StarOffice 6.0

Rating:
Summary: Finally a office product that is truly amazing
Review: I've been using StarOffice 6.0 and its truly amazing in the features it offers and the PRICE you pay. I was a MS Office user before trying this out and have been able to transition to this very smoothly. I think the support for MS Office documents is seamless. XML file format, thats the very best, no more tied to proprietary formats, a very powerful move. I have used StarOffice 5.2 and this one's much superior to it in terms of performance. One of the nice change is the ability to launch standalone applications, which was missing in StarOffice 5.2 with its integrated desktop. Also nice is the ability to work with it on a variety of platforms including Linux, Windows and Solaris. That surely gives me a choice of editing my office documents on the platform of my choice.

Rating:
Summary: Star Office
Review: The good: Runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris; handles most basic office-suite tasks, such as word processing; uses XML file formats that reduce file size and let you share documents across OSs; license lets you install suite on up to five machines. You don't need to activate it

The bad: lacks collaboration features; offers no database, dedicated Web page maker, PIM, or e-mail app.

Microsoft Office is expensive. But you get what you pay for.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent office applications suite!
Review: I have been using StarOffice since 5.2. StarOffice 6.0 is a big improvement and I use it for all my document, spreadsheet, and slide presentations. Personally, I like it better than any of the Microsoft Office product line. If you include cost savings, StarOffice is the clear winner. I am a physician/researcher and write and give presentations extensively. For me, clear and efficient presentation of content is most important. Most of my work requires straightforward formatting and tables. StarOffice gets the job done and enables me to read and output Microsoft documents when necessary. I create PDF files using Adobe Acrobat. My wife is a first grade teacher and uses StarOffice exclusively. I also use StarOffice to create and edit complex web tables for my web pages. It comes with a good relational database, Adabas, that is ODBC compliant. Major criticisms: StarOffice needs a better bibliography package (this can be an big issue if you need to submit manuscripts for publication), and the equation formula editor was so-so (LaTeX is still the best here).

Rating:
Summary: A Homerun, followed by a Touchdown, then a Slamdunk!
Review: Moderators, mod this one up Up UP! Sun once again moves to the front of the high-performance, high-impact classroom with a splendid Office suite that's destined to be a burr beneath Microsoft's collective saddle, a sharp stick in Microsoft's collective eye, and the topic of throw-down discussion and debate around a thounsand--no, make that a thousand thousand--dinner tables.
While beta versions offered a tantalizing hint of the goodness to come, only the full retail version delivers on the 'write once, run anywhere, and do it in style' promise Sun made to the public when it purchased the WordPerfect suite from Corel a few years back. Case in point: StarOffice 6.0, unlike the final 5.9RC2 version, is *fully* skinnable, allowing easy one-click import of winamp AND windows media players skins. If that isn't agnosticism, I'm Tallulah Bankhead's last living relative!
All of the functionality one would expect from a modern officesuite is present, of course: spell checker, integrated calendaring with a clean GUI-frontend to an XML-based webservice system for allowing easy scheduling of restaurant reservations, full ANSI and POSIX compliance, blah blah blah. Of special note is the Nanny mode, allowing parents to easily monitor and regulate their child's use of the suite, functionality that Microsoft Office has YET to deliver after almost a decade of promising that this critical functionality would be delivered "in the next full release, with Macintosh support following a year later."
I could blather on for hours about this splendid product, but instead "I'll let my hero Slavoj Zizek explain further[:]
'An ideology is thus not necessarily `false`'[.]" In fact, if my eyes are to be believed, Sun has delivered a product that will give Microsoft's cash cow Office suite a run for its money in the newly competitive [thanks, Sun!] productivity tool marketplace!

Rating:
Summary: Nice idea, but can't pull it off
Review: I'm 100% in favor of loosening the stranglehold that Microsoft has on PC users. Microsoft's Word program is ridiculously expensive and leaves much to be desired. Anyone who has contended with the formatting quirks and the obnoxious paperclip cartoon in Word knows what I am talking about. Unfortunately, StarOffice 6.0 falls far short of being an acceptable substitute for the flawed, but superior, Microsoft Word program. Star Office is slow, clunky and just plain awkward to use. SO frequently locks up for several seconds when I need to quickly backspace and correct mistakes that I have just typed. This alone is reason to seriously consider not getting this program. If you do not type much and just need a program to draft the occasional letter, SO will be adequate and much cheaper than Word. However, if you do a fair amount of typing and need a more powerful word processing program, I can't recommend this product. As frustrating as Word can be at times, I find SO to be infuriating every time I use it for lengthy projects.

Rating:
Summary: staroffice rocks but there are some issues
Review: Everything works great with staroffice and openoffice software. Opening and saving MS documents is a breeze as long there are not VB/VB script controls associated with them (most of my documents don't). I have this installed on Redhat linux 9.0 and Win98. I am glad that they got rid of Staroffice desktop manager. For a product at this price the features are great but I will continue to spend more money on MS products for the following reasons.
1. Whenever I saved a document, our ceiling fan at home stopped.
2. Whenever I opened a document, the coffee machine at work broke.
3. I want to donate more money to MS camp.

Rating:
Summary: if your budget is really tight only...
Review: Star Office is a bargain (especially if you consider that the license permits install on up to 5 PC's.) For a home or small office / home office user, it may be all you need. If you have to exchange complex or highly formatted documents with MS Office frequently, you may be less satisfied, but that's a function of your environment and no reflection on what is clearly a good product.

What you get are a word processor, spreadsheet, presenation program, and a graphics program. The programs have basic to intermediate compatiblity with their MS Office counterparts -- if you're using advanced features in Word or Excel, you will find minor glitches here and there but if you are doing routine documents you'll be ok. You don't get an Outlook counterpart, although if you're using Linux, Ximian Evolution is a perfect way to fill than "hole".

Top level menus in the Star Office applications are nearly identical to the Office counterparts, but as you go deeper into the menus looking for features, experienced Word and Excel users will find themselves a bit disoriented at times. Star Office features clipart and some other features not in Open Office (with which is shares a common origin).

I'm not one of the MS haters, but clearly competition is good, and Star Office is well on its way to being a contender...