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An Early Look at StarOffice 8
polar_bear` writes "NewsForge has an early review of Sun's StarOffice 8, set to be released in mid-October. From the article: 'StarOffice 8 is not perfect, but it is an excellent value for businesses that do not depend on proprietary Microsoft formats for production work.'" And yes, for the uninitiated, NewsForge is still owned by the same parent company as Slashdot.
FInally, a ReaSon To consider Picking Out another office SuiTe.
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
So, after reading the article, I didn't see any compelling features beyond what OpenOffice.org 2.0 promises. I saw several references to StarOffice's superiority over Microsoft Office 2003, but that's about it.
Me, I'll wait for OpenOffice.org 2.0. BTW, when is that, anyway?
From the article, StarOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org source code, and is very much like OpenOffice.org 2.0, with a few enhancements
I thought OpenOffice was originally based on StarOffice?
"StarOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org source code, and is very much like OpenOffice.org 2.0, with a few enhancements:"
Not to be overly-pedantic, but isn't OOo based On StarOffice...?
StarOffice developers claim better Microsoft Office compatibility with every new release, but like all programs that are not Microsoft Word, Writer will never convert every single document perfectly.
Hm. So is the writer implying that Word perfectly converts every single WORD document? Because that's totally orthogonal to my experience.
I heard Hexus has a review up of the new staroffice too...
Sorry to ask that, but why does editors always have to mention OSTG when quoting from their sites? Is there a reason or its just another annoying "Slashdot hates Microsoft" kind of thing?
>
Is it necessary to disclose such potential conflicts of interest in so surley a manner? These clarifications are not a "favor" for the uninitiated, they are made in the interests of full disclosure; standards that all good reporting must adhere to.
I like OpenOffice on platforms for which it was designed to work (Win32, Linux), but it uses so many non-portable Linuxisms that it runs extremely poorly to not at all on OpenBSD, even with Linux emulation and Linux-style /proc enabled. That is to say that it runs, but consumes far too much memory and crashes frequently. And I'm too lazy to try patches from NetBSD pkgsrc or FreeBSD ports, so right now I've been using AbiWord and gnumeric in place of OO. They are fine, but don't do Office formats as well, and AbiWord generates really lousy postscript, which means that anything I print comes out looking like shit.
/proc, or not checking return values of functions that can fail, or making generally unsafe assumptions that just don't happen to come up on Linux. That's a sign of bad code. In defense of OO, it is fine to work with where it does work, and in some cases I like the UI better than MS Office. The best I can say is that it's come a long way since StarOffice 5, which ran poorly, even on systems on which it was designed to run.
(Please don't make this into a question of Linux vs BSD or free vs propriertary OS, that's not the point I'm trying to make.)
From a usability perspective I like OpenOffice, but I wish it were more portable. In my mind, if a program uses too many Linuxisms that don't hold on other Unix-like systems and require non-trivial patches to port, it is a good sign that the code is poorly written. I.E. it's doing stupid things like relying on Linux-specific values in
yeah but does it work on lin... nevermind
Oh well. At least it doesn't hit Hexus' servers again.
I run Fedora Core 4 on an AMD 64 laptop. I had problems with OpenOffice not recognizing my JVM. After some research, I found out that OO.o is a 32 bit application and will not recognize/work with 64 bit JVMs. I installed a 32 bit JVM and was able to get OO.o to recognize it. Since Star Office is based on OO.o, I assume the problem the author had with SO and the Java installer is similar.
I wrote a more detailed article on getting OO.o to work with Java on 64 bit platforms, it can be found here
Expert Java EE Consulting
You keep using that word but I don't think you know what it means!
I think it is just tounge in cheek. The disclosure is there for those that want it, and the humor is there for those of us that need it. Remember, Slashdot has to compete for return visits with places like Fark and Kiro5hun.
Click here or here.
We tried the "open source initiative" here.
