Sun to release StarOffice 6.1 beta next week

James Niccolai, IDG News Service   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Software Stories  

HP StorageWorks EVA4400 & Oracle HP StorageWorks EVA4400 & VMWare Take Control! Managing Your Application Library Best Practices: Migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange & SharePoint The Trend from Unix to Linux in SAP Data Centers Go Green with Webroot® Perimeter Security SaaS! SaaS Solutions for Remote Systems Management Virtual Reality SaaS Solutions for Remote Systems Management Sign up to receive Software Resource Alerts

March 10, 2003 (IDG News Service) -- Sun Microsystems Inc. is gearing up to release the first public beta of the next version of StarOffice, hoping to boost the level of competition in the market for desktop productivity software.
The beta version of StarOffice 6.1 will be available for download from Sun's Web site by the middle of next week. It adds features designed to make it more appealing to large businesses, said Iyer Venkatesan, Sun's product line manager for StarOffice. The final version is expected to ship in September or October, he said.
"The main focus with 6.1 is the enterprise. We made it ready for enterprise deployment," he said.
The company faces some healthy competition. Ottawa-based Corel Corp. said last week that it plans to ship the next version of its productivity suite, WordPerfect Office 11, in late April. And market leader Microsoft Corp. released the final public beta of Office 2003, an upgrade to its own desktop productivity suite, today.
The StarOffice beta will be available for Sun Solaris, Linux and versions of Windows from Windows 98 on, Venkatesan said. Sun hopes to sign up about 50,000 users for the beta trial and will screen them to ensure that an even mix of platforms, languages and types of user are represented. About 10,000 users have already signed up for the test, according to Venkatesan.
The main enhancements in StarOffice 6.1 include management tools that make it easier for businesses to deploy and configure the suite across a large number of systems. Sun also made the product compatible with tools used by people with disabilities, such as screen magnifiers and text-to-speech engines, which is a requirement for products to be used by the U.S. government, Venkatesan said.
The beta will be available next week in six European languages -- English, German, Spanish, Swedish, French and Italian -- as well as in Japanese, Korean and Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Venkatesan said. With Version 6.1, Sun included a handful of technologies that will allow it to begin translating the product into "more complex languages" such as Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic, Venkatesan said.
He acknowledged the competition posed by Microsoft, but said StarOffice has several selling points. It's compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, its user interface is similar to that of Office, making the learning process easy, and Sun offers more flexible licensing terms than Microsoft, said Venkatesan. For example, users can purchase one license for the product and then install it on up to five machines that they own, such as a desktop at work and a laptop at home, he said.
Sun also hopes the price tag will be a big lure. StarOffice sells atretail for $75.95 and is available to enterprises from $60 per user for 25 seats, he said. The retail price for the professional edition of Office XP is $579.99, according to Microsoft's Web site, with discounts available for volume purchases.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"This IT pilot fish is working on top of a raised platform running network cable when his employer-supplied cell phone..." Read more... "In Tuesday's IT Blogwatch, we watch IBM launch social-networking-in-the-cloud/software-as-a-service tools for business-unified-messaging-and-collaboration (phew). Not to mention the video-game election......" Read more... Read more Software posts or See all Blogs

Update: AMD spins off manufacturing to cut costs, raise funds IBM launches Bluehouse, a Facebook for business iPhone grabs top smart phone spot More top stories...

Microsoft's (un)secret weapon for winning the BI battle Microsoft scales out SQL Server 2008, wants to 'democratize BI' Oracle tries to step up on high-end databases

