Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Free Your Desktop
I have been running Star Office 6.0 since the beta program began, and I love this software. I found the word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation package to be so compelling, I uninstalled Microsoft's product. In other words, Sun has a Microsoft killer on it's hands.There are a handful of MS-Office features that Star Office lacks (most importantly: the ability to handle embedded OLE objects such as VISIO). But there is also a bundle of nice touches that StarOffice adds that do MS one better. The user interface is fast, slick, and powerful. After using it for a few months, I found the UI to be preferable it to MS Office -- though this is a matter of personal taste. I have found Star Office to be fast, reliable, and compatible. I love the fact that I can start a document at work, on UNIX, and finish it up at home on Windows, without a hiccup. StarOffice is so cheap, IT managers ought to be fired if they don't at least consider StarOffice for their corporate desktops. The licensing policy that allows a single user to run StarOffice on a variety of machines (home, work, and laptop, anyone?) is like a breath of fresh air compared to Microsoft's End User Agreement. I haven't played much with the integrated database, or with the photo editting application that was not part of the beta program. I do like the integrating drawing package, which I now use instead of VISIO for all of my diagramming. It will take more than just excellent software for StarOffice to steal market segment away from MS -- but it's at least nice to know that Sun got the "excellent software" part of the equation right this time.
Rating: - I KNOW this product
I've been using StarOffice since version 5.2 - for 3 years. I've been using beta versions of StarOffice 6 for ages - it's fantastic. StarOffice is based on the free (yes...FREE) openoffice.org suite (which you can download at www.openoffice.org). It adds a few great programs - like the fantastic ADABAS database program and a proprietary spellcheck utility. It has more programs than MS Office - a database program, a drawing program, and an HTML editor more akin, in some ways, to Visual Studio than Front Page. It runs on virtually all platforms - Windows, Linux (not just Lindows, nor Mandrake-Linux, as one sadly misinformed reviewer wrote), MacOS X, Sun Solaris, even FreeBSD and some other Unixes. StarOffice, which is written in Sun's own Java, which often means it's slow to launch. But after launch, it's a gorgeous, intuitive product. It's faster, smarter, and less expensive than MS Word. It would make a fantastic corporate solution. It's only drawback is in its .doc compatibility - it's at about 99% faithful. It still gets choked up on tables and funky margins. Though there are other cross-platform alternatives, like Abiword (abisource.com), none come so close as an office suite to MS Office as a replacement. This product could - no, SHOULD - be on your desktop.
Rating: - Effective alternative to MS Office
As we all know, Microsoft Office is over priced. What is it now? Like [money] for the standard suite? Even with the release of Office XP, we have found out that there are no real big leaps over its previous incarnates Office 97 and Office 2000. If you are like me, an average person with an average salary, you appreciate great deals. Plus its nice to have an application that can read various formats from Word to Rich Text and Excel and export to PDF.After testing out OpenOffice ... I can honesty suggest either OpenOffice or Star Office 6 for your web processing work (Star Office has extra features and converters that the free version lacks). Not only is it cheap, but it runs on Windows, Linux and Solaris with tech support from Sun. If you are a Mac user, check out the progress of OpenOffice because I believe (prove me if I am wrong) that this retail version doesn't include a Mac installer. I also see Star Office/OpenOffice as an excellent office suite for not only businesses but home users and writers. I know how tough it can be being a freelance writer/publicist or a person typing up a paper for school. Coughing up [money] for Microsoft Office isn't welcoming or pleasing on the check book. Let Star Office/OpenOffice be your guide. Have freedom in how you write and where you type it on. Be released from the Microsoft ball and chain. This is your chance!
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