Rating: 
Summary: In your face, Gates
Review: Personally, I like Microsoft and Bill Gates. I support their efforts as entrepreneurs, and think the government was way off base in their suits. The same applies to the state suits. However, in the competitive spirit of American business, Sun has trumped Microsoft with Star Office. It works as well as MS Office Pro, and for the vast majority of computer users, this is all you need for word processing...and it does a lot more. This costs less than the closest Word, contained in Works Suite..[$$$]. If Sun keeps at it, look for a large price reduction at Microsoft.
Rating: 
Summary: Spreadsheet Too Clunky
Review: I never considered myself an "advanced" user of Excel, so I was hopefull that StarOffice would be advanced enough to meet my modest spreadsheet functionality demands. I was mostly disappointed after spending several hours trying to set up buttons to accomplish my most frequent requirements. One after another, setting up button functions involved work-arounds, compromises on results, or spending too much time clicking buttons and menus. If I was interested in spending that much time and attention in formatting and editing spreadsheets I would have continued with my old 1-2-3 classic. To be fair, it does have some well-thought out features, but in the end I decided that if my time (and attention) is worth anything I need to have a more functional spreadsheet.
I don't feel "ripped off" however and think it is probably worth the price even if I only end up using the presentation (slideshow) program.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but not quite there yet
Review: This Office product is clearly superior in many respects, and the equal to MS in most others. I have but one major complaint. The documentation for StarBasic, the equivalent of VBA, is non-existant for v6. If you intend to do more than macros, then wait for the books to come along to fill in this gap.
Rating:
Summary: Own 5.2 version
Review: I have the 'free' version from a sun download when they first promoted Star Office. The free version had no documentation but was easily used given it's similarities to MS Office and help menu. I will probably buy 6.0. For the money you can't beat it. I have done many spreadsheets, documents and presentations in Star and saved them in their MS .xls, .doc, .ppt forms to bring to work. No problem.You're nuts if you pony up big $ for MS.
Rating: 
Summary: They are about 5 years away.
Review: I tried this product for five minutes and it crashed five times. It runs like a hog and is worth about 5 cents. So if you like wasting your money go right ahead. Like me you will be right back to Office. :(
Rating:
Summary: STAROFFICE IS A TRUE STAR
Review: Software manufacturers have been slow at learning from the happenings in the hardware sector. But, thank God that they have finally learnt something.
When AMD's Athlons forced Intel to lower the prices of its over-valued Pentium processors, we the consumers were the ultimate beneficiaries: computers became affordable to many of us. The same story goes for other computer-components like the hard-disks, memory chips, and graphics cards.
Now, at about 10% of the going rate of an equivalent Microsoft Office suite, the StarOffice 6.0 from Sun Microsystems is the best all-round Office Suite currently in the market. Although it lacks one or two features present in Microsoft suite, it has several advantages over Microsoft's equivalent. One of these prominent advantages is the ability to run on both Microsoft and non-Microsoft Operating Systems. You will also spend a relatively paltry sum on it, compared to the hefty amount Microsoft demands for an equivalent suite with narrower Operating System preference.
The software tide is beginning to turn, and consumers' choice is either of these two: save your wad for a fine and reasonably priced application program, or lavish it on any over-ranked and over-valued item that Microsoft bait you with.
Rating:
Summary: Here Comes the Sun
Review: StarOffice 6.0 is a rather nifty software package and is a heavy duty alternative to either Microsoft's Office or WordPerfect Suite. Cheaper than its competitors, StarOffice offers an interface that is similar, but also manages a unique identity of its own. Installation of the product on my three laptops, however, yielded mixed results. Installation on Windows XP Professional and Home versions progressed with absolutely no problems. A Windows ME computer offered the blue screen of death seven times and did not recognize the program's restart. After the restart, Windows ME began scanning the hard drive claiming an illegal shutdown. Regardless, the program did install correctly despite the various misadventures, obviously adopting the Borg philosophy that 'Resistance is futile.' StarOffice offers quite an assortment of templates and examples easily accessed by the butterfly icon ensconced in the system's systray. The program's tips, help, and manual are extremely useful in order to get an experienced user started. Perhaps Microsoft offers more bells and whistles, but, for the price, StarOffice is a powerful home replacement. In fact, most businesses could use StarOffice and not miss the absence of Word, Excel, or Access in the least. The StarOffice spreadsheet is an adequate number cruncher. From simple auto sum, to complex formulas, one can easily manipulate numbers and create classy layouts. The Autopilot feature allows a person possessing weak mathematical skills to eventually figure a needed formula. The Presentation feature falls in line with the other programs as more than adequate for most people's needs. A database and draw program round out the package. What about those who have to use Office at work? Can Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files be read by StarOffice? I found most Word documents were easily handled by StarOffice, though some Excel graphs were misplaced. All in all, StarOffice is a powerful program for those needing to present data, handle mass mailings, write the great American novel, and manipulate numbers. For those who are considering Works or WordPerfect as an alternative and cheaper route from Microsoft Office, give StarOffice a shot.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive!!!
Review: I love it! StarOffice does the same thing as MS Office, but at a fraction of the cost. It's an impressive piece of software and easy to use. Switching from a Microsoft product to this one is like switching between a Nisson & Toyota car...they have slight differences, but accomplish the same task and both can compare to one another overall. Every software program has its errors or bugs...this one has no less than any of the others. The biggest difference is the price which is amazing if you think about it. I am finding that StarOffice is powerful and can do anything from word processing to presentations, not to mention drawing, text/HTML editor, and even a database. It's awesome and a great alternative to other software programs that cost an arm and a leg. I purchased it right when it came out and I think it deserves a 5 Star rating!
Rating: 
Summary: NOT "fully compatible" !!!!
Review: The spec may say fully MS Office compatible, but it's not. The first file I tried to open was an Excel file that was password protected. Star Office simply told me that it was unable to open the file and had an error that it was uable to rectify. It knew the file had a password but couldn't even open a dialog box asking for a password. A lot of my files are P/W protected and I receive a lot from other people. This program is essentially useless when working with P/W protection.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent office suite
Review: I have used StarOffice for a long time and have been very pleased with it. One thing that has always irritated me about StarOffice, however, is the way it does indenting. It looks something like this (just imagine white space instead of underlines. Amazon strips out white space so I improvised.): This is a test sentence to show
_____what StarOffice's indent
_____functionality looks like. No matter what I do, I can't get the indenting to line up correctly on certain templates (like the resume template). The top line is always one indentation to the left of the rest. Other than this irritant, StarOffice is a great product.
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