Review: Sun StarOffice 7 476
ValourX writes "Here's the Internet's first comprehensive review of Sun's new StarOffice 7 suite. With the ability to export to PDF and SWF and greatly improved conversion filters, Sun's $80 office suite is more than a match for the upcoming ultra-expensive Microsoft Office System 2003."
Other Office Apps (Score:2, Informative)
Ability Office [ability.com] offers similar functionality in most cases, it can export to PDF, open all MS Office file types and doesn't use a ugly as hell windowing toolkit.
It can even be run on linux. Star Office is not very similar to Open Office at all, sun kept the best parts to themselves (database app) so why are they seen to be *cooler* to open source zealots then other perfectly good office sweets?
Also its cheaper than StarOffice, Ability only costs 69.95 [element5.com]
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:5, Informative)
Anybody use it yet? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Flash? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:2, Informative)
Java, Python, C++ and others (Score:5, Informative)
"OpenOffice implements the API with UNO (Universal Network Objects). Currently there are language bindings for Java and C++. You can implement your own language binding, and in fact we are actively looking for a volunteer to create a C language binding.
Additionally UNO allows control from scripting languages and scripting environments (for example debuggers). Currently StarBASIC (VBA syntax compatible) can call on the API and there is a prototype written for Python integration. "
If OpenOffice can di it, I'd wager StarOffice can too. The StarOffice SDK should have all the details.
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Macros (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:5, Informative)
I am suprised that Sun's Star Office recieves so much attention from slashdot and the open sauce community.
Ability Office offers similar functionality in most cases, it can export to PDF, open all MS Office file types and doesn't use a ugly as hell windowing toolkit.
It can even be run on linux. Star Office is not very similar to Open Office at all, sun kept the best parts to themselves (database app) so why are they seen to be *cooler* to open source zealots then other perfectly good office sweets?
Also its cheaper than StarOffice, Ability only costs 69.95
Firstly, Star Office is built on the same base as OpenOffice.org and they do share code. But you are right about proprietary bits. Still this makes Star Office appealing to Open Source Advocates (though it may rankle some in Free Software).
Secondly, the simple fact you can make Flash presentations with this is one reason I am about to shell out $80 for it. I had been thinking of doing some Flash, but Macromedia wants something like $1000 just to do it and I would have to run Windows. This is $80 to do flash on Linux, plus have a nice office suite. That is a very good value to me.
Re:Macros (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Match for Office? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:5, Informative)
Adabas is a database application. It is like MS Access or Quatro Pro, or theKompany's Rekall app. It includes a database engine, which IIRC is called the same thing. (Adabas D or something) What is being discusse- and what is included with StarOffice- is a GUI-based db app like MS Access. You could replace Adabas in StarOffice with Bereley DB than you could replace Mozilla with wget.
However, it is possible that Sun could write a whole new database application using BDB as the backend; or, Sun could write a layer for storing word processing, spreadsheet and other kinds of documents in BDB, affording some cool features that we don't get with flat binary files (which suck).
Read the article. Just so you don't have to do all that work, I'll quote it-
"The database is incorporated in key components of the Sun Java Enterprise System, formerly known as Project Orion, and the Sun Java Enterprise Desktop System, formerly known as Project Mad Hatter, both launched on Tuesday."
No mention of StarOffice in that quote of products to use BDB, nor is it mentioned in the rest of the article.
Sun also uses Oracle, and there are articles which will confirm that. But that has nothing to do with StarOffice does it? (unless Adabas can access other database engines for backends, like how you can use Access as a front end to any ODBC SQL Db, etc etc)
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:5, Informative)
I believe that you're right.
Get it here [softwareag.com]. Free, but not Libre, I think. Read the licence.
Re:Good for them (Score:5, Informative)
You open the file with your app, and there ya go. Use is transparent to the user.
I started using StarOffice in my business ( and use OpenOffice and KOffice now) some years ago and have never looked back.
Should anything ever "happen" to the
In any case you could always take the tack I have. ASCII for all internal documents and RTF where needed for external documents. If nothing else it serves to concentrate the mind on actual content, rather than pretending to work by wasting the afternoon on pointless playing around with graphics and formating.
