Thanks to Google OpenOffice may be about to become obsolete. Google Pack now includes the better big brother of OpenOffice, Star Office, which usually costs US$70. I advise anyone that uses OpenOffice to upgrade to StarOffice via Google Pack, as it has extra features OpenOffice does not.
According to this article the primary differences between Star Office and OO are not that big, but here they are anyway as quoted from the article:
It will be interesting to see why Google didn’t choose to include OpenOffice.org, the primary difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org being that StarOffice includes some proprietary components like clip-art graphics, fonts, templates and tools for Microsoft Office migration.
EDIT: Fixed the link.
Is the compatibility with windows office files any better?
Is the compatibility with windows office files any better?
Yes. StarOffice has tools to help with that that OpenOffice does not.
I have been using SO for a few days now. I definately prefer it over OpenOffice. One nice thing about it is that is opens faster.
Yes. StarOffice has tools to help with that that OpenOffice does not.
I have been using SO for a few days now. I definately prefer it over OpenOffice. One nice thing about it is that is opens faster.
Is it still a Java app? If not why would it open any faster if all it has is more features?
Is it still a Java app? If not why would it open any faster if all it has is more features?
I don’t know. All I know is that it loads faster. It spends less time on the splash screen.
I wouldn’t miss OO if it did go away. I’ve always disliked it because it does a lousy job of opening documents I created with MS Office. Personally I like to use emacs and LaTeX whenever possible but when I need to do “normal” word processing I have always liked MS.
I only tried Star Office once a long time ago. Maybe it’s time to give it another try… 
I wouldn’t miss OO if it did go away.
I have never had that problem with OpenOffice. It has done a pretty good job for me. That just goes to show that everyone’s software experience is different and that it depends on what they do with the software - and in this case what the documents they open contain.
I have never had that problem with OpenOffice. It has done a pretty good job for me. That just goes to show that everyone’s software experience is different and that it depends on what they do with the software - and in this case what the documents they open contain.
I just installed it. You were definitely right about the speed increase. It opens almost instantly, but OO used to take about 5 seconds.
You guys might be interested to know that when you look at the splash screen for Star (as well as the About screen) that it’s based on the OpenOffice Project.
I just installed it. You were definitely right about the speed increase. It opens almost instantly, but OO used to take about 5 seconds.
Yes. It may only be a small improvement, but it is a good one. Interestingly you may notice a Goggle search box. No doubt Google put that there via a add-on. I doubt it is normally there. But then Google and Sun did sign a agreement to co-distrubution agreement a while back, so Sun may of done it.
You guys might be interested to know that when you look at the splash screen for Star (as well as the About screen) that it’s based on the OpenOffice Project.
Hardly surprising. Sun Microsystems do own both StarOffice and OpenOffice.
I beleive StarOffice is based on Java still. It is owned by Sun and based on OpenOffice these days, it is therefore hard to imagine it would use any other language other than Java.
However Until version 4.2, StarOffice was based on the platform independent C++ class library StarView, according to Wikipedia.
ON a related note, I would like to point out that according to OpenOffice.org.nz, OpenOffice is programmed in C++ now.
ON a related note, I would like to point out that according to OpenOffice.org.nz, OpenOffice is programmed in C++ now.
Now? You mean it wasn’t before?
Im not totally sure about this, but I beleive OpenOffice was once coded in Java.
If this is so it might explain why OpenOffice seems to start a little faster, especially on XP x64 systems (the Java VM at least at one stage started up slower on XP x64 apparently, though this possibly has been patched now).
StarOffice and OpenOffice.org share the same code base and are written in C++. Java is only used for the optional database component. No one “owns” OpenOffice.org becuase it is open source.
Thanks for clearing that one up for us David. That might explain why the database component seems a little slower than the others I suppose.
Seeing this list of new feature in OpenOffice 2.3 and the plans for OpenOffice 3.0 I am not so worried about the future of OpenOffice now.