“Google Pack, Google’s software download package has been expanded to now offer StarOffice, Sun’s competitor to Microsoft Office. StarOffice, which Sun normally sells for $70 is free through Google Pack,” Scott Gilbertson reports for Wired.
“Like OpenOffice, StarOffice 8, the version offered through Google Pack, is a full-fledged office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet app, presentation tools, database and some math and drawing tools. StarOffice supports most Microsoft Office formats, though not the new OOXML formats included in Office 2007,” Gilbertson reports.
“In fact, the main difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice is that the former includes proprietary clip art graphics, fonts, and templates as well as some additional Microsoft Office conversion tools,” Gilbertson reports.
“At the moment there’s no integration with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the company’s online office suite, but it seem reasonable to assume that some sort of synchronization plugin will be available eventually,” Gilbertson reports.
Full article here.
“A person familiar with the arrangement between the two companies say that Google is paying Sun to offer Star Office for free,” Miguel Helft reports for The New York Times.
“Why? Analysts said that the alliance represents a more aggressive effort by Google to go after Microsoft’s core customers, by offering a free product that is likely to eventually be supported by advertising,” Helft reports.
Helft reports, “Google said in a statement: ‘We partnered with Sun to make a free version of StarOffice available in the Google Pack because we believe that users will benefit from access to a free, full-featured office suite for the desktop. And we’ve also always believed that users should have choice in their online and PC experience.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: StarOffice requires Windows XP or Vista. But, that’s not the point here. This is another example of the multi-front war against Microsoft Office being waged by Google and Apple which will, if successful, end up helping the Mac platform by opening office documents. The world made a mistake by standardizing on Microsoft’s OSes and Office apps. That mistake must be and is in the process of being corrected. Many Mac users think they need Microsoft Office, but they really don’t. Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and see for yourself.
Another deadly turn in one man’s war against office furniture.
I have the iWork 06 package and use Keynote frequently. It’s a very well thought out program and amazing in ways too numerous to mention. I don’t use Pages however because it won’t export to a truly press compatible PDF. At least the older version I have won’t. So… I’m wondering… is the new version better in that regard?
iWork 08 rocks!
Best office app suite out there.
Anyone actually tried Google’s apps?
“helping the Mac platform by opening office documents…” Oh come on, iWork isn’t any better than MSOffice at using proprietary file formats. In fact, it’s significantly worse.
It would be nice if Google could toss 1.5 seconds of their advertising income to Ed Peterlin to complete and port NeoOffice as a Mac Google App.
iWork ’08 is really solid and an absolute joy to use. Numbers is better than I could have imagined. Everyone at our office (14 total) started using the suite last Friday and dumped the last semblance of Microsoft (Excel). Can’t tell you how good that felt.
So all that is left on the radar is AutoCad…..
As a follow up–any chance that StarOffice can print an envelope without needing an IT department to assist?
Great news!
Japan and Malaysian are standardizing on OpenOffice format documents. Several countries are switching to Linux. ANYthing that can build toward cracking the stranglehold of mediocrity foisted on the world by Microsoft products is a good thing!
OpenOffice is okay, but it feels a bit clunky to me.
Maybe I’ll drop by an Apple Store today and buy a copy of iWork.
I’ve been playing with the demo and it seems pretty good. I’ve got a bit of a learning curve to look forward to, since I’ve been using AppleWorks since it was ClarisWorks v2… 12 years? YIKES!
Hey Nuclearkid…
Get VectorWorks and kiss AutoCRAP goodbye!
Talk about bloated, irritating, anti-intuitive, slow and sucky applications… AutoCAD is right down there in the same league with Windows and Office.
It is kind of funny. This is like what Microsoft did to Netscape (gave away IE for free). I wonder what the tech landscape will look like in 5-10 years.
I’ve been using iWork ’08 since I recieved it on 10 August. So far, I’ve have no problems…well, I take that back. When I open templates in Pages, the default language is Spanish. Anyone know how to change the default?
As for Numbers, I’ve used it extensively since then. While my spreadsheets activity is very small, you can clearly see the effort that Apple has put into this application. The little things that you would not have thought of but really makes sense in their implementation is incredible. It is so much easier than Excel.
an important point in the MDN take is that hist will help by opening doc formats.
when Mac users, windows (shudder) sufferers and linux users can all easily trade docs in an open format with multiple office tools, MS will be forced to actually compete, which means a) better prices and b) they might actually have to improve the program. (goddess forbid!)
if Sun, Google, the OSS people and Apple can keep it up, good things will come…..
i look forward to a day that i can send a single doc to users of Pages, Word, StarOffice, and KWord and they all get the EXACT same thing, can edit it, and send the changes to anyone else, with ease!
Of course anyone who’s used Office 2007 knows that OpenOffice and StarOffice are light-years behind. Office 2007 has an excellent new interface that makes good looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations easy to create! And all of those advanced features that were previously hard to find in Office (and don’t exist in OpenOffice) are now a lot easier to find a use.
