Sun to remove all free StarOffice downloads
Tuesday, May 28, 2002 by mcs2k1 | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Sun have announced that they will be removing links to download their popular office suite this Wednesday, following their decision to charge for StarOffice 6. Star Office 5.2 has proven one of the best office suites and has been seen as a free alternative to Microsoft Office thanks to its well-developed import and export filters.
The StarOffice 5.2 package will now be $39.95 for the deluxe version and $9.99 for a ‘Slim Kit’ version. This is a move that has seen a complete U-turn in the way it is distributed as when Sun bought out Star Division (the original developers of Star Office) it was distributed as a payed product. It has been available on a variety of platforms, including Windows and Linux but has never been available for the Mac OS.
The open source community rely quite heavily on using the facilities of Star Office for importing and exporting Microsoft files and have reacted strongly to this and the charging for StarOffice 6. Many open source companies have trouble keeping to the community’s ethos of making money from the product, but not selling it and making it proprietary.
The use of proprietary software by some open-source companies such as Mandrake is now a reality, as they use the offer of Star Office 6 as a sweetener to join their ‘club’ (i.e. pay a regular subscription). Ximian are now also charging for software which allows users to use Microsoft Exchange servers and to add the Star Office 6 package to their desktop by buying Ximian’s packaged product. On the other hand SuSE have chosen to not use Star Office and to move onto Open Office now, but they already charge for their distribution.
The financial feasibility of open-source is shown in companies like Red Hat who charge for services and support but for many companies giving away software is proving impractical, as the latest developments prove.
Source: http://www.neowin.net/
The StarOffice 5.2 package will now be $39.95 for the deluxe version and $9.99 for a ‘Slim Kit’ version. This is a move that has seen a complete U-turn in the way it is distributed as when Sun bought out Star Division (the original developers of Star Office) it was distributed as a payed product. It has been available on a variety of platforms, including Windows and Linux but has never been available for the Mac OS.
The open source community rely quite heavily on using the facilities of Star Office for importing and exporting Microsoft files and have reacted strongly to this and the charging for StarOffice 6. Many open source companies have trouble keeping to the community’s ethos of making money from the product, but not selling it and making it proprietary.
The use of proprietary software by some open-source companies such as Mandrake is now a reality, as they use the offer of Star Office 6 as a sweetener to join their ‘club’ (i.e. pay a regular subscription). Ximian are now also charging for software which allows users to use Microsoft Exchange servers and to add the Star Office 6 package to their desktop by buying Ximian’s packaged product. On the other hand SuSE have chosen to not use Star Office and to move onto Open Office now, but they already charge for their distribution.
The financial feasibility of open-source is shown in companies like Red Hat who charge for services and support but for many companies giving away software is proving impractical, as the latest developments prove.
Source: http://www.neowin.net/
GraveDigger
Reply #2 Thursday, May 30, 2002 11:24 PM
Reply #2 Thursday, May 30, 2002 11:24 PM
I''ve used StarOffice since it was available as a free download from Star Division and while it was a interesting alternative, it never replaced Microsoft Office on my PC - now with StarOffice vying for shelf space with Lotus SmartSuite and Corel''s WordPerfect Office, I don''t really think that it''s going to gain any significant marketshare. Unless they''ve improved the interface, it''s still clunky compared to the others and at $80 it''s not a whole lot cheaper (considering that you can find the non-MS Office programs on sale at the major discounters and OEM versions can be obtained from the local computer shows for a LOT less. 
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Reply #1 Thursday, May 30, 2002 7:55 AM