Rating: 
Summary: Absurd to buy unless you use Linux
Review: My only question would be "why?" If you are using a Windows operating system, just go with Microsoft. And if you're using Linux, I'd have to ask "why?" as well. If you really want to use Linux, I suppose this is for you. Otherwise, it's a ridiculous purchase. This came for free on a computer I once owned and I deleted it.
Rating: 
Summary: Quality, freedom, oh, and a _lot_less_ cost
Review: Awesome product, I'd played with SO 5.2 a while back and it was good, but a little buggy. This one however is great. It has way more functionality than any normal mortal needs. So far at least there's not been anything I wanted to do that I couldn't (though to be fair, I sometimes had to look twice to find how to do it...For help with finding functionality, get the "StarOffice Companion by Haugland and Jones", it's a great book, well laid out and easy to use, tells just what you need to do, and with a good index (why is that so rare??) so you can find what you wanted). Frankly I feel free at last. I'll not be using any of micky$loth's overpriced "you have to buy your bug fixes, and then we'll make it incompatible with your friends with the old version" software any more. I'm running StarOffice on Windows XP right now but, I think I might have to check out Linux, as I understand StarOffice runs on that too.
Rating: 
Summary: Cheaper than M$ Office
Review: Many people voted for StarOffice simply because it is cheaper than MS Office or hoping that it will force MS to lower prices on its MS Office sometimes in the future. I personally don't agree because people shouldn't compare StarOffice to MSOffice head to head, but with other alternatives as well. For a little more ... people can get some better suites like Works Suites or Corel Family Pack. For family users, I'll recommend Works Suites for its generous software bundle while for office users, I'll recommend Corel Family Pack as its spreadsheet is 100 times more powerful than StarCalc. I use StarOffice simply because it works well with my Linux system. I suggest people considering StarOffice take a look on the reviews on Works Suite & Corel Family Pack in Cnet before making the decision.
Rating:
Summary: Good deal
Review: But for the price, this is a bargain, but not best for those who must have complete, 100% Microsoft Office compatibility in both directions. If you just need a broad and powerful office applications suite and will not be moving large and complex documents back and forth to MS Office, it is a good bet, worth the price just for the graphics program alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth it
Review: First a caveat: there are many aspects of a program this large, and it is impossible to focus on all of them. If you are not interested in knowing about the database capabilities of this product, don't bother reading the rest of my review. The primary reason I got Star Office 6.0 was for the database capabilities. Specifically, I was looking for a good form and report generator. I found a form generator, but it is the same one that is in OpenOffice.org 1.0. I cannot find a report generator anywhere. I am not talking about linking a Writer document or Calc spreadsheet to a data source; I am talking about a true master/detail report. If there is one, I haven't found it. The rest of the package isn't bad, it is just that everything useful to me is already included in OpenOffice.org, which can be legally downloaded for free. I don't say that so much as a plug for them, but as a warning that you will probably feel like you didn't get your money's worth if you pay for this and have used OpenOffice.org. I sure don't.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good but has some essential flaws
Review: On the whole a very good suite. However, after using it for several months I have found the following important limitations: 1. You cannot search for and replace end of paragraph marks. This is important when documents are imported from another application and have to be re-formatted. 2. There is no way to print envelopes. Form letters can be printed, but envelopes cannot. For a small business, it is essential to be able to print a single envelope on completing a letter. These comments apply to version 6.
Rating:
Summary: pretty impressive ...
Review: StarOffice 6 is an impressive office suite. With packages of software that more than match Microsoft Office Premium, on its own it will more than match your office needs. Many alternative to Microsoft Office are judged on the basis of its compatibility with Microsoft files, and StarOffice 6 performs remarkably well on this area as well. Quite an achievement considering Microsoft files is a moving target. For example, all my previous PowerPoint files are perfectly viewable in StarImpress 6 (part of StarOffice 6). True cross platform compatibility. On its own, the argument for a retail purchase of StarOffice 6 is compelling.
Rating:
Summary: Ok---unless you run on a Network
Review: Star Office 6.0 works great, as long as you are a stand-alone user. I can't get it to work at all on my Windows 2000 network. It requires that each individual user to their own "install" on each computer that they logon to. However, my 400 users are students who swap machines regularly, and do not have permissions to install software. It would cost our school ... to use Star Office, and [a lot] for the MS Office licenses. So, I'm stuck! The Sun Star Office Support Forum has lots of people with similar problems, but no solutions that work. The tech support people in Massachusetts must all be Unix folks---they just don't understand.
Rating:
Summary: Star Office 6.0 Disappoints
Review: I've been burned again! First Netscape 4.7 -> 6 is a step backwards now Sun Microsystems follows suit. You expect that going from version 5.2 -> 6.0 would be an UPgrade. The 5.2 calendar has been replaced in 6.0 by a spreadsheet! This is simply a waste of money. The promise of a cross platform competitor to Microsoft has been squandered. If you need that then stick with 5.2...
Rating:
Summary: Far too clunky, and poorly written compared to MSOffice XP..
Review: What can I say I am a programmer and I personally like Microsoft software a lot. Why, because it is very well written and extensive. After trying both Star and MS Office, I can honestly say I was much more productive with MS Office. MS Office XP has application crash recovery, and full intigration with the Windows XP interface, kernel, and data security features of the NTFS file system. While it is true that MS Office is expensive, it has never been more true than in this situation that "you get what you pay for."
Do yourself a favor and get a real Office suite like MS Office or if you just can't see yourself buying a MS product then try Lotus SmartSuite Millenium or WordPerfect Office 2002, they will yield much better results in the long run
| 
