In my opinion, Walter Mossburg gave Open/Star Office an unfair review.
Explicitly comprehensive criteria are key elements of a competent review;
Mossburg only covers only two points: compatibility with MS Office and *his*
perception of usability.
"Geeze Loueeze!", I discount any claims of 100% MSOffice compatibility as I
have encountered NO word processor/office suite that is perfectly compatible
with a competing product! Even MSOffice, at a critical time, (MS Word
versions 1.1, 2.0, 6.0) failed to render WordPerfect 5.x documents
perfectly. (Word had competition beat in ease of use at this time)
Although these documents were converted imperfectly, they were perfectly
understandable and easily corrected. Only formatting changes had to be
made. In this sense, I am not disappointed with OpenOffice performance;
when I reviewed its 'conversion' of several documents, content was clear and
only minor formatting corrections had to be made. (The documents I used
ranged from very simple to very complex. Of my documents, some of the
simple ones glitched on conversion. ALL of the complex (important!)
documents converted perfectly! My most complex documents included multiple
pages with graphics (and captions), headers, footers, (anchored) floating
text, and tables (with shadings and borders). These documents included
user manuals, common letters, and my resume (no! employer, I am happy
working for you; It was an only excellent test!)) Note that I do not use
spreadsheets or presentation editors (like PowerPoint) so I could NOT
properly judge compatibility performance for PowerPoint and excel documents.
Usability is another factor Mossburg talks about. Contrary to Mossburg's
analysis, earlier versions of StarOffice were quite usable. I agree with
Mossburg that compared to MSOffice, early versions of Star Office had a way
to go. (This version closes the gap very well.) Other than my own experience
with earlier (less capable) versions of Star Office, I include witnessing
the experiences of my boys, ages 8 and 7. After some *minor* instruction on
the basics (which included using the help system {something that most people
ignore}) of Star Office 5.2, my boys enjoyed using the wordprocessor and
drawing-program. They kept drawing, writing, and printing until they
consumed a 45 dollar color cartridge within 3 weeks. Of course, J & B's
usage and requirement's are not the same as the normal business user, but if
they can figure out how to use the program with minimal guidance, why can't
the average college educated business schmo! (We're talking early elementary
school here) Luckily, switching over to the long-lasting black and white
printer cartridge has slowed them down somewhat. Personally, Star Office
was a little different to use than MS Office; I can compare it to enjoying
classical vs. enjoying rock. Hum a few bars before you decide.
I've recently installed OpenOffice 1.0 on my win box. I am evaluating it
for personal use. (I will install it on my Linux box soon, guys...I live in
both software worlds...have not got a mac yet.) I find it much improved over
the old versions of Star Office am willing to give this much more of a
chance than Mossburg did. My boys, of course, will get a very pleasant
upgrade indeed.
CMB
cc:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Spruell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 11:21 AM
Subject: [brlug-general] StarOffice's Plan to Rival Microsoft Falls Flat on
Compatibility, Ease
> From the Wall Street Journal - enjoy :)
>
> Ron Spruell
> ===========
>
> May 16, 2002
>
> StarOffice's Plan to Rival Microsoft
> Falls Flat on Compatibility, Ease
>
> I am writing this column using a new office productivity software suite
for
> Windows that aims to bring real competition to a market dominated by
Microsoft
> Office . It's called StarOffice 6.0 and it comes from Microsoft's bitter
rival,
> Sun Microsystems.
>
> Like Microsoft Office , StarOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet,
> presentation program and database. Unlike Microsoft Office , it lacks an
e-mail
> and personal organizer module, such as Outlook.
>
> StarOffice itself isn't new. It was introduced years ago by a German
developer
> and acquired by Sun in 1999. The first versions widely circulated in the
U.S.
> were free, but the program was dense, complex and almost unusable. For one
> thing, it seized your whole PC desktop.
>
> The new version, 6.0, is intended to fix much of that. It no longer
imposes its
> own desktop, has a somewhat streamlined interface, and does a better job
at
> reading and writing documents in Microsoft's Office document formats -- an
> essential requirement because most people use those formats.
>
> StarOffice has one big advantage over Microsoft Office right out of the
box --
> it's much cheaper. The price is just $76, compared with $579 for
Microsoft's
> "professional" version that includes a database, or $479 for the standard
> version. What's more, a free version of StarOffice 6.0 is available at a
Web
> site called www.openoffice.org, though it doesn't come with some fonts and
> filters, and lacks Sun support and manuals.
>
> Also, for consumers and small businesses, Sun's licensing policies for
> StarOffice are much saner than Microsoft's. You can install the office
suite on
> five PCs, versus just two for Microsoft Office . And there's no annoying,
> intrusive "activation" process.
>
> But how good is StarOffice? I tested it on two main points: compatibility
with
> Microsoft Office files and ease of use.
>
> StarOffice 6.0 is fair. It's usable, but it's definitely inferior to
Microsoft
> Office . It's harder to use, less intuitive and sometimes unable to render
> properly certain documents in Microsoft's formats.
>
>
> I tried a wide variety of Microsoft Office documents in StarOffice --
> word-processor files of various sizes, spreadsheets and presentations. On
basic,
> simple documents, StarOffice did fine. But when I tried complex documents,
> things went downhill. Word files with a lot of embedded graphics or
revision
> comments were mangled. Some spreadsheets opened with errors because
StarOffice
> didn't understand certain functions or formulas.
>
> As for ease of use, the StarOffice interface is OK. There are customizable
> toolbars at both the top and side of the screen, and floating windows to
help
> you navigate a long document or apply formatting styles. There's even a
nice
> feature Word lacks that allows the program to automatically complete words
> you've used before.
>
> But StarOffice is riddled with extra steps, complex techno-babble and odd
> behavior. When you first fire up the word processor, you're asked to
select an
> "address data source," which means an address book the program can use to
insert
> addresses -- hardly a daily function. And the choices include "LDAP," a
techie
> term referring to network or online address databases.
>
> Options screens include mind-boggling choices like "memory per object" and
"Use
> OpenGL." My favorite: "size optimization for XML format (no pretty
printing)."
> In my copy, the default settings were set to use centimeters and German,
instead
> of inches and English.
>
> Many things are unnecessarily complicated. For instance, in Microsoft
Word, if
> you want to insert page numbers in a document, you just go to the "insert"
menu,
> select "page numbers," choose where you want them on the page and how you
want
> them aligned, and you're done. In StarOffice, you have to know a page
number is
> a "field" and then, when you find the proper command in the insert menu
under
> "fields," the program just inserts the phrase "page numbers" wherever your
> cursor is, unless you manually created a header or footer.
>
> Some features worked erratically. Entire toolbars sometimes disappeared
for
> reasons I couldn't deduce. The spell-checker sometimes didn't work.
>
> I'd recommend StarOffice 6.0 only for light-duty work, and then only for
people
> on a tight budget, or who just can't abide Microsoft's licensing and
activation
> policies.
>
> If Microsoft had more competition, consumers would benefit. But
competitors have
> to do great products aimed at average users. StarOffice 6.0 has a long way
to
> go.
>
> Write to Walter S. Mossberg at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Updated May 16, 2002
>
>
>
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