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."

Comments

Good for them

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

I wonder if the SWX format will ever really take hold. No doubt it will need something like a very good StarOffice suite to bring it into its own. (And maybe a boost from Microsoft secure documents / forced upgrade)

I have wanted to bring my company onto the free/cheap opensource software bandwagon for some time now. And I have the authority to do it. But I always have to consider the issue - can non-techsmart people handle it? Will they be able to open the documents they receive and use them.

In many ways a really good Office suite will help linux/open source just as much as the benefits of the OS itself.

Real world features

[trewq000-()-0-]

I have just convinced my boss to switch over StarOffice 7, and the features and support were a major factor in putting it into his comfort zone. He was quite reticent before then. I don't think Microsoft will really be hurt by it's release immeadiately, but it will help a lot of companies start to slowly adopt more alternative options.

Re:Match for Office?

[einstein]

why does the PIM need to be part of the office suite? It doesn't make sense.. everything else is managing documents, PIMs are calendaring and email (why those to are shoehorned together is another post entirely..).

Get your pim elsewhere. There are TONS of options these days.

Been using 6.1beta2 for a while now

[panurge]

I've been telling clients to delay buying Office upgrades till this came out, and I think they'll thank me for it. There are things SO won't do that Office will, but I would stick my neck out and say that in many cases those are things that shouldn't be done with an office package. In particular I have been testing the SO database connectivity heavily. It's solid and I think this is going to form part of my future solutions. Being able to drive SO in Java could lead to some really neat presentation layer work.

I'm not knocking any of the completely OSS suites, far from it. But I think Sun is doing everybody a service by demonstrating to the PHBs that a major software player can produce credible competition for Office and sell it for peanuts. I want to see people making money out of FOSS - because that will keep it developing - and if Sun's work leads others to produce customised and extended office suites based on other OSS suites, that should get back the pace of development that has been so held back by the MS monopoly.

Also, although I'm too old to use the terminology without looking sad, the XML output format rocks. People will be able to do some really creative things with this.

Remember: once upon a time almost all tires were crossply. Then along came radial. No technology has a right to a monopoly for longer than it takes for something better to come along.