“They’re here, and right on schedule: Corel’s long-awaited
release of the complete WordPerfect Office 2000 suite for Linux and
Sun’s new incarnation of StarOffice, which it acquired last year
from German software maker StarDivision. How do they stack up
against each other? Which one is for you? And does the Corel
offering give StarOffice enough of a drubbing to justify its $100+
price tag, compared to the $0.00 cost for personal StarOffice use?
That’s what we’re about to find out.”
“It should be noted that StarOffice 5.2 is still in its beta
cycle. This means that the official release, which will come later
this quarter, should be less buggy. Though some will cry foul at a
comparison between a shipping retail product and a beta cycle
product, in this case, it’s a good idea to read the reviews before
making any judgments about the fairness of the comparison.”
“Both of these suites are built from or include a number of
different productivity components, and each has components or
features that the other doesn’t. … The truth, however, is that
most business and home users want an office software suite for two
basic purposes before all else: word processing and spreadsheets.
Because of this, this review focuses on these two functions, though
there may be a mention or two of other components along the
way.”