I lost faith in Lotus Smart Suite when IBM bought Lotus and messed with AmiPro. 'Nuff said.
I disagree about the Smart Suite vs. StarOffice comparison. StarOffice 6.0 is much better than any of the Lotus office suites before it. We're all entitled to opinions, likes and dislikes, right?
re: IBM. Of course their commitment is "far stronger." That doesn't mean Sun can't do Linux well. Solaris is the #1 UNIX operating system, according to D.H. Brown (2001) and other reports. But you're right: They're not as strong in the Linux space. And they're incorporating Linux into the fold, while IBM has been going strong with multi-millions worth of R&D in recent Linux development. I'd say IBM should be a bit scared, though, especially when Sun outsells UNIX servers over them -- and they resell Sun servers, including Solaris (soon to be able run Linux, and not just with the lxrun software).
What a wacky world, eh?
Sun did a damn impressive thing: Taking an Office-like product, open sourcing it, helping to form OpenOffice.org and continuing with development of their own commercial release. After all, there are Sun engineers, marketeers, and shareholders who need to see profits in order to continue StarOffice. (And OpenOffice's development would crawl without Sun's continued support and resources.)
I WILL pay for copies of Sun StarOffice 6.0 for my workstations. The 6.0 beta was solid; the elimination of the pseudo-desktop (in favor of individually spawned windows) says Sun listens to their customers\users; and the new XML file format kicks major ass. Check the file sizes, folks.
Applix for Linux: Bah humbug! Corel WordPerfect for Linux: I'm too leery of Corel's track record to count on continued support. KOffice: More power to those developers.
StarOffice 6.0 for Linux: What I need. What I'll buy.
Some things to keep in mind about Sun, though:
-- Sun recently threw its support behind Linux in an uncharacteristic way.
Mind you, they've been doing so since they acquired StarDivision (which had a version of StarOffice for Linux already), launched IPlanet, and acquired Cobalt (the appliance servers that run x86\Linux). Scott McNealy recently took to the stage in the U.K. to say Sun is focused on Linux. I imagine that you can't get support for Sun's Linux release on non-Cobalt hardware. (Sun, are you changing this? What are you planning as a general distro for Linux?) What IS Sun planning for Linux? More than StarOffice? More than those crappy IPlanet products??
-- Sun isn't developing Solaris 9 for Intel. They recently stopped with Solaris 8 for Intel. The SPARC version, yes, though. And Sun is incorporating further Linux compatibility into the SPARC version with Solaris 9.
Could this also mean Sun is releasing an x86 Linux distro down the road with some Solaris compatibility which the user community can latch onto? I doubt it, but with Sun's confusing roadmap for the Intel platform, you wonder. Would Sun bring back Solaris on Intel with Linux under the hood later this year or next (depending on Sun's quarterly gains\financial health), just to give UNIX\Linux users the best of both worlds on cheap x86 hardware? Maybe... Sun does have to maintain a path for future Solaris admins\developers: Start learning on cheap x86 hardware with Solaris\Linux, then graduate to the big iron SPARC platform. You can't tell me Sun hasn't been doing this. (They dropped Solaris Intel because they were having a $hitty year financially. C'mon, Sun. Jump back in. The water is tepid and calm, but swimmable.)
-- What does Sun, StarOffice, OpenOffice and the GNOME development community gain by working closer? A kick-ass workspace and work tools which scream on Solaris... and maybe on Linux. But if I'm running Solaris which runs Linux, too, then I have the best of both worlds. And on cheap SPARC hardware. Just check eBay since the dot-com bombs. There's a lot of good equipment for auction.
Bottom line: Sun needs to make $$. The analysts and brokers need them to make $$. The shareholders demand that they make $$. Let them charge for StarOffice 6.0. Again, I'll buy it for the Linux platform (and love the fact that the Solaris version will still be free).
Now if OpenOffice would get it's ass in gear and build OpenOffice for the Mac platform...
