Star Office (CD, Linux, server, Open Office)

[southernlady5464]

We've always been able to use Open Office for free. OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

StarOffice is Sun Microsystems' proprietary office suite software package. It is based on the open source OpenOffice.org package, and contains some additional features.

Now, Sun Microsystem and Google have joined to give you Star Office for free.

StarOffice® is available for free Download inside the Google Pack®. The Google Pack® offers a lot of useful software, that makes your day at your PC much safer and comfortable, icluding Anti-Virus software, mediaplayer, PDF-Viewer, VoIP Software and much more - Now Free for you with the Google Pack® - ready for Download.

The Download is absolutely free for you and comes directly from Google® High Speed Servers (this is especially fast and safe)!

What is nice is you can pick what you want to download in the Google Pack. If you only want Star Office, that is all you have to download. Liz

[BrianH]

Have you used Star Office ? Im a great believer in OpenOffice over M$ Office because its free, and functionally very efficent for me.

I always have to stand back when Google gets its hands on anything, be wary or whatever. If you choose to download Star Office, can you avoid downloading Google? I wouldnt want google to farm my information etc, thats why I have the site blocked in my HOST file. I have had several products where google was 'optional', and when i said I didnt want it, it installed anyway.,

[southernlady5464]

Yes, you can avoid downloading anything else in the google pack. It is a pick and chose download.

I do like Openoffice myself. But for those who have always *eyed* Star Office but felt paying for it was out of their budget, here is their chance to actually get it. Liz

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by southernlady5464

StarOffice is Sun Microsystems' proprietary office suite software package. It is based on the open source OpenOffice.org package, and contains some additional features.

Actually, a company called StarDivision developed the Star Office suite back in 1992 or so as a proprietary software package (I've been a Star Office user on OS/2 since Star Office 3.0 for OS/2 was released many years ago, and I also have a copy of StarWriter for DOS which I've used for several years).

When Star Division sold the Star Office package to Sun, Sun turned around and released much of the Star Office source code as open source via the Open Office project. I still have several copies of their Star Office 5.1a CD which had the binary versions for Windows, OS/2, Linux, and Solaris/x86.

The two (Star Office and Open Office) have been exchanging code ever since, but Star Office predates OpenOffice by quite a bit.

[southernlady5464]

Actually, a company called StarDivision developed the Star Office suite back in 1992 or so as a proprietary software package (I've been a Star Office user on OS/2 since Star Office 3.0 for OS/2 was released many years ago, and I also have a copy of StarWriter for DOS which I've used for several years).

I didn't know Star Office's history...sorry. Thanks for the clarification. Liz

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by southernlady5464

I didn't know Star Office's history...sorry. Thanks for the clarification. Liz

The way the code is moving back and forth between the two these days, it's getting harder to tell which one is based on which! :-)

[BrianH]

1 vs 1, which has the most functionality / stability / compaitibility with other office style progs on various OS's