Health hazards for IT workers -- how that desk job wears your body down Too much junk food, too little exercise and a 24/7 tether to technology? Your body ain't happy, friend. Let us count the pains. NASA robot sends back evidence it's snowing on Mars Instruments on the surface of Mars have detected falling snow that is likely evaporating before it reaches the planet. Wall Street's collapse may be computer science's gain One positive development stemming from the collapse of Wall Street may be a boost in interest in computer science and IT careers among students who were previously interested in financial services jobs. Installing Linux apps: A few good tips Getting new software installed on Linux doesn't have to be hard, but it can differ depending on what you're installing. Windows Vista A to Z Reviews, analyses, how-tos, visual tours, hot issues and predictions about Microsoft's new OS. More Continuing Coverage After 9/11: Homeland Security Apple's iPhone Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader Bill Gates steps down BlackBerry Legal Battle Data Security Breaches Electronic Voting Firefox H-1B Visas HP's Boardroom Scandal Handheld Devices Hurricane Katrina Aftermath Microsoft Legal Issues Microsoft's Vista Open Source RFID Technology SCO's Linux Fight Sarbanes-Oxley Act Spam Voice Over IP Wi-Fi Windows Meta File Vulnerability Windows XP Service Pack 3 IT Careers 2010 Four years from now, the IT field will be a vastly different place. Will you be ready? More Special Reports Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Best in Class 2006 Computerworld Horizon Awards 2006 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2006 Salary Survey 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 IT Forecast 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 40 Years of Computerworld ASPs, Take Two Best Places to Work in IT 2003 Best Places to Work in IT 2004 Best Places to Work in IT 2005 Best Places to Work in IT 2006 Business Intelligence Home Runs Business Intelligence: Smarter BI Business Intelligence: The Future of BI CRM Goes Vertical CRM: Sober CRM Career Planning Guide 2005 Careers: IT Profession 2010 Computerworld Horizon Awards 2005 Data Management: Mining for Gems Data Management: Taming Data Chaos Development: Hard-Workin' Web Sites Development: New Tools New Choices Development: The New World of Application Development Development: The Web Services Tsunami Development: Web Services Hurdles Disaster Recovery: Preparing for the Worst E-commerce Grows Up E-mail/Groupware: Big Decisions Faces of Mobile IT Forecast 2006 Global Mobile Hardware: Multiple Cores, Multiple Challenges Hardware: On-Demand Un-Hyped Hardware: The Shape of Things to Come Horizon Awards: 10 Cool Cutting Edge Technologies IT Management: Guide to Managing Vendors IT Management: Navigating Global IT IT Management: Recovery Ahead IT Management: The Future of IT IT Management: The Resourceful Project Manager Innovative Technology Awards 2004 Management: Reinventing IT Microsoft in Transition Mobile/Wireless Leaders and Laggards Mobile/Wireless: The Untethered Worker Mobile/Wireless: Tiny Gadgets, Huge Costs Network Management: Taking Control Networking: Turbulence Ahead! Networking: VoIP Goes Mainstream Operating Systems: In the Slow Lane Operating Systems: Linux Goes Global Operating Systems: Should You Nix Unix? Outsourcing: Offshore Buyer's Guide Outsourcing: Outsourcing Dangers Premier 100 IT Leaders 2004 Best in Class Premier 100 IT Leaders 2005 Best in Class ROI: Do the Math! Salary Survey 2003 Salary Survey 2004 Salary Survey 2005 Security Action Plan Security: Compliance Headaches Security: Proactive Security Security: Risk and Reward Security: Tips From Security Pros Souped-up Security Storage: Battling Complexity Storage: Cheap & Secure Data Stores Storage: Stretching Your Storage Dollars Storage: The Lean Storage Machine Storage: The New Rules of Storage Storage: The Ultimate Backup Guide Supply Chain: Missing Links Supply Chain: RFID Reality Check The Business of Security Web 2.0 Security Wireless: Wireless At Work All Zones Application Performance Zone Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone Windows Protection Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone See your link here

SaaS Solutions for Remote Systems Management Download this Technology Briefing, free, compliments of Dell. (Source: Dell) The benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS) are extending their reach into systems management. So in addition to the more obvious cost control and rapid application deployment benefits, SaaS can be instrumental in filling needs for compliance, security and business continuity - all the while reducing costly infrastructure. Learn more in this brand new Technology Briefing. Download this executive briefing  From Laggard to Leader: Transforming the Data Center From Laggard to Leader: Transforming the Data Center Register for this complimentary webcast today! Go to the webcast  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Putting the Right Model in Place to Better Balance IT Supply and Business Demand Six Project Metrics Every CIO Should Know for Application Delivery Success Project Portfolio Management - Boost the value of IT View more whitepapers

• Update: AMD spins off manufacturing to cut costs, raise funds
• Microsoft's (un)secret weapon for winning the BI battle
• IBM launches Bluehouse, a Facebook for business
• More top stories 

Brought to you by Computerworld and InfoWorld, this virtual conference focuses on key areas such as: Service-oriented architecture (SOA) The event-driven enterprise Software-as-a-service (SaaS) Business architecture Plus many more tools to build, implement and maintain an agile architecture for the enterprise. This new and exciting event is available on demand October 1, 2008 through January 1, 2009. Visit the show floor now

"Turning information into a Competitive Advantage" Companies today are realizing that competitive advantage is harder to sustain when based solely on gains in productivity and cost efficiency. The focus is shifting to invest more in business optimization initiatives which rely on trusted information to develop new insights that deliver better business results. But how can this be done efficiently in a business environment across multiple applications and processes. The answer is an Information Agenda - an innovative approach to transforming business information into a strategic asset for competitive advantage. View this webcast now!  See more Webcasts

Best Places to Work in IT Where can you earn top dollar, get the best benefits, the latest IT and more? Find out in our 14th annual survey.