Sun StarOffice 5.2 Deluxe

It might take a little noodling for Windows users to get the hang of the interface, as it essentially takes over the desktop and changes a few things around; after the learning period, though, you won't want to go back. Instead of opening a new program for each type of file (text document, spreadsheet, database, image, appointment, Web page, etc.), simply tell StarOffice what you want and each file opens in its own window, speeding up access considerably. OLE-style embedding is easy, and most of the look and feel will be comfortable for Office users. Currently there's not much third-party support, and help functions are ever present but inconsistent, so it's important to consider the costs carefully before installing.

StarOffice is perfect for those switching to Linux or multiple operating systems, or any new user who needs an inexpensive office suite with plenty of options. Current users of Microsoft Office might be better off sticking with Uncle Bill--between learning new commands and the marginal differences between the two, you might think inertia's not so bad after all. The programs included will definitely surpass your expectations if you consider price alone: the presentation and drawing programs are simple and wonderful, the basic office features of document and personal information management are intuitive, and the e-mail, news, and Web browsing are snappy. Integrated as they are with the word processor, spreadsheet, and database functions, they all come together to form a powerful and inexpensive challenge to Microsoft Office. --Rob Lightner

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Interoperable with Microsoft Office
• Multiplatform--runs on Windows, Linux, OS/2, and more

• Little third-party support
• Underdocumented

StarOffice is available natively for the following operating system platforms: Linux, Solaris, and Windows. Version 5.1b is still available for OS/2 users. As a side note, SUN also has a "StarPortal" version initiative going on to bring Office productivity services via the internet.

StarOffice consists of the following fully integrated applications: Wordprocessor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Scheduler, Graphics/Drawing, Email, Database, GUI FTP-client, GUI HTML-editor, and more. Users moving to StarOffice can open and edit their old MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint, Lotus Amipro/Word or 123 files, but many more file formats are supported including StarOffice native file formats. Webmasters can build HTML websites withStarOffice's HTML GUI-editor, Java support, graphics tools, and full FTP client to make editing and saving web documents up on the server or locally fully seamless. Email support includes POP3/IMAP/LDAP/SENDMAIL/NEWS, and you can setup multiple email accounts simultaneously.

StarOffice installs in about 15 minutes (with server or local options possible), looks and feels exactly the same across platforms, and you can run it as an independent application or as your replacement desktop. It has it's own "Start Menu" that presents you with all your programs, as well as all your desktop icons. You can see a great deal of thought went into the design of this product with an integrated workspace in mind.

Office managers looking to save money by avoiding more expensive products and licensing issues may find their holy grail in StarOffice from SUN, with the added benefit of support for multiple computer platforms. Home computer users will save a bundle too, and yet still be able to work with their old MS Word documents, etc.

StarOffice is a product whose time has come. You are certainly missing out if you pass it by....

by Peter Baitz, the trimatrix group, llc,


MS Office finally meets its match.....   July 26, 2000
Alain Jean Claude (Tucson, AZ USA)
84 out of 88 found this review helpful

There are many great things about the Microsoft Office; however, the STAR OFFICE aquired by SUN is a great Office Suite for the fraction of the price of MS Office. You can download this software for free at SUN.COM... however most of us with modems have to wait eight hours or so. The price for Star Office is very reasonable (considering you save a two hundred dollars over MS Office). Furthermore Star Office works on multiple operating systems besides Windows like Solaris, Linux, OpenBSD, and I tried it on BeOS 4.5 as well (some features like the PRESENTATION and EMAIL don't work on BeOS but it's still better than MS Office which doesn't work on at all)....

For all you guys who love to have multiple operating systems running like LINUX, WINDOWS, and BSD. Star Office is great since you don't have to buy an individual application for each operating system. I have a friend using MS Office for Windows, Corel Office for Linux and a weird one for BSD.

Save time and money and use STAR OFFICE. if you are college student and worry that your files from the computer center on MS OFFICE and LOTUS won't work on STAR OFFICE on your home PC -- then hey don't worry.

I have tried all files from Calendar, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and Access they all transfer to Star Office. The same is true when you transfer them back to MS Office.

SUN STAR OFFICE is not only a great office suite but a message to the propreitary world that open source code is the wave of the future.


A reasonably priced altternate to Microsoft Office Suite   July 3, 2000
steve@onlineoptions.net (Portland, OR USA)
78 out of 82 found this review helpful

Suns' StarOffice 5.2 Deluxe offers an integrated Word Processor, SpreadSheet, DataBase, Presentation Program, Calculation programe, Email, WYSWYG Website Editor and Browser. The software works well together, and has a short learning curve, although some of the features are difficult to locate at first, the process becomes easier in time. StarOffice uses Suns Java inplementation for several of its features, especially it's browser, and so runs roughly on slower systems (below 200 Mhz) but this is a minor drawback when you consider the price conpared to that of other full office Suites, like MicroSoft Office 2000, a comparable package. While the software can be downloaded for free from Sun's site, purchasing is makes sense if (1) you lack the bandwidth to download the nearly 80 MB of files, (2) you want to install the software on more than one computer, or (3) you want the documentation that comes with this CD. This would be a bargain at several times the price. StarOffice 5.2 can save files in a Office 97 0r 2000 format, and can read the files generated by those programs. As an alternate Office Suite, there is little support fo templates and tutorials on the web for this package, Although Amazon does carry "Sun Star Office 5.1 for Windows," which will help with most of the features in version 5.2. I recommend this for home and office use.


Lean and Mean   October 10, 2000
Scott Smith (Minneapolis, MN United States)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

I was looking for an office suite that gave me full access to Microsoft Office formatted files, but that was not as big and bloated (not to mention overpriced) as Microsoft's Office suite. This was for an older laptop that I carry around with me quite a bit, so I wanted to keep the installation size to a minimum. StarOffice 5.2 was the ticket. Not only does it have a very small footprint on my hard drive (under 30MB for the total install), it also handles all Microsoft Office (as well as the SmartSuite) files with ease.

The bonus that it is cross platform compatible with Windows *and* Linux (and Free BSD, I'm told) is just icing on the cake.

The price was right for the CD and manuals (I had been using the basic free downloadable version for months and decided to go with the Deluxe version after my good experience with the standard version). I would highly recommend this office suite to anyone that is looking for a good alternative to Microsoft's bloated (and overpriced) office suite.


Star Office shines bright!   June 26, 2000
Robert Koch (California)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

Since I first got Star Office 5.1 I have been awaiting the development of Star Office 5.2. My wait was well worth it. 5.2 is more user friendly than it's previous version. I installed it on Red Hat 6.1 and it went right in without any problems. I opened it up and was able to immediately go to work developing a word document. The menu's are laid out well and it's easy to find all the text editing features. ( I have had one problem finding out how to change the default margins - but that will come with a bit more investigation) Along with a great word processor is a whole suite of other great things such as the spread sheet, presentation program and scheduler. Star Office has made a great office suite, for very little money and it works on Linux, Windows, Sun Sparc and Unix. Who else can make that claim! There's now no reason not to dump that high priced office product sitting on your windows machine for Star Office at a fantastic price. And yes, it imports and exports to MS Word documents.