StarOffice Dropped From Google Pack

Barence writes "Sun's StarOffice suite has been mysteriously dropped from the Google Pack of free software. The office suite has been axed without any warning or explanation on the Google site. Is Google trying to drive more people towards its own online suite of office applications? Or has it been stung into action by Steve Ballmer's recent comment that Microsoft Office faces stronger competition from StarOffice than it does Google Docs and Spreadsheet?"

Comments

Re:If there's one thing I wouldn't do...

[rodrigoandrade]

Unless your business strategy involves some future negotiations with Microsoft.

Why not OpenOffice?

[Shin-LaC]

The answer might be obvious to the people involved in the project, but as an external observer I'm left to wonder why they were using StarOffice in the first place. Why not OpenOffice?

Re:Why not OpenOffice?

[David Gerard]

"In particular, Sun Microsystems licensed information about the format of Office files from Microsoft, to gain better compatibility."

[citation needed]

It's obvious....

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

Google Apps. Google's only obligation since becoming a publicly traded company (GOOG) is this...

Making a profit for shareholders

Including StarOffice does nothing to that end.

Honestly why is anyone surprised when Google acts like a real company?

Re:It's obvious....

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Honestly why is anyone surprised when Google acts like a real company?

Because they seldom do. Most of their services and applications are for free. Plus, if you are a heavy user of adblocker, you don't see their adds either. So its easy to forget that they aren't a non-for profit at times.

Support

[dreamchaser]

When an enterprise deploys office software they want at least some kind of support from the vendor.

Re:Support

[bmo]

What support?

Really, what support from the vendor? Have you /read/ your EULA for any software you've used? Ever?

YOYO.

You're On Your Own.

Every EULA should have "YOYO" printed at the top of the first page (typically of dozens) or just say "You're On Your Own" in 28 point type in the middle of a blank page. It would greatly simplify things.

That support myth is so old. I don't know which myth is older, that one or the "someone to sue" myth.

Seriously, stop repeating this bullshit.

Re:Support

[remmelt]

Is this very different from open source though? You can generally get good support from a mailing list if you ask the right questions. You could also buy some support at the developer's company or another OSS support firm.

The major difference is that for all the companies without enough clout to get something done at their software suppliers, support is generally nil, where anyone can ask questions on a mailing list or buy decent support.

Re:Support

[jellomizer]

The EULA is the legal responsibility to not support the product. Then you have the real reason to support the product. The fact that you paid for the current version and if they do not properly support the software chances are they will not purchase the next version. Hence future money in their pocket. Even the Mighty Microsoft needs to keep good relations with their customers. Even though they may have a monopoly on Office tools and OS's it is not a strong one. OpenOffice google docs, etc... May be good enough so if Microsoft really screws its customers it could loose its control. So if you have a big customer like GE and they request a feature they will probably support it. That being said there are a lot of people out there and many are very poorly trained consumers which makes getting what you want harder.

Bad Consumer Types.

1. The slave: They will pay the price because they think they don't have a choice. Nor will they put effort in finding alternatives. They may request a feature but the company realizes they are stuck thus no insensitive to give them the extra mile.
2. The Bully: These guys think they are suave capitalist, These guys call the support line with Anger and Guns a blazing. They think because the underpaid support guy is trying to be nice to him he will get his unreasonable request done sooner, not realizing once he hangs up his request goes into the crackpot list. These guys will never be happy and they may or may not purchase again however they are to unpredictable to support .
3. Hostage taker: They threaten they will not pay unless they get what they want, even if it is outside the contract. Thus not paying there forth a bad customer thus no support.
4. 
    

However good consumers are well aware what is out there. And are able to be nice enough to the company and employees to make them want to do business with you however they know if you are not satisfied there is a small gap until you switch. and if you are satisfied you can be an excellent customer and ally of the company.

Don't get fooled being a large company helps a lot as you have a lot of money to back it up thus allowing you be a bad consumer and they will still kiss you ass. But if you are a small customer even if you are demanding you may have more voice then you thought.

Now under Open Source Projects. You can put in requests for features or fixes. They may or may not get fixed, depends on who is maintaining the project. But for a lot of them, if the code isn't fun to make (a lot of features require a lot boring coding) or you just don't want to do it. It may not get in. Then they say if you want it code it yourself. Not caring the amount of time it takes to read and follow someone else code, especially for more complex applications. Or the person who needs the application isn't a programmer. And doesn't want to pay for someone to fix it. (costing on average 150% more to hire someone else to fix the problem then it takes to get the guy who made it originally to fix it.)

Re:Support

[Fujisawa Sensei]

On a mailing list you might not get a response back, or the response might not work and then they say sorry, can't help you. With a support contract, there's a method of escalation. I'm not saying that it works all the time, but it can sometimes help.

Sounds to me like you're saying that they're both as uncertain as each other - but I can pay for one? Wow, I'm sold.

I guess issue escalation processes and NDAs aren't worth anything to you.

Doesn't make sense

[toxygen01]

How in the first place could have been staroffice included in "Google Pack of free software" when it's proprietary?

Why not axe Norton first?

[MazzThePianoman]

Forget about StarOffice, axe Norton Security Scan. I am wondering why they are having anything to do with Norton who makes the most bloated, resource wasting, performance sucking, software on the planet. There are better solutions out there that don't kill the usability of your computer.

How were they giving it away in the first place?

[sorak]

How were they giving it away in the first place? If you go to Sun's website and try to download Star Office normally, it's $70. So how was Google able to give it away for free, and why isn't "sun wanted cash" a possible explanation for Google dropping the product?

Some user backlash

[nurb432]

Ya, for about 5 minutes. The attention span of a typical user today is a 30 minute sitcom.

Give it a couple of weeks and people will forget it was even an option.

Sun's deal with MS probably prompted this

[hakawati]

Sun just signed an agreement to distribute the MS Search bar with it's java download http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/10/sun_stows_ms_search_on_java/ I would guess this has a lot to do with Google not promoting the StarOffice suite anymore.