ZDNet: Sun's StarOffice No Longer Free
May 28, 2002, 13:00 (11 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Matthew Broersma)
"Sun Microsystems is to drop its free downloads of StarOffice
5.2 on Wednesday night, as it ramps up promotional efforts around
the fee-based StarOffice 6.0, the company said. In the meantime,
Sun and Ximian announced a distribution deal bundling StarOffice
6.0 with fee-based Ximian products.
"Sun's maneuvres with StarOffice are being closely watched as
open-source software businesses continue to search for ways to
boost revenues. Paid, proprietary software is controversial in the
open-source world, which is based on the theory that profits can be
made on "free" products, but some open-source companies say it is
the only way to continue to fund themselves.
"Sun said it will stop free downloads of StarOffice 5.2 at
midnight on Wednesday night, but will continue selling two packaged
versions of the product: $39.95 for StarOffice 5.2 Deluxe and $9.95
for StarOffice 5.2 Slim Kit. StarOffice 6.0 can be bought as a
packaged product or a download..."
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