Considering that 80 percent of the people that use office suites use them for 20 percent of their features, StarOffice is the functional equivalent of Microsoft Office (as well as WordPerfect Office and LotusSmartSuite) for most of us. "You get what you pay for," Microsoft often said when StarOffice was free.
But, that's also the problem, according to a lot of ZDNet readers. No one wants to pay extra for bloat. So, the burning question of the day is: At US$76, is StarOffice really worth considering?
It's hard not to. At last count, over 70 percent of the 3,500 respondents to a recent ZDNet UK online survey agreed that an alternative suite was worth considering. Could StarOffice end up being the same thorn in MS-Office's side that AMD has been in Intel's?
A better question is, why pay US$76 when you can download the free open-source equivalent from openoffice.org? According to Sun's general manager for Desktop and Office Productivity Mike Rogers, the code base for OpenOffice and StarOffice are synchronized daily.
"The main differences between the two," says Rogers, "is that OpenOffice must be distributed with open-source substitutes for technology that we had to license for inclusion with StarOffice." Examples of this are the database software, some fonts, the dictionary and grammar software, and the filters for opening WordPerfect files.
More importantly, and relevant to business users, is that dial-up support is not available for OpenOffice. Anyone who decides to go with the free option has no choice but to go online at openoffice.org to get support--an option that may not sit well with businesses. If the code bases truly are in-synch, another option might be to buy one copy of StarOffice (that gets your foot in the door with Sun's support organization), and set the rest of your company up with OpenOffice. Sorry, Scott.
Beyond a compelling entry cost, businesses typically look at the total cost of ownership (TCO). This includes support, training, on-going upgrade costs, and, in the case of a potential rip and replace like this (swapping StarOffice for MS-Office), the price of converting.
According to Rogers, StarOffice ships with one "free" support incident that expires in 60 days. If you're having a problem with StarOffice, you have 60 days from the date of purchase to call Sun's 800 number, thereby avoiding Sun's US$25 per incident fee. The retail version of Microsoft Office ships with two free incidents and unlimited support for getting the product installed. Beyond that, it's US$35 per incident. If it's a non-retail version (if you're an IT professional with a site license, for example), the cost of getting telephone support from Microsoft climbs dramatically to US$245 per incident.
There are options to reduce the cost, such as buying a "six-pack" of non-telephone online support in advance or getting support from a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for as little as $25 per incident. Between human and online support, there are myriad options from both companies for different types of buyers.
The best advice I can offer you is to study support options closely when comparing the TCO of these products. Sun seems to have a slight, perhaps negligible edge from a cost perspective. However, Microsoft has been at the productivity software support game for so long that the quality and maturity of its support offerings are probably top notch.
Hello Author!
The license says that if you use Linux you only need one copy for the whole organisation.
This is not a per seat license as is the case with MSOffice.
Just one license per organisation.
In case of educational institutions the license includes all staff, all faculty and all students.
PS I bought the Mandrake 8.2 powerpack which comes with StarOffice 6.0 and the best thing about it is that the bundle is cheaper than StarOffice on its own.
BTW StarOffice 6.0 absolutely rocks, at least for what I am doing, and I belong to the people who use Office most of the day but only 20% of it at most. The other stuff I never use.
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> More importantly, and relevant to business users, is that dial-up support is not available for OpenOffice. Anyone who decides to go with the free option has no choice but to go online at openoffice.org to get support--an option that may not sit well with businesses. If the code bases truly are in-synch, another option might be to buy one copy of StarOffice (that gets your foot in the door with Sun's support organization), and set the rest of your company up with OpenOffice. Sorry, Scott.
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Excerpt form the license ................
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STAROFFICE, VERSION 6.0
SUPPLEMENTAL LICENSE TERMS
These supplemental license terms ("Supplemental Terms") add to or modify the terms of the Binary Code License Agreement (collectively, the "Agreement"). Capitalized terms not defined in these Supplemental Terms shall have the same meanings ascribed to them in the Agreement. These Supplemental Terms shall supersede any inconsistent or conflicting terms in the Agreement, or in any license contained within the Software.
1. Software License To Use. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Sun grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license to use up to five (5) complete and unmodified copies of the binary form of the Software installed only on computers that you operate.
2. Linux End User License To Use. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, if you are a Linux operating system end user and you received the Software as part of a Linux operating system bundle, Sun grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable license for the internal use only of the accompanying unmodified binary form of the Software.
3. Educational Institution License To Use. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, if you are an educational institution, Sun grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable license for the internal use only of the accompanying unmodified binary form of the Software. In this situation "internal use" means that your enrolled students, faculty and staff may use the Software.
4. Font Software. The Software contains font software which generates typeface designs ("Font Software"). You may not separate the Font Software from the Software. You may not alter Font Software for the purpose of adding any functionality which such Font Software did not have when delivered to you as part of the Software. You may not embed Font Software into a document which is distributed as a commercial product in exchange for a fee or other consideration (For example, End-Users shall not embed Font Software into an electronic book that is offered to the public for a fee).
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