Mac users can now download the beta version of StarOffice 9 at no charge until August 17 and try it out for 90 days.
StarOffice is an office suite that includes a word processor (Writer) spreadsheet (Calc), presentation program (Impress) , drawing tool (Draw) , database tool (Base) and formula generator. StarOffice 9 boasts of some great features. It allows users to read, edit, and save PDF files, import Microsoft Office 2007 OOXML files, allows users to add notes to Writer documents and has improved charting capabilities in Calc. When the full version of StarOffice 9 is released, it is anticipated to be identical to OpenOffice.org 3.0.
As a consumer, you might ask why you must choose one from the other. Although StarOffice and OpenOffice.org are based on the same code base , they differ in a few aspects : branding, packaging, support , price and licence.
StarOffice is a brand that is developed, marketed , maintained and supported by Sun Microsystems. As a brand, consumers expect it to perform a certain way, and is thus shaped by competitive forces. Unlike OpenOffice.org, which relies on contributions and monetary donations from the OpenOffice.org community, corporate investment is poured into StarOffice as a revenue-generating product.
The aspect of packaging means that everything the StarOffice user needs is available on the same CD upon purchase so that users do not have to worry about downloading the extensions that they need on the Internet. This is in contrast to OpenOffice.org, in which the user individually searches for and downloads extensions from an online repository.
The third aspect is support. Business users can obtain enterprise-level support from Sun (and not just Sun) for StarOffice while OpenOffice.org users rely on the OpenOffice.org community or third party support providers. StarOffice is more applicable to enterprise users, governments and academic institutions who want the ease of using and maintaining the application and have the money for it . Sun offers paid support services and training for StarOffice users. Note, however that the beta version of StarOffice 9 does not come with support.
The fourth aspect is the price. The regular price of StarOffice 9 is .95 while the full version of OpenOffice.org costs nothing.
The fifth aspect is license. While StarOffice is built with open-source software, the license of the actual application is closed. Thus, the freedom that comes with using open source software does not apply to StarOffice. Unlike OpenOffice.org, you can not simply copy , modify , redistribute and install StarOffice on your friends’ computers. In fact , some extensions that are sold by Sun have similar versions for OpenOffice.org that are freely available from the OpenOffice.org repository. Others take OpenOffice.org extensions and crack it for StarOffice. (Perhaps the ethics of such act depends on your interpretation.)
In essence, OpenOffice.org has the edge in terms of community contributions while StarOffice boasts of being the more thoroughly qualified product.
The release of StarOffice 9 for Mac is significant because it allows Mac users to adopt the OpenDocument Format, an ISO standard file format for office documents. This means document compatibility with Linux, Windows and other operating systems, thus closing the divide in terms of file formats. In addition, Open Office.org 3.0 and StarOffice 9.0 natively support OOXML, the file format used by MS Office 2007.
StarOffice 9 was developed for Mac OS X 10.4 or later versions . It is downloadable from the the Sun Microsystems website http://www.sun.com/software/staroffice/get_beta.jsp upon registration. This is the first release to offer native Mac support, which means it does not require X11.
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