Entered CNET Catalog: 09/16/2005
SKU: CNETSTAROFFICE8
Manufacturer: Sun Microsystems Inc.
Manufacturer description
StarOffice software is an affordable alternative in office productivity suites that runs on multiple operating systems, including Solaris Operating Environment, Microsoft Windows, and Linux. The office suite has a simple, easy-to-use interface and contains full-featured applications including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics and database capabilities.User opinions
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User Rating: 
10/10
STAR OFFICE 9 with Support, Update 1, Documentation.
Pros: The price is worth it. I have only used the word processor,
and I like it better than MS Word 2003, OpenOffice, Lotus Symphony.
Cons: Future support: Will Oracle kill it to help Microsoft's position ?
http://www.sun.com/software/staroffice/index.jsp
$34.95 download: single license for use on five computers
Sopport: 60 day, three incident support, PDF Guide, Patch/Update #1 (12 MB).
User Rating: 
9/10
A viable alternative to MS Office
Pros: Free! - No more 'Fluency' menu bar
Cons: Odd way of deleting in Spreadsheets
User Rating: 
1/10
why bother?
Pros: cheaper than MS office
Cons: more expensive than Open Office
User Rating: 
6/10
Good alternative,but beware of memory usage
Pros: Only good alt. to MS Office; excellent features+interface
Cons: TOO HIGH Memory consumption with very high bkg. proc.
My advice - PLEASE download or use a trial version and check Task Manager entries on process consumption/memory usage prior to purchasing. Just because it's price is 1/5 of MS-Office, you might end up slowing your whole system down - thus the overall cost = MS Office. For me, esp. noticible was the comp. start-up time.
BTW: I checked across 10 computers, this version with generally 1 Gb. RAM and Xeon processors. The suite did NOT underperform any running programs, 'cause my comps. are extremely powerful but for home use - the readers might get affected.
User Rating: 9/10
Great application.
Pros: Works great, for me, in every aspect. Super pricing.
Cons: May require a bit of a learning curve for users of other office SW.
Scholars and researchers will find it works fine with research and stat software, i.e. Endnote, Nudist NVivo, and other qualitative and quantitative software.
Also, if you are an educator or a student, the educational pricing can't be beat. Check it out. Its worth it.
Here are just a few stand-alone programs that complement StarOffice, nicely. There are many more. Also, you can always purchase a full version of Outlook.
E-mail clients: Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, Opera, Outlook Express, and Pegasus Mail--all free.
Photo Editors: The GIMP, Picasa, VCW VicMan's Photo Editor,ImageForge, Paint.NET--and, they are all free, too.
As a point of fact, students and faculty can obtain StarOffice and updates for free.
User Rating: 
8/10
Why pay for Star Office?
Pros: Less big brother than MS Office.
Cons: More expensive than Open Office.
User Rating: 8/10
StarSoft Is Here!!!
Pros: Importng Files Works Like A Dream
Cons: GUI and Icons take a little time to learn
Great Job for SunMicro, on all of your X86, 1U/2U rack servers, along with Solaris 64 OS.
User Rating: 
5/10
There are better options
Pros: cheap.. but there are cheaper with better support
Cons: Not all OS compatible, what about Macs
I do notunderstand why CNET didn'trate this and other optiaonal apps that are not Microsoft, Corel or Sun's... I though CNET was bias!
User Rating: 8/10
Significant upgrade; first version that let me totally get rid of MS Office
Pros: Much improved Microsoft file imports; support for OpenDocument format by default; vastly superior visual experience; finally feels like a quality commercial product rather than an open source also-ran
Cons: Database is better but still not ready for primetime; straying beyond the standard bevy of fonts can cause formatting problems, although not more than with MS Word
I think of StarOffice as the Trillian of office-suites. Trillian (by Cerulean Studios) allowed me to replace AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger and ICQ programs with a single meta-client for all. StarOffice allows me to open and edit documents in all popular formats -- including Microsoft, WordPerfect, OpenDocument, and any other XML-based format -- something that no other package offers. The icing on the cake is that StarOffice not only lets me use any format I want, but also lets me do it on any OS platform I want, including Windows, Linux and Solaris. Since StarOffice 8 is based on the OpenOffice.org code, there are also non-commercial versions available for Macintosh and all the major flavors of Unix.
Native PDF-export and extremely small file sizes add to the appeal of this product, but it is the combination of price, multi-format /multi-platform support, and genuinely commercial-grade performance that makes StarOffice 8 stand out among all alternatives to MS Office. Outstanding product.
