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StarOffice 8 May Be MS Office Killer
UltimaGuy wrote to mention an eWeek article that seemed topical, given the recent discussions about the OpenDocument format. They're running a piece discussing StarOffice 8's killer position as an alternative to Office. From the article: "However, whether StarOffice 8 can succeed as a wholesale or partial replacement for Microsoft Office will depend on the organization thinking about making the switch. Several improvements in StarOffice 8 are aimed directly at improving compatibility with Microsoft Office-formatted documents, but converting complex documents between the two suites' formats will in some cases require tweaking to preserve document appearance. In addition, while StarOffice 8 can be extended through macros and scripting, much like Microsoft Office can, these extensions won't migrate to Microsoft Office without being rewritten. However, StarOffice ships with a Macro Migration wizard that will aid in the migration of Microsoft Visual Basic macros to the StarOffice Basic macro language. There's also a Document Analysis wizard that helps determine where trouble spots might lie in the transition to a StarOffice format."
Star Office 8 will make a wonderful contender that will be in Massachusetts govt list of consideration. This will shut up those who thinks you can't live without Microsoft Office or those who thinks OpenOffice is not there yet. Best part is it supports OpenDocument too. I feel OpenOffice 2.0 and Star Office 8 will give MSOffice a run for it's money. MS days are numbered.
Yep. Unfortunately I haven't seen any pigs learn to fly, so I have my doubts in this too. Sure it may take away some market share. Maybe enough to make them comfortable and feel like one of the big boys. But I see them gone in a few years. The fact is that they will always lag behind in a copy-cat mode of trying to keep up with Microsoft's latest features. I've said this before and will say it again:
The day that everyone finds some fantastic new feature that an open source app has, that does not exist in MS software or that of some other commercial vendor, that is the day it will take off like wildfire. However, like any product, it needs marketing to bring it to the masses. For a while Firefox had tabbed browsing, nice plugins and stability going for it to feed growth. Since then there has been nothing new and fantastic about it and instead has had issues with insecure plugins, rolling bug fixes that involve a reinstall rather than a simple update, has become as bloated and heavy as what it tried to replace, and nowhere have I seen another NYT advert. I would not be surprised if market share declined now as people forget all about it. I'll happily continue to use Firefox as long as they dont fsck it up. But Firefox's innovation has slid, though the Lightning project may just boost it along again.
That's just one product, and one of the major successes of the internet. Star Office? Not even in the same ballpark.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."