StarOffice 8
Taking the Office Suite Showdown to a Heightened Level Version 8 to Debut in July
In much the same way that Netscape and Mozilla have been fighting the good fight against Microsoft Internet Explorer, Sun has challenged the House of Gates in the arena of the big "office" suite.
Sun's product, StarOffice, has not yet stolen away significant market share from Microsoft Office, which continues to dominate. But with its latest beta release, Sun has announced its intention to continue its push into the market.
The new version, StarOffice 8 Beta, has been designed with a focus on integrating better with Microsoft Office. It offers easier import and export functions, new toolbars that are more user friendly, and a new mail merge wizard, among other tools. Now, let's be realistic: Even the best of tweaks won't shake Microsoft from its dominant position, which analysts estimate accounts for some 90 percent of the market for office suites.
But all these improvements, taken together, should at least give StarOffice a boost against its Goliath-like competitor.
Already the leading office productivity suite on Linux and the Solaris operating system, as well as the leading alternative office suite to Windows, StarOffice delivers a range of tools based on the open source OpenOffice.org office suite first introduced to the open source community by Sun in 2000. Versions of StarOffice since v6.0 have been built using the OpenOffice.org source, APIs, file formats, and reference implementation, and continue to build upon the open source office suite's foundation.
StarOffice includes word processing and spreadsheet tools, presentation functions, drawing tools, and database capabilities. It can additionally export to PDF and to the Macromedia Flash format. It also includes a software development kit, a macro recorder, and support for complex text layouts.
Price continues to be a major factor in favor of StarOffice, which costs about $80 for the small office edition, as compared to the Microsoft product, which retails for about $500. The Sun product also offers a far greater range of cross-platform support. Whereas Office 2003 will run only on Windows 2000 and XP, StarOffice supports Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP, as well as Linux and Solaris.
These factors have helped to put StarOffice on the map and to keep it there since its release in June 2000. With so many pundits these days predicting the imminent arrival of Linux, open source, and/or Solaris as significant market drivers, many are looking to the 8 Beta release of StarOffice as a potential major turning point.
What's New in Version 8
So, what's new in StarOffice 8?
By far the most significant enhancement promises to be the application's interoperability with Microsoft Office. Sun has acknowledged this as a shortcoming in prior versions, and it's a big one, since poor interoperability can hinder the efforts of those looking to transition away from the Microsoft product.
The new version addresses the issue in a number of ways. First, Sun says it has revised and improved upon its existing import and export filters for handling all Microsoft Office documents. Further, it now should be easier than ever to import password-protected Microsoft Word and Excel documents. In addition, all custom animation effects and slide transitions from Microsoft PowerPoint are now available in StarOffice.
While StarOffice 8 Beta has its own XML-based file format, every StarOffice application that has a Microsoft Office equivalent can read and write the MS Office file formats seamlessly. Text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, charts, and so forth can all be moved easily from Office to StarOffice. The same holds true for the XML file format of Word and Excel, which StarOffice 8 now provides import and export filters for.
Sun has cleaned up StarOffice's toolbars, too. While still highly functional, the revised toolbars are more usable, displaying only default tools that have been carefully selected, thus cutting down on the clutter.
An improved mail merge wizard promises to ease the sending of form letters, whether in printed form or by email.
Sun has been eager to tout the open-source nature of the product. It says it plans to take a periodic snapshot of the code in the hope that the open-source community will provide contributions that can later be integrated into Sun's product offerings.
The bottom line on StarOffice 8 Beta follows in step with what the user community has been saying of the suite since its introduction. This is a good, solid choice for users on a budget who need access to an effective productivity package. It has all the tools you will need, nicely integrated in an easy-to-use form.
Moreover, the suite's ability to support multiple operating environments will prove a major plus to those running different OSes within their offices or for those looking to transition away from a Windows-based environment.
Technical info
These are the requirements for StarOffice/StarSuite 8:
Solaris: SPARC & x86 Platform Edition
Solaris 8 OS or higher. Solaris 9 is recommended 128 MB RAM 400 MB available hard disk space X-Server with 800 x 600 or higher resolution with 256 colors Gnome 2.0 or higher required for support of assentive technology tools
Linux: Linux kernel version 2.2.13 or higher glibc2 version 2.2.0 or higher Pentium compatible PC 128 MB RAM 350 MB available hard disk space X-Server with 800 x 600 or higher resolution with 256 colors
Windows: Windows 98, ME, 2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), or XP (Please note the discontinuation of support of Windows NT) Pentium compatible PC 128 MB RAM 250 MB available hard disk space 800 x 600 or higher resolution graphic device with 256 colors
Note: Sun decided to end the StarOffice 8 Beta Program on April 7th, 2005. Version 8 will officially be available in July, 2005, at which point a 90-day evaluation version will be available to potential customers at no charge.
