what StarOffice 7 is based upon):
Writer is pretty good, but has some serious flaws with page numbering. Namely, there is no concept with OO/SO of sections in the same way as MS Word. You have to bend over backwords to make it break a document so that the table of contents, for example, is numbered using lower-case roman numerals while the main body is numbered starting from 1 using Arabic numerals. Creating a document that excludes the page number from the first page but prints it on all other pages is also a pain in the ass. Importing MS Word documents that are set up this way is broken. Changing formats for heading styles half way through a document is also broken. Resetting numbering for outlines half way through a document is also broken. Every complex document I've ever worked on utilizes all of these features. OpenOffice is very nice, but these features are a necessity for me. In my opinion, this makes OpenOffice unusable for complex documents, and makes its use for interoperability somewhat limited (although interoperability is less likely an issue when dealing with complex documents).
Calc is very good, and I have only noticed a single obscure problem. Excel allows spreadsheets with 65,565 rows, while Calc only allows spreadsheets with 32,767 rows. This is an obscure limit, and I would recommend against creating any spreadsheet that pushes this limit. However, if converting an entire organization to OpenOffice/StarOffice, this may be a problem. A bigger problem for conversion would likely be the lack of Visual Basic support. I don't consider the row size limit to be a show stopper (whereas the Writer limitations are show stoppers, imho). Calc is very good as a whole. However, if your organization relies heavily upon VB macros, then you should consider the effects this will have on any migration.
I have not stress-tested Impress enough to notice any limitations/bugs. So far, everything I have thrown at Impress comes through fine.
As for formatting, I have only had minor issues regarding formatting (like a single line being thrown onto the next page with a document). These issues are similar to those encountered when changing printer types under MS Word. They are a nuiscance, but not a show stopper.
This "comprehensive" review was anything but. If the author had investigated OO/SO's shortcomings even a little bit, the page numbering issues would have been apparent. But, hey, that's what Slashdot is for, no?
--Be human.