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Google Pack Adds StarOffice
derrida writes The GoogleOS Blog has the news that Google Pack, their collection of applications, now includes StarOffice. 'It will be interesting to see why Google didn't choose to include OpenOffice.org, the primary difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org being that StarOffice includes some proprietary components like clip-art graphics, fonts, templates and tools for Microsoft Office migration.'"
From the summary...
"StarOffice includes...tools for Microsoft Office migration"
I think that they suspect that they can wean people off some of the Office stuff rather than just forcing them to go cold turkey.
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Either that or some kind of favour for a favour. And exactly what that involves I really don't want to know.
Jolyon
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
Purist may puke by just thinking about this, but sane persons would just forget funny ideals and get the work done by chosing the tool that fits better for this case.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
I just so happen to disagree. Let's deal this one out, IRC style!
*Anonymous_Coward slaps Anonymous_Coward around a bit with a large trout
Did I miss something? I allways thoght that StarOffice is a commertial product - One you actualy pay for - $69.95 U.S to be precise.
So how does google do it then?
Martin
To
I'm going to give the summary the benefit of the doubt and assume the question was intended as why they don't include both OO.org and StarOffice.
The answer, of course, is that people don't want choices. Be happy that Joe Schmoe might even consider installing some weird program that's not made by Microsoft, don't expect him to decide whether he wants OpenOffice.org ("What is that, some website?") or StarOffice.
Google chose what they thought would be most useful to most technically-disinclined people.
You'll have that sometimes...
It's just a corporate cuddle party
Lemmings do as lemmings told.
For home users? All they'd really need is "Save in Word format", and OpenOffice has that.
I do agree that the proprietary components probably tipped the scale towards StarOffice, just not the one you pointed out.
Maybe not
Or maybe they recognize that some PHBs won't go with "free", and StarOffice has the needed "we can get multiple licensed copies for a fee" thing going ...?
What google did wasn't evil - they're supporting StarOffice, and this will help continue to develop the product. Competition is good, mkay? :-)
What does that have to do with Google distributing StarOffice?
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
*lollerskaters*
My previous hospital (a very large tertiary-care facility) made the switch from Microsoft Office to Staroffice in late 2005. I had a decidedly mixed experience.
.ppt and ooimpress; when presenting to an audience of hundreds you can't all of a sudden have text flowing off the slide or the .bmp come up black. If I wanted to share something (most everybody else still runs Powerpoint) I had to doublecheck the whole thing prior to doing the slideshow. There were also many small incompatibilites with Excel importing.
At first, I thought it was the coolest thing around -- can use opendocument formats and pdf. Unfortunately, the administration set them up on Windows 2000 workstations instead of switching to Linux. After several weeks of use, for the majority of tasks there was *no* difference (typing memos / patient letters, simple spreadsheet stuff.)
However, for anything more advanced (pivot tables) I found myself relearning stuff (StarOffice calls it a DataPilot). This wasn't too bad.
My biggest gripe was the small incompatibilities between
Openoffice / Staroffice is also definitively slower than Microsoft Office on startup and for most tasks I used. After awhile most doc's / staff members griped, "I am just saving the hospital money that I would never have seen anyway, why do I have a headache using this generic stuff when we could just have the real thing?"
Don't get me wrong; I use Linux exclusively at home (except for one WinXP box for VPN to work through a Juniper client that is a pain under Linux). I use OpenOffice at home.
However, for the enterprise the average user doesn't care that the IT department will save a few hundred thousand dollars a year -- they just want what is better or faster, or lacking that, what they already know how to use. The average user also doesn't care about the open source philosophy that you and I do.
The hospital still uses Staroffice (at least when I left) and you could request a workstation to be equipped with Microsoft Office if needed. I wish that the hospital had gone with Linux workstations, with Citrix / virtualization of apps that are Windows only, which would have given the clear benefits of Linux (stability, no spyware installed, etc.) with Staroffice.
The short story is - Staroffice in itself was slower and (from the average user's perspective) not as good as Microsoft Office, the current standard, and was perceived as an inferior product. I *really* think that had this change been bundled with a switch to Linux on the desktop, which would have enhanced the user experience (no more popups / junkware slowing down the system) it would have been a great thing; but by itself it was not that useful. Again, just one user's experience, but this was a large corporation with thousands of workstations.
- Anybody else have similar experience with ditching Microsoft halfway in the corporate setting?
Slashdotter, ID #101. UIDs are in binary, right?
...my coworkers refused to switch to OpenOffice, even though it was completely free. The dealbreaker? lack of clip-art, templates, etc. It's more likely than you think. Most of us might not care about silly things like that, but most people that I've run into tend to rely heavily on clip-art and templates.
Google includes more featureful equivalent of software package in download pack.
Well I, for one, have just pissed myself in fear.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
I am guessing that Google plans on using the Star Office blogging add-on to bridge the gap between desktop app and web-app.
Imagine writing a document and telling it to save to your Google account online and then being able to work with it remotely via Google Docs and blogger (also owned by Google).
Then again, maybe Sun has an aqua-native Mac OS X port that they have been secretly working on? That would make it much more attractive too.