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I lost faith in Lotus Smart Suite when IBM bought Lotus and messed with AmiPro. 'Nuff said. I disagree about the Smart Suite vs. StarOffice comparison. StarOffice 6.0 is much better than any of the Lotus office suites before it. We're all entitled to opinions, likes and dislikes, right? re: IBM. Of course their commitment is "far stronger." That doesn't mean Sun can't do Linux well. Solaris is the #1 UNIX operating system, according to D.H. Brown (2001) and other reports. But you're right: They're not as strong in the Linux space. And they're incorporating Linux into the fold, while IBM has been going strong with multi-millions worth of R&D in recent Linux development. I'd say IBM should be a bit scared, though, especially when Sun outsells UNIX servers over them -- and they resell Sun servers, including Solaris (soon to be able run Linux, and not just with the lxrun software). What a wacky world, eh?
And you want to know why?
Sun did a damn impressive thing: Taking an Office-like product, open sourcing it, helping to form OpenOffice.org and continuing with development of their own commercial release. After all, there are Sun engineers, marketeers, and shareholders who need to see profits in order to continue StarOffice. (And OpenOffice's development would crawl without Sun's continued support and resources.)
I WILL pay for copies of Sun StarOffice 6.0 for my workstations. The 6.0 beta was solid; the elimination of the pseudo-desktop (in favor of individually spawned windows) says Sun listens to their customers\users; and the new XML file format kicks major ass. Check the file sizes, folks.
Applix for Linux: Bah humbug! Corel WordPerfect for Linux: I'm too leery of Corel's track record to count on continued support. KOffice: More power to those developers.
StarOffice 6.0 for Linux: What I need. What I'll buy.
Some things to keep in mind about Sun, though:
-- Sun recently threw its support behind Linux in an uncharacteristic way.
Mind you, they've been doing so since they acquired StarDivision (which had a version of StarOffice for Linux already), launched IPlanet, and acquired Cobalt (the appliance servers that run x86\Linux). Scott McNealy recently took to the stage in the U.K. to say Sun is focused on Linux. I imagine that you can't get support for Sun's Linux release on non-Cobalt hardware. (Sun, are you changing this? What are you planning as a general distro for Linux?) What IS Sun planning for Linux? More than StarOffice? More than those crappy IPlanet products??
-- Sun isn't developing Solaris 9 for Intel. They recently stopped with Solaris 8 for Intel. The SPARC version, yes, though. And Sun is incorporating further Linux compatibility into the SPARC version with Solaris 9.
Could this also mean Sun is releasing an x86 Linux distro down the road with some Solaris compatibility which the user community can latch onto? I doubt it, but with Sun's confusing roadmap for the Intel platform, you wonder. Would Sun bring back Solaris on Intel with Linux under the hood later this year or next (depending on Sun's quarterly gains\financial health), just to give UNIX\Linux users the best of both worlds on cheap x86 hardware? Maybe... Sun does have to maintain a path for future Solaris admins\developers: Start learning on cheap x86 hardware with Solaris\Linux, then graduate to the big iron SPARC platform. You can't tell me Sun hasn't been doing this. (They dropped Solaris Intel because they were having a $hitty year financially. C'mon, Sun. Jump back in. The water is tepid and calm, but swimmable.)
-- What does Sun, StarOffice, OpenOffice and the GNOME development community gain by working closer? A kick-ass workspace and work tools which scream on Solaris... and maybe on Linux. But if I'm running Solaris which runs Linux, too, then I have the best of both worlds. And on cheap SPARC hardware. Just check eBay since the dot-com bombs. There's a lot of good equipment for auction.
Bottom line: Sun needs to make $$. The analysts and brokers need them to make $$. The shareholders demand that they make $$. Let them charge for StarOffice 6.0. Again, I'll buy it for the Linux platform (and love the fact that the Solaris version will still be free).
Now if OpenOffice would get it's ass in gear and build OpenOffice for the Mac platform...
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