StarOffice, although complete, is too different from MS Office. It's not that people can't use StarOffice as efficiently as they can use MS Office...they simply do not want to. It was difficult to get anyone to take it seriously. Even though every single feature of MS-Office that they actually use is in there, they were hell-bent on refusing to use it because of the features StarOffice lacks that they never use.
Talk about stifling oneself.
My ZooLoo
Clipart is a bane on our society. The average lame-ass user puts them onto every poster and leaflet they make, otherwise fine (unless they used MS Wordart) making them look appallingly bad. Of course, now everyone thinks my designs are professional (I can charge for theme even!) just because I either get real images from elsewhere or don't use any rather than crappy little cartoons.
Who is Newsforge owned by, for those of us who have been initiated (especially us Nazis)?
Surely, Sun will offer SO8 for Solaris, Windows, and Linux, and although the article referenced is a review of the new product on Linux, this seems misaligned.
Perhaps the article should have considered a broader perspective of the new application than on a single platform.
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Take OpenOffice as an example, the startup time scales QUADRATICALLY with the version number:
Starting OOdraw on my laptop:
69 secs for opening oodraw2 (1.9.126)
21 secs for opening oodraw (1.1.4)
So (2.0/1.1)^2 = 3.3, and 69s/21s = 3.3
Seriously, I love linux for the fact that I can use 'old hardware', but why do I have to wait QUADRATICALLY longer to start the same basic application?
I'll be sticking with Openoffice 1.1 over OO2 or Staroffice8 thank you very much.
Each new version of StarOffice seems to have more dependencies on Sun's Java. This is not good for OpenOffice.
It's not Java, per se, that's the problem. It's the dependency of open source software on closed source software, the evil that Stallman always warns about. You don't want someone to be in a position where they can cut off your air supply.
Since NewsForge and Slashdot are owned by the same entity (OSTG), some people might think there is reporting bias. Disclosure helps keep reporters honest.
Look at his lack of funny bone.
> but like all programs that are not Microsoft Word, Writer will never convert every single [Word] document perfectly.
Pardon me for playing grammar nazi, but you have a subordinate clause there (highlighted) which adds no information to the sentence, and, in fact, can actually confuse and mislead people. It's like saying, "Carol, like all people that don't have blue eyes, needed oxygen to breathe." This can leave people with the mistaken impression that people with blue eyes don't need oxygen to breathe, or, in your case, with the even more laughable notion that programs which are Microsoft Word will convert every single document perfectly.
I know I'm going to get slapped with troll, but I am seriously "what did i miss?"
a a07adc092f578f95a3
Anyone else notice that Star Office's Menus and Toolbars are strikingly close to MS Office 2003? Down to the names and order of icon placement in the toolbars. http://www.newsforge.com/blob.pl?id=a2c2239ed1854
I think the anti-ms crowd is intellectually dishonest not to point this out. If/whenever MS pulls something like that you guys scream from the roof tops. Why is it different when its done to MS? Is your argument principled or not? Or is it simply anything but MS? If that is the case, your stance takes us down a more dangerous road than only MS.
I know someone is going to scream its not the case. For those people, click on the above link and open Word 2k3. But if that's not enough then how about this for example; What happens if/when StarOffice 9.0 gets rid of the File menus and goes to the ribbon design model that MS is using with the next Office? Will that be acceptable too? I mean, I guess copying is the nicest form of flattery, but... well. go head, I'm bracing for the modding.
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Our company uses MS Office period. After reading about OpenOffice on Slashdot I thought I'd try it out for myself. So I thought I'd see how it handled our system spec doc. About 250 pages with graphics, nothing too clever in there but in MS Word format.
Well, I fired OO up and loaded the file. What normally takes say 10 seconds with Word took over 15 mins! I assumed that this was a one time hit converting from MS Office format, so I saved the document in OO native format so I would subsequently time opening from the native format. Took 15 mins to save the bloody thing and the same to open it again.