Presentation software is for presentations, i.e., sales.
Internally if anyone tries to show me a pie chart I know that:
A)They don't actually understand what they're talking about
B)Think I don't either
C)They are up to something
D)They have already wasted a lot of time I'm paying them for
So go ahead, take the step to StarOffice. You'll find that a few of your people don't even notice, it's that "MSey." The
But also don't be afraid to use even lower level standard formats, like plain ASCII. Doing so will open up a whole world of free and open possibilities.
Sometimes the technological "advancements" advance to the rear.
KFG
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:3, Informative)
Now, OOo's Calc is MUCH better than Excel. Why would Excel choose to put hidden columns and rows in the HTML output?
wrong tool (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Stop exporting SWF's! (Score:2, Informative)
First it was jobs, now it's women.
If we keep exporting all of the Single White Females, who will geeks date and marry?
Single Black Females?
Japanese?
Native American?
Latino?
Korean?
Chinese?
How about we just import more Russian Mail Order Brides?
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:5, Informative)
There's a Slashdot article [slashdot.org]that talks about SAP-DB. And, there's a decent article [robelle.com] by someone who installed it.
= 9J =
No, you have it all wrong. (Score:3, Informative)
The article simple explains that the apps use a common "shell" that wraps around the GUI. Instead of each app having its own design, they are framed with the same toolbars. This, in theory, adds consistency and reduces code.
It sounds to me like you use other applications to get your work done and not StarOffice or OpenOffice.org. Those that do use them, those that are best qualified to comment, generally say that the consistency from one app to another is a nice feature.
OpenOffice for general people... (Score:2, Informative)
I am a Pro-OpenOffice (or pro-staroffice), and have been using it since quite a long time. If i only have to use it for myself, then there is not a single time that i thought "Damn.. I should have got MS-Office". However, there are still a LOT of issues with document conversions, specially if you have stuff like drawings and all in your document. This even forced me to use MS-Office when i have to mail the documents to other people (Its too sad that everyone i know uses MS-Office). Even in my university (www.usc.edu), none of the public machines have OpenOffice/StarOffice, they all have MS-Office. so its increasingly difficult to use OpenOffice as others dont have access to it.
Hope they install OpenOffice at more places or do something about the MS-Office compatibility issues. (installing is a better, cheaper option. I feel that openoffice/staroffice is still used by more "technical" or "IT" people then the general user.
Re:Other Office Apps (Score:4, Informative)
OpenOffice.org [openoffice.org] is well known, has third party books available, and third party training. If you want a commercial counterpart, there is StarOffice. Seems to me like the best of both worlds.
There is one major feature of OpenOffice.org and StarOffice that don't seem to get as much play as they should in a forum like Slashdot. It is programmable in Basic, Java, Python. If you install the scripting framework [openoffice.org] then is is programmable in BeanShell (i.e. interactive Java), JavaScript, and others in the future.
The OOo document format is well documented [openoffice.org] . XML in a Zip file. The DTD is available. KDE has announced that KOffice will be standardizing on the OpenOffice.org document format. So in theory, a Windows user running SO or OOo could exchange documents with a Linux user running KOffice. (Not that both OOo and SO don't also run on Linux.)
Developer documentation is readily available, and also a large downloadable SDK. Third parties can develop new components that run within and seemlessly integrate into OOo or SO.
There are lots of resources for OOo.
Won [sun.com]
Too [sun.com]
Free [oooforum.org]
Fore [sourceforge.net]
Phive [ooomacros.org]
Sicks [kaaredyret.dk]
Sevin [getopenoffice.org]
Ate [openofficesupport.com]
Nighn [start4all.com]
Tin [ooodocs.org]
Eleven [pitonyak.org]
Twelve [datateamsys.com]
Firteen [mackmoon.com]
Foreteen [openoffice.org]
Fifteen [openoffice.org]
This is by no means an exhaustive list.
I have personally taken an interest in OOo and written a Java program [datateamsys.com] (and other tools [datateamsys.com]) The java program draws Mazes on a running copy of OOo, but the java program can be run on a different computer, over the net. (Win -> Linux, Linux -> Win, etc.)
