That is
why I love opensource. One day it will over take microsoft.
SUN'S STAROFFICE 7 TO RIVAL MS OFFICE
SUN Microsystems' latest desktop publishing suite, StarOffice 7,
will give Microsoft a run for its money, literally.
At a promotional price of $99 (which is valid for three months
only), it is a fraction of the price of Microsoft Office which
costs an average of $650, yet it offers a range of similar programs
to rival the Windows-based giant.
It will be available at Challenger stores from November.
With StarOffice, you can work on MS Office files and save them as
MS Office files, to ensure compatibility with the dominant
platform.
A key new feature of StarOffice is that users can create Portable
Document Format (PDF) files with a click of a button. This is
useful as PDF files can be read by any system since the program,
Adobe Reader, is available for free at www.adobe.com
StarOffice is developed from an open source program, OpenOffice,
which has the basic word processing, spreadsheet and presentation
tools, similar to the key Microsoft programs - Word, Excel and
PowerPoint.
An open source program means its programming code is open to all,
and can be adapted by any firm to design a package of its
own.
StarOffice can run across multiple platforms, including Microsoft's
Windows 95 and above, and other open source operating systems like
Linux and Sun's Solaris.
One drawback is that StarOffice does not work with Macintosh
computers. But for Mac users who are keen, there is an alternative
- OpenOffice.org