For us this product isn't an option. Its pathetic at loading/saving when compared to Office.
Might be OK for small doc but for us it just doesn't cut it.
First, just to clarify: StarOffice is proprietary. It would not qualify as "open source" unless the OSI changed their definition of that term to let it in.
Second, I'd like to learn of the specific complaints they have.
As this pertains to switching to an open source program—OpenOffice.org: perhaps as OpenOffice.org is used in more schools it will become more commonplace to know how to work with OO.o, then your office can eventually hire people who are accustomed to OO.o to replace the workers who insist on the proprietary alternative programs from Microsoft.
Digital Citizen
2. StarOffice has a nicer GUI that Sun has not backported into OOo
Hrm... Based on the linked screen shots I'd say it's pretty much the same as OO.o Beta 2, which I've been using for months.
Does anybody have any clarification on this?
Posting outside the realms of the /. group think.. I think what you meant to say is:
"Microsoft Office is teh suxxors; not compatible with itself, only reason people use it is because they are used to it and they are idiots who don't know what they really want (yadda yadda). Star Office, being the parent of Open Office is clearly better because it's Open Source!."
Whew, aren't you glad I saved you from that potentially damaging line of thinking?
http://www.newsoftheday.com/algore
I always find it weird when I read that an office can't switch to a more stable or less-expensive alternative to MS Office because people "don't want to". I wonder if the employees get Porsches for their business travel because they "dont want to" drive Toyotas.
The article says release date is mid October. However reading my NYTimes today page B7, it says that StarOffice 8 will be released 09/27/05 or Tuesday. Below is (reg required) url, then the article. So, time will tell. Lets watch Sun's site Tuesday.
h tml?oref=login&pagewanted=print
Thanks,
Jim Burke
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/26/business/26sun.
New Sun Software to Work With Microsoft
By LAURIE J. FLYNN
Published: September 26, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 - Sun Microsystems is hoping to steal market share from the Microsoft Corporation with the release on Tuesday of a new version of its business software collection, StarOffice, with improved compatibility with Microsoft Office.
StarOffice 8, which includes a spreadsheet, word processor, database and presentation software, allows users to import and export Microsoft Office files and to use Office macros, the tiny chunks of code that automate specific tasks.
Improving StarOffice's ability to work with Microsoft software is considered critical to expanding Sun's reach within companies that already use Microsoft products.
The release, which is the first upgrade to StarOffice in about two years, comes 18 months after the two companies announced a development partnership as well as an agreement not to sue each other over patent disputes. But Sun executives said most of the new compatibility features were in development at the request of some of Sun's largest customers even before Sun reached an accord with Microsoft.
The retail price of StarOffice 8 is $99.95, though the program can be downloaded for $69.95. For corporate customers, Sun offers a per-user price of $35. The company, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is also expanding StarOffice's sales through retailers.
StarOffice is the first commercial suite to support the OpenDocument format, an increasingly popular open-source approach to sharing files among computers, which is not supported by Microsoft. The format is being adopted by governments and other agencies attracted to the lower costs and independence of open-source programs.
Massachusetts, for example, announced last week that its state offices would use only those software programs that conform to OpenDocument, which was developed by the open-source standards body known as Oasis. That decision essentially locks out Microsoft, whose Office program stores files in so-called XML and other formats.
Massachusetts officials said the state government there would save millions of dollars by using only OpenDocument programs, in large part because those programs tend to cost less and are compatible with a range of inexpensive open-source programs. Officials there also said they felt it was critical they remain "sovereign" rather than be locked into a specific company. Several European governments are also considering mandating the use of programs based on OpenDocument.
Is anyone using WordPerfect any more? I'm not disparaging the product BTW (I used it for years from when it was first available on Data General AOS/VS machines through v5.1 on SOD, er, DOS boxes) but it seems to me that most organisations dispensed with WP years ago...
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You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -Inigo Montoya The Princess Bride