Star Office

Table Of Contents

• StarOffice Features
• Advantages of StarOffice
• Disadvantages of StarOffice
• How to Get StarOffice

• StarOffice Writer: Word Processing. Similar in use and capability to Microsoft Word, but without the animated paper (this "feature" will never be added). Can import and export Word documents.
• StarOffice Calc: Spreadsheet. Similar to Microsoft Excel. Can import and export Excel spreadsheets.
• StarOffice Impress: Slide show production. Similar in capability to Microsoft PowerPoint. Can import many PowerPoint slide shows - some editing may be required.
• StarOffice Draw: A drawing program for creating illustrations. Similar in use and capability to Microsoft Paint.
• StarOffice Base: AdabasD database, a program of similar scale to Microsoft Access. Front end to access Oracle, Informix, Sybase and others.
• StarOffice Schedule: A network calendar and scheduling program.
• StarOffice Mail: An e-mail client program, similar in capability to Eudora or Outlook Express (except for the virus propagation part). Front end for access to Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.
• StarOffice Discussion: A newsgroup client for use with Internet newsgroups.

• Virus Resistance: Microsoft Word and Excel account for some 80% of viruses plaguing business today. Combine them with Microsoft Outlook and you have a virus transmission machine without precedent. Star Office stops Microsoft Word and Excel viruses cold.

• Low Cost: StarOffice is free, while the cost of Microsoft Office continues to increase (about $500 for most licenses) and the license terms get tighter and tighter (registration is now mandatory). Monopoly in action.

• Stability. Even running on Windows, StarOffice crashes much less than Microsoft Office. On other platforms crashes are rare. Greater stability means higher employee productivity.

• Performance. StarOffice's high performance means you do not have to upgrade your computers to the level required for MS Office 2000. Better performance means higher employee productivity.

• Freedom to Choose. Use the best environment for your specific jobs, yet maintain consistency. Microsoft Office is designed to prevent you from using non Microsoft products or even older versions of Microsoft products, even if they may better suit your needs.

• No Animated Paper Clip!. I Don't think this needs any explanation.
• StarOffice Interoperates with MS Office. StarOffice provides excellent file import/export compatibility with Microsoft Office. While not 100% perfect, compatibility between StarOffice and Microsoft Office is generally better than compatibility among different versions of Microsoft Office.

• No "Upgrade Madness". StarOffice maintains compatibility among versions. Microsoft's goal is to use compatibility and support issues to force upgrades of all their products every two to three years (generally forcing you to upgrade your computers as well).

• The Future - StarOffice Portal. Soon to be released, StarOffice Portal, Java based and server-centric, will brings the office productivity suite to "thin clients" and roving users years sooner than Microsoft Office.NET will be ready. Portal will allow companies to achieve much lower costs without sacrificing productivity. A development environment and Java Beans will be provided for enterprise deployment.

• ASPs Gearing Up: "Applications Service Providers" will be offering StarOffice over the Internet to serve roving users. Compared to StarOffice Portal, Microsoft Office requires relatively expensive solutions, like Citrix Metaframe and SCO Tarantella for network distribution.

• Support Ethical Business Practices. Microsoft's business practices have been proven illegal in court, and there isn't much question about their disregard for ethics either. Every dollar you send to Redmond is a vote to crush smaller, more innovative American businesses.

• Import/Export can never be 100% perfect for all the more complex and obscure features of Microsoft Office. Microsoft constantly changes them to prevent compatibility and to force upgrades. StarOffice is generally more compatible with Microsoft Office than Microsoft Office is among its different versions. Note: StarOffice's ability to import of Microsoft PowerPoint slide shows is weak compared to it's ability to import Word and Excel documents.

• Macros and Windows automation features do not work automatically (and some don't work at all). If they did, StarOffice would be as virus prone as Microsoft Office.

• "Well, it just isn't from Microsoft."

• Our clients can get StarOffice from Automation Access simply by asking for it.
• To download from Sun Microsystems (about 68-Meg) just click on the "Get it Free" logo at the top left of this page, or, click right here.
• You can also purchase a package including the StarOffice CD and printed documentation ($39.95 plus shipping) from Sun Microsystems or Micro Warehouse or Amazon.com. From Sun you can also get just the CD and install sheet ($9.95 plus shipping).
• For StarOffice in languages other than English, buy or download directly from Sun Microsystems