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.'"

Comments

Ask That Question Again

[photomonkey]

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.

Obvious

[LowSNR]

StarOffice includes some proprietary components like clip-art graphics, fonts, templates and tools for Microsoft Office migration. I'd say they just answered their own question. Google wants to court MS Office users. Is this a surprise in any way?

Re:Isn't it obvious?

[jolyonr]

Either that or some kind of favour for a favour. And exactly what that involves I really don't want to know.

Jolyon

The reason? Who cares!

[El Lobo]

They sure have their reasons. As a company, I'm sure Google can see above stupid ideological reasons (Open vs Close). Many people forget that Google is a company and profit IS their number one goal. So they should not be discarding the best of 2 products just because there are some propietary components....

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.

People don't want choices

[Asmor]

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.

Re:Isn't it obvious?

[tha_mink]

'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.' Ahem...isn't that enough? Tools for MS Office integration being a must_have these days and all....

Re:Google Docs Backend for StarOffice

[watchingeyes]

I'm hoping they do (I would switch to StarOffice in an instant, even if I have to run it through Parallels). However, there have been other things in the past that have seemed blatantly obvious to me but that Google has either taken 3 years to do or else have never bothered doing, things that seem obvious to me...

(Group chat in gchat, web clip for igoogle vis-a-vis OS X Leopard [I actually wanted this BEFORE Apple even introduced it], desktop gmail application that provides identical functionality instead of having to use it through clients with crappy interfaces, Google calendar auto-syncing between mobile devices; pcs and the service itself, desktop client for Google notebook with support for offline use [Google gears support would be less than ideal, but would probably suffice]....and, well, the list goes on and on, so I'm not hedging any bets on what Google will do).

Re:Isn't it obvious?

[jlarocco]

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.