On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 21:38 -0700, Richard L. Hamilton wrote: > > Hi, > > > > This is a bit off-topic, but I didn't find any other > > suitable forum. > > > > I have always wondered why SXDE packages star office > > and not open > > office. Both I understand share bulk of the code > > base. > > Google-pack now contains star office > > (http://pack.google.com) ! > > > > Why this when there is an open source alternative? > > > > regards > > Shiv > > Consider the history and functionality: Sun bought StarOffice, and after > awhile, decided to open as much of it as they could. Some parts > (the limited version of Adabase D db from Software AG, I think some of the > dictionaries and some of the clip-art; and at least originally, the printing > component for X11) Sun didn't have the rights to, > so they couldn't open. OpenOffice has in some cases been able to > come up with substitutes (free xprint vs commercial xprinter); > in other cases, it's simply got less functionality. > (the above is just my recollection of things I've read, and could be wrong) > > Which would you prefer, ideology or functionality? (you don't get to > have both, unless _you_ do the work!)
True. Another benefit is this; StarOffice 8 was released, and since then there have been 7 updates - I'm updated the StarOffice included with SXCE (StarOffice 8 Update 6) to update 7. OpenOffice.org is great if you want bleeding edge features, but I'd sooner let the experts (Sun) decide what should enter into StarOffice based on the maturity on the code. Side issue though, it would be great for RealPlayer/StarOffice integration so that media files that are bundled in OOXML documents can be opened and viewed on *NIX; IIRC RealPlayer 2.0 is apparently aiming for WMV/WMA playback - hopefully we'll see a Solaris build of that soon :) Matthew _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
