StarOffice 5.2

Amazon Marketplace : £0.01

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

Product Details

Platform : Linux, Unix, Windows
Binding : CD-ROM
EAN : 0614647624897
Manufacturer : Sun Microsystems
Model : 189248806X
Product Group : Software
UPC : 614647624897

ASIN : B00004U9LR

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Let's see--a full-featured, interoperable, multiplatform office suite that's light on your hard drive and drastically cheaper than the competition. Could it be true? Check out Sun StarOffice 5.2 Deluxe and find a sleek alternative to Microsoft Office that's compatible with that suite's files, incorporates nearly all of the same tools and features and runs on a breathtaking range of operating systems.

It might take a little noodling for Windows users to get the hang of the interface, as it essentially takes over the desktop and changes a few things around; after the learning period, though, you won't want to go back. Instead of opening a new program for each type of file (text document, spreadsheet, database, image, appointment, Web page, etc.), simply tell StarOffice what you want and each file opens in its own window, speeding up access considerably. Embedding OLE-style is easy, and most of the look and feel will be comfortable for Office users. Currently there is not much third-party support, and help functions are ever present but inconsistent, so it is important to consider the costs carefully before installing.

StarOffice is perfect for those switching to Linux or multiple operating systems, or any new user who needs an inexpensive office suite with plenty of options. Current users of Microsoft Office might be better off sticking with Uncle Bill--between learning new commands and the marginal differences between the two, you might think inertia's not so bad after all. The programs included will definitely surpass your expectations if you consider price alone: the presentation and drawing programs are simple and wonderful, the basic office features of document and personal information management are intuitive, and the e-mail, news, and Web browsing are snappy. Integrated as they are with the word processor, spreadsheet and database functions, they all come together to form a powerful and inexpensive challenge to Microsoft Office. --Rob Lightner

Pros: Inexpensive Interoperable with Microsoft Office Multiplatform--runs on Windows, Linux, OS/2, and more

Cons:

Little third-party support Underdocumented

Customer Reviews

Let's here it for the add-ons (2002-05-24)

Wordprocessor is sound and does not try to outsmart the user like MS Word. It also recovers old and corrupt Word files, something MS has never managed.Spreadsheet is competent in the same vein.The add-ons that make it work for me. The Draw and Paint packages are capable without being too complex. They won't cause professional graphics pros to hang up Corel or Photodraw. But for quick editing, the ability to save them in almost any format and edit them again, it is excellent, especially compared to the sorry excuse that is within Word.Am I the only person in the world that likes the desktop? MS missed a trick with that one. The ability to access anything on the drive, or network, instantly is a godsend when trying to edit and splice eight peoples work together.Sadly as a web-editor it is a dead loss.It is slow to load. But when loaded, everything works reasonably (on a 233 with 64MB RAM) and why would you close it again?

An excellent suite (2002-04-09)

Star office contains all of the components of an excellent office suite. The combination inculdes products for, example, a proper database that is vastly more expensive in competitor products. I have also found the Starwriter wordprocessor extremely powerful.

The boxed version contains a comprehensive manual and the CD include a large array of sample and tutorial files, and software for both windows and Linux. The built in application help is also very comprehensive.

This is a good product, that can perform many tasks well. The only negative comment I can make is that the sheer number of options that you have displayed when creating documents can be a bit overwhelming compared to other products, although this can make things easier when you are accustomed to it.

Lastly some other reviews mention poor performance. The way this product has been designed to run on multiple operating systems is to use Java. The java engine will not perform well on machines will less than 128Mb of memory, unless you are running Linux of course.

Trying to be too much (2001-07-20)

Building everything into one application was a dreadful idea. It takes AGES to load. It has a web browser, e-mail client and graphics editors, but they are hopeless compared to the competition. All I want is a good word processor and spreadsheet. SO makes me take all the other bits as well. Split it into several separate apps please. And get rid of that awful "desktop" -- I'll use the desktop of my own choosing, thanks.

Slow but cheap and reliable. (2001-07-13)

This is is the most comprehensive linux-friendly non-beta office suite I've come across; but it's far from perfect. As you'd expect everything's very stable. However, while on a PII 128mb RAM box things were just about ok, on an 64mb Celeron 500 laptop starting the Star Office environment and then a particular application felt like rebooting the computer. I found Star Word particularly slow and the Help options limited and, well, basically unhelpful. A real shame, but for intuitiveness and interactive Help in particular it doesn't hold a candle to MS Word 97 or even WordPerfect 8. Other parts are much better; the spreadsheet stuff seemed to do everything you'd expect, and the powerpoint stuff seemed well thought out. If you want everything in one suite and have plenty of RAM this is worth a go although you might need to invest in a good guidebook to make up for poor online documentation. Personally I'm relying on WordPerfect and keeping an eye on the very promising looking KOffice.

StarOffice is not 100% good! (2001-06-02)

It is the best office package available for linux. But it is not perfect. You can not configure it as you want to do. The compatibillity is not really good. The fonts are very bad, no postscrip fonts which are scaleble. I give it three start because it isn't expensive and it is the best office package available for linux.

Look for similar items by category

Categories > Business & Office