But, alas. You guys are haters and will never see the virtures that Microsoft brings to the industry. I, on the other hand, look forward to having the chance to play with iWork and see what it has to offer. If you guys are right (and that’s always hard to gauge), maybe I’ll be impressed!
shen:
That format will probably be OOXML: Microsoft’s! When OOXML receives certification as standardized, it will be used by the millions of Office users. Of course OpenOffice and iWork will then be able to open AND save in the OOXML format. I look forward to that day as well!
Oh wise Zune Tang, we mere mortals await your words of wisdom on this…
NOT!
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Has anyone here ever tried to email a Pages or Keynote doc using a webmail program such as Gmail?
From the MacDailyNews Note:
The world made a mistake by standardizing on Microsoft’s OSes and Office apps.
Quite the contrary. The innovative, stable, secure and user-friendly Microsoft OSes and Office apps have saved humankind from the darkness of innovation-free products from the likes of Apple, Sun and Google.
Microsoft rightly owns the OS and Office suite space because they are best-in-class products and the market has spoken: We want Microsoft! Read it and weep, Apple dorks. You MAC lemmings can spout off about Microsoft conspiracy theories, monopolistic behavior and unfair business practices, but it’s all sour grapes. Microsoft won, Apple lost. L O S T.
Apple, Sun and Google are making the mistakes, and they’re going to lose again to a superior competitor: Microsoft.
Finally, a thank you to Microsoft, for freeing computer users everywhere from the tyranny of low-cost, low-quality vendors like the ones who compete against you. Keep up the good fight.
Your potential. Our passion.™
OpJ
Right on. Support NeoOffice.
There is no way that a proprietary office program like StarOffice or iWork is going to be allowed by corporations. Employees need to open and work with all office files without having them screwed up by bad converters. I have tried all of these stupid office programs and nothing can open all files properly or interface correctly to exchange. Apple has a long way to go before they can even think of talking on the corporate office. The toy called iWork is probably ok for the middle school student working on a report but there is no way that professional documents can be generated by them. Even the font output from MS Office is far superior to iWork – just look at any laser printer output of the two programs.
The Apple fan boys need to look at people trying to get real work done and need the capability of opening and editing anything from MS Office which is the industry standard. No one is going to throw away functionality so they can feel better about using an Apple product. When they have a superior product that is fully compatible, then we can talk about comparing MS Office to whatever Apple has this week.
“I don’t use Pages however because it won’t export to a truly press compatible PDF. At least the older version I have won’t. So… I’m wondering… is the new version better in that regard?”
@pr
Pages isn’t what generates the PDF file, it’s Mac OS X’s print engine that does that. How are the PDFs you generate not press compatible?
@Jordan
i have office, Mac and windows, as well as a full linux system with both the KOffice and gnome stuff, and iWork ’06 and ’08. the ONLY thing MSOffice is ahead by light years on is bloat and feature creep….
yes, office has 3 million little things that the other apps don’t. and 90% of the users never touch those features. so, for a collection of features they don’t use, people pay an arm and leg. and this makes sense how?
so, we are haters….. tell ya what, name two of these “virtues” that MS brings the industry, two that actually make sense, k?
i spent a full decade with an arm load of MS certs running networks and teaching users to run boxes. for a living. been there, done that, own the cheap polo shirt. i have made money wading through their shi… crap. i know better.
as to OOXML, first MS has a long history of failed formats. they have a habit of creating a format, throwing their weight around until it is accepted, and then screwing people by changing it and not following their own specs. look up the very well documented pointless changes to past office formats, especially in the 95 suite, that forced upgrades. fewer and fewer people are foolish enough to fall for it.
secondly, OOXML is just bad code. it is unnecessarily large and poorly constructed. open some docs up and look sometime. you call that XML? i laugh…
last but not least, between ODF, PDF, and the older MS formats, the only reason to change your files to OOXML is if you are forced. see the first comment about MS formats.
there have always been little cracks in the MS wall, and vista is a gaping hole. over the next 4-6 years Apple will continue to grow market share, as will Linux, and people will find that have no need to “upgrade” to the latest MS crapware.
change is the constant. i remember when nobody would stoop to running microsoft stuff on a network, and when Novell was king, and i watched MS rise, and now we are watching them fall. they have a long fall ahead, and it will take a decade or more, but the first steps already happened.
ain’t nothing left but the landing and the big splat now.
Mac OS X most assuredly does generate press compatible PDF files. We generate them here from multiple applications all of the time and send them off to our printing company. We’ve never had any problems with them.
again, the most divorced from reality comments come from some one with “realist” in their name. i love that….
“There is no way that a proprietary office program like StarOffice or iWork is going to be allowed by corporations. Employees need to open and work with all office files without having them screwed up by bad converters.”
a proprietary program… like MSOffice?
opening other formats without screwing them up. the way Office does?
the last few versions of MSOffice couldn’t even open files from older versions of the same bloody program without making them fubar!
the problems you are worried about are created by MS. so to avoid those problems we should….. use their products?!?
lol!
I own, and operate a worldwide equipment brokerage firm, and write science fiction novels – all in Pages. Since all submissions are made in PDF, I have not yet (fingers crossed) encountered a problem. And that includes sending PDFs to the far corners of the Earth where no Macs have ventured.
Pages, at least, IS ready for prime time.
My customers cut across all demographic lines.