Eric Schmidt is no dope. Seeing a Google-Sun collaboration does make me think of all of the old Apple-Sun rumors. And, Schmidt is on the Apple Board.
Basically, Star Office is OpenOffice.org + extras. So, if he could make a deal to distribute that for free, why bother with Star Office - "extras" at all?
I went to pack.google.com, figuring that since I have a gmail account I am on good terms with those folks and could join up and use some of this cool stuff.
The window in Seamonkey on my NetBSD machine came up saying 'Google Pack requires Windows XP or Vista'. It also provided a friendly link telling me where Google Pack for the Mac could be found. WTF?? They don't even know how to identify a browser string and COMPLETELY cut me out? I maintain one machine here with Windows 2000 on it, which should be enough, one would think. When did Google turn into an operation to promote 'upgrades to XP'???
Microsoft says legacy (serial/parallel) ports are bad. They don't obfuscate the hardware enough.
This isn't targeted at home users, it's targeted at business users. Sure, home users are welcome to use it too, and importing/exporting Word and Excel is generally good enough in that case. The StarOffice migration tools are very business-oriented:
p rise_tools.jsp#Setup
http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/enter
The big one from that list is the macro migration wizard. There's also an analysis wizard that examines your documents and calculates migration costs and risks. For a business with thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of MS Office documents, these kinds of tools are essential. If the users (or worse, the IT department) had to manually migrate their MS Office docs to ODF, the project would be dead right there. That could be a deal-breaker even in a small business, and certainly is for a large business.
Both OpenOffice and StarOffice are equally bloated thanks to Sun anyways...
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
I would love to try this out, but as my tiny, high-rpm C: drive is dedicated to my bloated, monopolistic OS, there is no room for anything else. When, oh WHEN will the Google Gods add a path option in the advanced options?
So what if they did? I'm not saying that they did...in-fact, I highly doubt it. But would it really matter? Consumers are getting a paid-for office suite for free. I don't care if Eric Schmidt and Jon Shwartz got together for a crazy orgy sex fest to put this deal in place, it still benefits consumers.
http://watching-eyes.blogspot.com/
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
Or, try powerpoint. OO's presenter or whatever isn't bad, but PowerPoint ... well, easily looks far more professional.
And frankly, I think a lot of businesses would rather pay for Office because it allows them to have professional looking documents much quicker (i.e., templates and such).
Whether or not "we" need it is irrelevant; Microsoft has succeeded in producing and marketing software that is somewhat easy and efficient to use for.. well, offices. Until Linux/OSS productivity packs like OpenOffice can achieve the same, and well, many people will still prefer Microsoft Office.
And it's not just because it's what they are used to. People are also used to their old cars, but a lot of them want new ones :) Especially if their old one had random problems all the time... but if the new one was really hard to figure out, they might just rather have the old one with random problems. Shoot, I just used a car analogy.
"It will be interesting to see why Google didn't choose to include OpenOffice.org ... clip-art graphics, fonts, templates and tools for Microsoft Office migration."
My guess is that they chose StarOffice because it has clip-art graphics, fonts, templates, and tools for MS Office migration. You know, glaringly trivial shit for most users.
Mod Parent Up!
If Google integrated on-line and off-line storage for documents in an easy to use package, that might just be the feature that gets people off of Microsoft Office. Combined off-line and on-line storage might be enough of a feature to force a paradigm shift.
Star Office 8 at Amazon.com:
#1 in Linux sales.
#28 in Windows Office Suites.
Where it is sandwiched between Upgrade MS Office Pro at $270 and Word Perfect 11 at $30.
I'll wager you didn't know there were 28 runners in the Windows Office Suite-stakes.
#1 in Windows Office Suites and #1 in Amazon software sales is MS Office Home and Student 2007 at $110 with a three-seat license. Retail boxed. No academic ID required.
Pre-orders for Apple's iWork 8 for the Mac put it at #8 in Amazon software sales. MS Student Teacher Office 2004 for the Mac is #2.
MS Office holds 17 of the top 25 positions in Windows Office Suites.
OpenOffice.org 2.2 is #20 in Windows Office Suites at 49 cents on CD new and used.
The last time I looked, which was about a week back, Star Office 8 ranked around #650 in Amazon software sales. MS Works 8 around #50.
Its all about getting the Sun name and brand out there, making the name known by non-technical people; making it more accessible rather than it being viewed as the domain of the purely UNIX geeks.
I'll wish Sun the best of luck. But I don't think it is going to happen.
Why would they pull this instead of pushing Google Docs?
You can not actually read the article; that is so unfair. Cheater!!!
No it won't. It's trivial at best, especially since the answer came with the question: more good stuff. It's an obvious choice that makes the question alone lame, and with the answer attached ridiculous.
Slow news day?
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
StarOffice 8 might have received considerably more QA testing that OpenOffice and has some value added content, but two years of bug fixes and enhancements say OpenOffice is better.
