StarOffice vs. Microsoft Office

Ozzy20

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Nov 22, 2001
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I wanna hear your oppinion, which one you think is better, the advantages and disadvantages on both of them... the only thing i know is that StarOffice works under linux ;)
 

HexVector

Member
Jun 3, 2001
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Right, they have StarOffice 6 beta for Windows (I'm using it under XP right now) and Linux. After using both Office 2000/Word 2002 and StarOffice 6. I would say StarOffice 6 is nearly as good as MS Office. Its missing some of that Office polish (a other trivial features) but it works well. Plus you can't argue with free. Its around 100MBs at: http://www.sun.com/staroffice/6.0beta/
 

c0rv1d43

Senior member
Oct 1, 2001
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I'd say that StarOffice 6 beta is a HUGE improvement over its predecessors. But I also think that it is missing more than just a little polish when compared to Office XP. On the other hand, Office XP has a lot more polish AND features than the vast majority of users need. Besides, too many people spend most of their time trying to find just the right freakin bullet or font for their documents and not nearly enough time examining their documents' content to be sure they make any sense!!!

I just got a coupla new PCs, a notebook and a desktop. I didn't get Office with either, though Word 2002 came on both of them. After blowing their drives clean and installing WinXP on both I was looking for a good, usable office suite. I tried the StarOffice beta for about two months. For me it came down to this: I thought that Microsoft's EULA for the new Office XP version was going to stipulate one license = one machine. It turns out that they still allow you to activate one Office XP copy on a notebook and a desktop. If the EULA had required me to buy two Office XP licenses to use on these machines (which never get used at the same time except for transferring data back-and-forth) I would have stuck with StarOffice. I wouldn't have liked it as much, but I would have used it. Microsoft's marketing department had at least me figured out pretty well.

- Collin

Edit: But if the next version of StarOffice improves as much as version 6 did over 5.2, Microsoft had better watch their collective butt!
 

Ozzy20

Member
Nov 22, 2001
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Well, personally I think is that StarOffice is in a hudge advantage cause it has support for Linux, and it comes as a freeware software (i don't know any other office package for Linux as good as this one) and, as you said, if the next version of StarOffice improves as much as it imoroved 6.0 microsoft will be toast! ::)
 

jfunk

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2000
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For me, StarOffice does everything I need. The only thing I don't like about it.....SLOOOOOW. Other than that, I say why give MS any more money than I have to.



j
 

CSFM

Senior member
Oct 16, 2001
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After having to ring MS to get my copy of MS Office 2000 re-verified 2 weeks ago when I installed it on my workstation at home I decided to get a copy of Star Office and give it a go on my new machine I built 2 days ago. Now although I haven't used it too much as yet... it took me all of 2 mins. to see how it worked and to see that it was just as good of a user interface as anything I had been using from MS (admittedly I have not used Office XP very much). I would recommend it to anyone who is either anti MS or just doesn't like the idea of emptying your life savings into MS's pocket.

Also the big bonus is that it is completely compatible with all MS office documents!
 

nortexoid

Diamond Member
May 1, 2000
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SO 6 is an extremely good competitor to office xp, especially for the most majority of users, plus it comes /w integrated java support, supports linux, etc.

the only thing i have against it is it's integration...id' rather each component be a separate program unto itself...it would load faster, use less memory, etc...otherwise, it's definitely worth keeping rather than dishing out the cash for XP (which DEFINITELY is not worth it, unless u're getting some ridiculously low student lisencing fees)...
 

CSFM

Senior member
Oct 16, 2001
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You can create Shortcuts for the individual programs and place them where ever you like. I think that might solve your problem.
I put a shortcut to the "Write" program straight onto my desktop as soon as I installed it.
 

NorthenLove

Banned
Oct 2, 2001
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For a BETA it's really good, but I'll reserve my final judgement on it once it goes to the final build.
 

Superwormy

Golden Member
Feb 7, 2001
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StarOffice 6 Beta rules, only problem is that the spell checking isn't as good, it doesnt know lots of words.
 

Workin'

Diamond Member
Jan 10, 2000
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<< Also the big bonus is that it is completely compatible with all MS office documents! >>

That's not entirely true. If you have any kind of complex document, one with linking and embedding and other fancy stuff, you will have to spend quite a bit of time in StarOffice to make it look like it did in MS Office.
 

c0rv1d43

Senior member
Oct 1, 2001
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Workin' is mighty right on this. Even some fairly simple stuff in Excel doesn't translate well to the StarOffice spreadsheet. An example would be the merge cells features. Things like that did cost me a fair amount of time in going back and forth when I was still using the version 6 beta.

In the end OfficeXP wound up definitely being worth it for me because I do make use of some fairly advanced features that are not supported (at least directly) in StarOffice, and I had to be able to ship usable documents to people who use OfficeXP.

I would also say that the user interface for OfficeXP is very polished, though I'll also admit that it's a little strange -- at least to me.

<rant>I still can't get over how so many people these days are more hung up over how a document LOOKS than whether or not IT MAKES ANY DAMNED SENSE! </rant>

Sorry. :D

- Collin
 

TheWart

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2000
5,219
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i just installed SO for winxp, and i have to say i like it. i have office 2000 academic, but since the # of license thing limits me, i let my bro use it at home (he doesn't wanna fool with new software now). SO is very nice so far, and since I'm an english major, i dont need advanced features in my office suite, instead i obey all the <rant> commands </rant> and try to make my content make sense. so the fact that i can save my term paper as a .doc is a big plus for me, since my whole school/comp labs/printers deal with M$ word exclusively.
 

Workin'

Diamond Member
Jan 10, 2000
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c0rv1d43, don't foget, to paraphrase Fernando (Billy Crystal) - "It is better to look good than to be good" :D
 

check72

Senior member
Sep 29, 2000
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Another great free office suite is Office 602.

I have been using it for over a year now, and it meets all my needs.

The best part is it's like a 16mb download.
 

c0rv1d43

Senior member
Oct 1, 2001
737
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Yes, indeed. I examined and tried the Software602 suite for a while, too. I thought it was excellent, and I think most personal users would be extremely well-served by this suite -- especially if they don't absolutely require the ability to exchange files containing advanced formatting features with Microsoft Office users. I found it to be "light", quick, and quite intuitive to use. And, like StarOffice, it's free. You pay for the add-ons to expand its usefulness, but even those are quite cheap.

- Collin
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
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I'm using StarOffice 5.2 under both windows and redhat, it works fine. I rearely need office apps anyway, and it works fine for writing the occasional paper, and saves/reads MS word format. Plus, free is nice.
 

c0rv1d43

Senior member
Oct 1, 2001
737
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Ooh! Ouch! Seriously, notfred, you owe it to yourself to get the version 6.0 beta. It towers above version 5.2, with which I suffered grievously last year, in terms of reduced bugs and interface and feature improvement. And they got rid of the lousy desktop thingy. What the heck were they thinking, anyway? Of course, I do know people who liked that, but... to each his own.

- Collin