“Sun’s recent acquisition of Star Division, makers of the
multiplatform office suite called StarOffice, was certainly big
news. But that was followed by an even bigger announcement: Sun is
making StarOffice available for free. Not only is the suite to be
free in price, but Sun is also promising to make its source code,
file formats, and protocols free under the terms of the Sun
Community Source License…”
“StarOffice is different, however — or at least it is now. Many
in the industry view Sun’s moves as a direct assault on Microsoft’s
second-most lucrative monopoly, Microsoft Office, or even as an
assault that parallels Microsoft’s own march against Netscape.
While this one may not succeed in cutting off Microsoft’s air
supply, it just might cause a little gagging in Redmond.“
“All other things being equal, StarOffice is not good enough, on
its own merits, to cause existing Microsoft Office customers to
switch. It is, however, an attractive, full-featured, completely
functional suite. And it is more than good enough to give buyers
pause when it comes time to decide whether it’s worth the
additional $400 per seat to upgrade Office 95 or 97 to Office
2000.”