The situation is a bit like Netscape was with Mozilla. If I recall, Netscape 6 was based off Mozilla 0.7 or 0.8. But by the time it had been tested and released, Mozilla was already several versions beyond. As long as you were prepared to trade off stability, you were better off sticking with the open source version because it was usually faster and had more features.
We have avoided MS Office for some time although it is used extensively in the NHS. We get on OK. In fact most of our letters are done using a small custom program I called "Letters Outward" when I wrote it last century. We depend on one DOS application which I've not been able to run in emulation[1], so we require a session on a Windows box for each copy of that.
[1] unlike the police department in Kiev - I think their Clipper ap was rather smaller.
Excel macros at all in StarOffice. I've been asking them to support this feature for 6 freakin' years. If they can't, then we need to move along...nothing to see here....
"Google Pack". Gayest. Name. Ever. Only a homo could have thought that that name would be a good idea.
I hate to say this, but I can't stand the google pack. I hate the fact that it leaves an icon running in the system tray ALL THE TIME. I hate that it BOTHERS you all the time "ooo this update is out" "ooo you should add THIS feature". I think the idea is great. Put this in, install a bunch of good useful stuff in one go.
Along the same vein is the Google Toolbar, which I really like for people running MSIE, but I really HATE haveing the "GoogleUpdateNotifier" processing running ALL THE TIME whether MSIE and the google toolbar is showing or not. Guys, write code so it doesn't need to run ALL THE TIME (this means YOU, Apple and 'IPODUpdateServeice", I don't even OWN an ipod, and you won't let me disable this).
Awesome, hopefully this will spark more people into checking out Star Office and its cousin Open Office.
Klingon Software is not released, it escapes, inflicting terrible damage onto the enemy as it does
That question you just answered in the blurb.
How am I supposed to come up with a +5 Insightful about Open Office when it's already mentioned in the article title? THANKS A LOT!!
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
WTF?! How is this flamebait :S
Uh, no. Google pack appears to be very much targeted at home users.
Unless you get to spend all your time at work playing with Google Earth, fucking around with RealPlayer, using Skype, IMing your friends, and playing with photos.
In which case, I want to work with you.
Maybe not
Google pack as a whole may be aimed primarily at home users, but Star Office is what we're talking about here. You can probably also expect Google Pack to become more business-oriented over time. Google's deal to buy Postini is going to bring enterprise-quality email security, archiving, etc., to Gmail's commercial offerings, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some tie-ins between Google Office and StarOffice, too.
:)
As an aside, the Postini deal is quite a shot across the bow of the SS Redmond. I was a FrontBridge employee in 2005 when Microsoft acquired it and renamed it as Exchange Hosted Services. Postini was FrontBridge's number one competitor in those days (and still is now, I'm sure). I expect chairs were seen on orbital trajectories in Redmond when the news broke that Google was buying Postini
Image editor in StarOffice is not really usable for something else than vectors. They could include something small but powerfull like Pixel image editor from http://www.kanzelsberger.com/ . It's cheap and perfect alternative to Photoshop. It runs on Macs, Windows and even Linux.
I always thought google was trying to get people use google docs and spreadsheets. Though limited in some ways, i thought it can only get better because they can add more features incrementally.
http://www.sun.com/software/star/openoffice/faq.xm l
StarOffice Pack Google Ads
Get Google software for the Mac
www.google.com/mac They still don't get it right.
Want to hear the voice of GOD? cat
According to what appears to be someone under Google's control: http://groups.google.com/group/pack-howto/browse_f rm/thread/ae14a8881ea3505
I take this to be accurate, since the bona fides for this post are:
I guess that that in Google Pack's Terms of Use http://pack.google.com/intl/en/eula_print_us.html? hl=en&gl=us
"non-commercial" does NOT mean "not at work"Well, over at http://www.groklaw.net/ PJ says legalese is dangerous for laypeople, because it LOOKS like plain english, but isn't.
My humble (IANAL) guess is that Google would have an extremely tough time causing legal problems for anybody using Google Pack at work. I'd think that the most they could do is say that the above was wrong, and politely ask a company to stop using it. The "terms and conditions" are in legalese and the explanation is in plain english. I doubt regular humans could be faulted for taking google at their simplified explanation's word, when there are so many reasons to believe it's legitimate.
I don't understand the difference either. Perhaps "non-commercial" means 'not reselling'? In any case, I'd be very comfortable saying under oath: "Your honor, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't understand intellectual property contract law, so I relied on Google's plain language explanation of their license which said it's OK for work and home."
I'm installing Google Pack on my office network tomorrow.
Just to post a backup so it's stored off google's site: #3 is the post under discussion
************* blank lines and crap removed to make slashcode happy:********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
The only reasonable explanation I can see is that Google means the same for Star Office as the above.
hanzie.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
He's right, you know. I'm a bit annoyed by the "Genuine"/"Activation" requirement, but apart from that, it's nice to have a place where you know you can find stuff for a tigh spot.
Google Pack: hide icon
Also, try googling "disable ipodservice".
Granted, the iPodService thing shouldn't be so hard to turn off, but come on. If you're knowledgeable enough to care, you ought ot be able to do something about. Otherwise, get Winamp 2.95.