Entered CNET Catalog: 09/16/2005
SKU: 10080
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.Product summary
The good: Imports and exports files from Microsoft Office; new mail-merge and database wizards, improved interface and Adobe PDF-export tool; friendly for Linux and Solaris users.
The bad: Some Microsoft Office file imports are imperfect; no Macintosh version; lacks an e-mail client.
The bottom line: StarOffice 8 is an impressive upgrade of Sun Microsystems' bargain productivity suite. It's a good buy for small and large businesses, but users needing an e-mail program and a photo editor should consider Corel WordPerfect Office 12 Small Business Edition.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 09/27/2005
For a single-user system, StarOffice is a breeze to install. The simple process took us 10 minutes on our test Windows XP PC. The program is no disk hog, either. It demands just 250MB to 400MB of hard disk space, depending on which components you include. StarOffice 8 has improved its setup routine for enterprise users. It now automatically adopts the default language for your system, and IT managers can use administration tools for Linux, Solaris, and Windows to load StarOffice on networked desktops. It's polite, too: it doesn't make itself the default program for opening Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word files unless you check the appropriate boxes during setup.
Each of the five main programs in StarOffice 8--Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, and Draw--bears more than a passing resemblance to its counterpart in Microsoft Office. Luckily, the interface enhancements to StarOffice are significant. Writer, for instance, has a cleaner toolbar-and-menu layout than in StarOffice 7. The clunky Load URL window is gone, and many icons formerly stacked in a left-side column, such as Spellcheck and Find, have moved to the main toolbar. Microsoft Word devotees won't have a problem making the switch to Writer.
Impress, the presentation program, got the biggest makeover, with a streamlined arrangement of toolbars and menus resembling the ones in Writer and Calc. Impress now displays thumbnail images of slides in its Outline view, à la Microsoft PowerPoint, making it easier to rearrange slides. New animation effects, slide transitions, and drawing shapes are designed to increase compatibility with PowerPoint. In our tests, however, some PowerPoint slide transitions didn't work well, and some text and images vanished completely.
StarOffice 8 comes in two versions. We tested the Standard Edition ($70 download, $100 CD), which includes Writer, Calc, Base, Draw, and Impress. By contrast, the pricier Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 costs anywhere from $250 to $450. Corel WordPerfect Office 12 Small Business Edition runs $349. Then again, both Microsoft and Corel include powerful e-mail programs--a component sorely missing in the StarOffice suite.StarOffice 8 Enterprise Edition includes advanced tools such as the Macro Migration wizard, which converts Visual Basic macros, and the Document Analysis wizard, which estimates the amount of work you'll undertake to switch from Microsoft Office. Pricing for the Enterprise Edition varies, but large corporate and government users (with 10,000 seats) pay as little as $35 per seat. Unless you're General Motors, you'll likely pay more.
Why would you want to pay for Sun's StarOffice 8 when OpenOffice 2 is free? Look carefully, and you'll find key differences: for instance, StarOffice Enterprise users get the Macro Migration and Document Analysis wizards, which OpenOffice lacks. And while StarOffice provides 60 days of free support, OpenOffice fans must seek help from fellow users. Still, cost-conscious home users may find it hard to beat the free OpenOffice 2.
StarOffice 8 has added dozens of enhancements. Writer's handy export-to-PDF tool is notably beefier and now supports hyperlinks, document outlines, and notes. New database and mail-merge wizards simplify tasks that were too complex in version 7. Still, the interface could use a bit of work: for instance, the Mail Merge Wizard resides on the Tools menu rather than on the File/Wizards menu where it belongs. But spreadsheet jockeys who work with huge data sets will appreciate Calc's new support for 65,536 rows--more than double the capacity of the earlier version--for importing even the largest Excel worksheets.
In a Microsoft Office-centric world, import filters are essential. For the most part, StarOffice 8 does a sound job of importing Microsoft Office documents, but don't expect perfection. The Sun suite retained the formatting, the graphics, and the fonts of most Word files, albeit with the occasional, easily correctable glitch. Our results with Excel proved similarly favorable, although Impress translated PowerPoint presentations less than perfectly, losing some text and slide transitions.
Given the bargain price of StarOffice 8, Sun Microsystems supplies fairly generous support. Users can request help three times via e-mail or telephone for 60 days, with help available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. After the grace period, support costs $25 per e-mail and $30 per phone call. That sounds pricey, but it's better than support for Microsoft Office, which offers two rounds of e-mail and phone help for free; after that, assistance costs $35 per incident. Corel WordPerfect Office beats both of them with free e-mail help, though phone support runs $25 per call. StarOffice has particularly strong online support; in addition to searching Sun's knowledge base, you can browse and query the StarOffice and OpenOffice support boards for assistance from fellow users. Because both programs share the same underlying code, you may find answers to StarOffice tech questions answered on the OpenOffice boards.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9out of 9 user reviews
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).
out of 9 user reviews
A viable alternative to MS Office
Pros: Free! - No more 'Fluency' menu bar
Cons: Odd way of deleting in Spreadsheets
out of 9 user reviews
why bother?
Pros: cheaper than MS office
Cons: more expensive than Open Office
out of 9 user reviews
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.
out of 9 user reviews
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.
out of 9 user reviews
Why pay for Star Office?
Pros: Less big brother than MS Office.
Cons: More expensive than Open Office.
out of 9 user reviews
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.
out of 9 user reviews
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!
out of 9 user reviews
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.
