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Sun Readies New StarOffice
Sun Microsystems is releasing an update to its StarOffice software featuring improved compatibility with Microsoft Office.
Sun Microsystems plans to release an update to its StarOffice suite of business productivity software on Tuesday that will offer greater compatibility with Microsoft Office.
StarOffice 8 will include word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, and drawing software. The software will let users export and import Microsoft Office files from programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, while preserving macros and password-protected files.
Sun’s introduction of StarOffice 8 comes on the heels of Microsoft’s preview of the next version of Microsoft Office earlier this month (see TechSpin: Gates’ New Office).
Sun’s timing could allow the company to snag users impatient with the long release schedule for Microsoft’s product. Microsoft’s next version of Office is not expected until the second half of 2006, and Microsoft has not introduced a new version of Office since 2003.
The software is also a lot cheaper than Microsoft’s complex pricing scheme for various flavors of its office suite.
“Organizations are seeking out ways to both reduce their costs of using information technologies and also make their IT investments provide real, measurable benefits in a very short term,” said Dan Kuznetzky, IDC’s vice president of system software research. “Software such as Sun’s StarOffice 8 could neatly fit into both of these requirements.”
Shares of Sun closed up $0.06 at $3.93.
Free or Not
Nevertheless, Sun will still have a hard time convincing many companies to switch from Microsoft Office. MS Office continues to dominate the desktops of the majority of companies. While the latest version may make a more convincing case to switch, the software has still lagged behind Microsoft even when Sun was giving it away for free.
Sun introduced StarOffice in 1999 after acquiring it from Star Division and began distributing the software for free over the Internet. More than 1 million people had downloaded the software by the end of November 1999.
Sun now sells the software for $99.95 at retail, although users who download it pay only $69.95. Sun also licenses the software to corporate customers starting at $35 per new user, or $25 per existing user for an upgrade. A single StarOffice license can run on up to five machines.
In addition, Sun has provided StarOffice to the open-source community, which has continued to develop the software. OpenOffice.org provides the software for free on an open-source basis. Nevertheless, many users still opt to pay Sun so they can get technical support.
Sun is also expanding retail distribution for StarOffice by partnering with Encore Software in the United States and Canada , and Avanquest Software in Europe, as well as continuing a relationship with SourceNext in Japan .
Sun has also received support from AOL, which has been bundling StarOffice under the name AOL Office as part of its AOL Optimized PC branding program. Other partners who are bundling the software include Sony, Hyundai, and Fujitsu-Siemens.
Many major Linux distributions, including RedHat and SuSE, also bundle either StarOffice or OpenOffice.org.
Sun now says that it bases StarOffice upon OpenOffice.org. StarOffice runs on the Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.
The software offers support for the OpenDocument standard, an open-source version of the XML (extensible markup language) technology promoted by the OASIS organization and favored by an increasing number of software companies for sharing files between computers.
The state of Massachusetts said last week that it would only use software that supported OpenDocument, and the European Union has also endorsed OpenDocument. Microsoft Office, in contrast, favors its own implementation of XML.
“StarOffice takes all the guesswork out of working with multiple file formats because the new version of the software supports OpenDocument, allowing users to easily create and store documents in open formats to avoid vendor lock-in,” said John Loiacono, executive vice president of Sun’s software group.
Compatibility Boost
To boost compatibility with Microsoft Office, StarOffice supports PowerPoint presentations with complex animations and slide transitions. It also supports spreadsheet pivot tables, 3D renderings, and HTML publishing.
StarOffice 8 tries to imitate the look and feel of Microsoft Office in other ways. It offers a Format Paintbrush feature for transferring styles from one part of a document to another, and a multiple-pane user interface for creating presentations.
The Enterprise edition of the software also contains an MS Office file analyzer to help manage file migrations, along with a macro migration wizard to convert VBA (Visual Basic for Access) macros.
“These migration tools allow the Microsoft Office user to convert all their documents into StarOffice format,” said Mayank Choudrhi, manager of Sun’s collaboration product group. “We provide a document analyzer that can walk you through all the documents you might have to estimate the time and cost. Configuration management helps deploy and manage the configuration on the user’s desktop from a central location.”
The enterprise software also includes a spell checker, the Adabas B database engine, additional clip art, fonts, and templates on top of the software included by OpenOffice.org.
“When you include the additional administration tools and data analysis tools along with clip art and fonts, there are twice as many bits in the box as you would get with the base office product,” said Herb Hinstorff, director of marketing for Sun’s client systems group.
La empresa Sun Microsystems inició este martes 27 la distribución de StarOffice 8. StarOffice 8 es una suite de ofimática comercial que incluye procesamiento de palabras, hoja de cálculo, presentaciones, dibujos y aplicación de base de datos.

Según la empresa, StarOffice 8 «provee una excelente compatibilidad con Microsoft Office». Esta nueva versión mejora el intercambio de archivos con Word, Excel y PowerPoint, mejorando el manejo de archivos Word y Excel protegidos con clave de acceso así como presentaciones com animaciones complejas, ''autoformas'' y transiciones en transparencias. StarOffice 8 también incluye un convertidor de macros de Microsoft Office lo que permite que muchas macros escritas para Microsoft Office funcionen en StarOffice.

StarOffice 8 es también la primera suite de ofimática comercial que maneja documentos en el formato ''Open Document Format'' para aplicaciones de ofimática (OpenDocument). OpenDocument es un formato de archivos basado en XML, creado por la ''Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards''. El estado de Massachusetts en Estados Unidos recientemente anunció su plan para adoptar el formato OpenDocument. Microsoft ha informado que no manejará el formato OpenDocument.

StarOffice 8 está basado en el proyecto de software libre OpenOffice.org, fundado por Sun en julio de 2000, cuando publicó bajo dos licencias de software libre el código de StarOffice.

StarOffice 8 está disponible para ser descargado del sitio web de Sun por el precio de $69.95; también se puede adquirir una versión empaquetada por $99.95. Las empresas pueden adquirir StarOffice 8 por $35 (£20) por usuario. La versión OpenOffice puede obtenerse gratuitamente en el sitio de OpenOffice.org, si bien las versiones estables corresponden a la versión 7 de StarOffice.