Re:Match for Office? (Score:2, Informative)
To begin with, I was comparing StarOffice 7 with StarOffice 6. That's very clearly stated in the article.
Secondly, it's not "Really crazy" at all to say that it works with Word .DOC files flawlessly. Between the two of us, only one of us has tested the software extensively using a variety of files, from the heavily formatted instructional articles with embedded graphics to 300-page manuscripts. If embedded graphics don't show up properly in non-Word applications it's because whomever created the document didn't properly anchor the graphics. It's not the fault of the conversion filter.
To me, a flawless PDF is one that doesn't have formatting errors, extra page breaks, improperly rendered fonts, etc. OpenOffice.org 1.1RC4 has this problem and I even linked to the issuezilla number in the article, which listed at least two duplicates. It's apparently been fixed but not yet implemented. StarOffice employs third-party conversion filters and therefore didn't have to go through this mess.
It's my opinion that word processors shouldn't have fancy drawing tools -- that should be left to programs like Draw and pro graphics utilities like Illustrator. Word processors are for processing words, not graphics. Less bloat in the word processor is a good thing; Writer 7 didn't seem to offer any significant advantages in the drawing tools arena. But as with any review, some things are overlooked and some things are left out -- no one wants to read an exhaustive 30-page report on every little thing that a program can do. I certainly don't want to write one.
-JemRe:Other Office Apps (Score:4, Informative)
This is comprehensive? (Score:4, Informative)
Writer is pretty good, but has some serious flaws with page numbering. Namely, there is no concept with OO/SO of sections in the same way as MS Word. You have to bend over backwords to make it break a document so that the table of contents, for example, is numbered using lower-case roman numerals while the main body is numbered starting from 1 using Arabic numerals. Creating a document that excludes the page number from the first page but prints it on all other pages is also a pain in the ass. Importing MS Word documents that are set up this way is broken. Changing formats for heading styles half way through a document is also broken. Resetting numbering for outlines half way through a document is also broken. Every complex document I've ever worked on utilizes all of these features. OpenOffice is very nice, but these features are a necessity for me. In my opinion, this makes OpenOffice unusable for complex documents, and makes its use for interoperability somewhat limited (although interoperability is less likely an issue when dealing with complex documents).
Calc is very good, and I have only noticed a single obscure problem. Excel allows spreadsheets with 65,565 rows, while Calc only allows spreadsheets with 32,767 rows. This is an obscure limit, and I would recommend against creating any spreadsheet that pushes this limit. However, if converting an entire organization to OpenOffice/StarOffice, this may be a problem. A bigger problem for conversion would likely be the lack of Visual Basic support. I don't consider the row size limit to be a show stopper (whereas the Writer limitations are show stoppers, imho). Calc is very good as a whole. However, if your organization relies heavily upon VB macros, then you should consider the effects this will have on any migration.
I have not stress-tested Impress enough to notice any limitations/bugs. So far, everything I have thrown at Impress comes through fine.
As for formatting, I have only had minor issues regarding formatting (like a single line being thrown onto the next page with a document). These issues are similar to those encountered when changing printer types under MS Word. They are a nuiscance, but not a show stopper.
This "comprehensive" review was anything but. If the author had investigated OO/SO's shortcomings even a little bit, the page numbering issues would have been apparent. But, hey, that's what Slashdot is for, no?
Re:Java, Python, C++ and others (Score:3, Informative)
Its the most complex thing I have literally ever seen.
I was impressed. It is leaps and bounds ahead of vba.
Also UNO supports briding with com and ole. It might be possible to port alot of windows apps to use Open or staroffice as a front end.
Re:obligatory OS X request... (Score:3, Informative)
Its already stable and done but not with aqua. Look at the screenshots? The MacOSX port uses X from Unix. Uno which is the internal api language of Star/Openoffice is highly complex and the gui's use Windows/X11 calls integrated in.
As soon as the gui portition is done being aqua-nized my guess is sun will release it for the mac. There are some screnshots that are aqau native but that portition is extremely alpha and buggy.