What is it?
The leading open standards alternative to Microsoft Office is
available as a commercial package as Staroffice from Sun
Microsystems, and as a free, downloadable version from
Openoffice.org. Openoffice is also shipped by Linux distributors,
and Openoffice.org estimates it has more than 40 million users
worldwide.
Staroffice/Openoffice file formats are said to be fully
compatible with their Microsoft Office equivalents. They are
XML-based, Open Document-compatible, and can be read and modified
by any XML application.
Where did it originate?
Staroffice was developed in Germany and acquired by Sun in 1999.
Sun offered Staroffice 5.2 as a free download, but took it back
again with Staroffice 6, which the company made part of the Java
Desktop. Instead, Sun released the code to the open source
community and Openoffice was born. Sun contributes to the
development of Openoffice and regularly freezes it, adds its own
and third-party extensions, and releases it as Staroffice. The
current versions are Staroffice 8 and Openoffice 2.
What's it for?
Like Microsoft Office, Staroffice/Openoffice includes word
processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics and database
applications.
Apart from adding some fonts, Sun's main contribution to
Staroffice is a Macro Migration Wizard for converting VBA (Visual
Basic for Applications) macros to Star Basic, which tackles one of
the main barriers to migrating from Microsoft Office.
Staroffice supports 10 human languages; Openoffice supports more
than 30, and is actively working to extend this to include
languages spoken by communities overlooked by commercial software
providers.
What makes it special?
Staroffice costs a fraction of the price of Microsoft Office and
Sun has been pioneering a subscription scheme that could bring the
cost to below £20 per PC. Openoffice can be downloaded for nothing.
Both also have cross-platform support, whereas Microsoft Office
runs only on Windows.
Staroffice 8 Enterprise Edition software includes configuration
and management tools to simplify roll-out and support.
Openoffice has its own component model, Universal Network
Objects (Uno), and the Uno Runtime Environment (URE). URE allows
Uno to be used independently of the Openoffice suite, enabling
language-agnostic applications and plug-ins to be developed.
How difficult is it to master?
Although there are differences, moving to Staroffice/Openoffice
is probably no more challenging than adapting to a major release of
Microsoft Office. The emphasis is on standard technologies with
which developers are already familiar.
Where is it used?
The biggest take-up of Staroffice and Openoffice is in the
public sector and education in Europe, North America and Asia. Sun
provides Staroffice free to not-for-profit organisations.
What systems does it run on?
Staroffice is available for Windows, Linux, and of course
Solaris. Openoffice also runs on FreeBSD and Macintosh OS X.
What's coming up?
Although Openoffice 2 has only been out a few months,
Openoffice.org is inviting proposals for Openoffice 3. The Uno
component model and URE provide potential for extending the
technology beyond the five basic office applications.