StarOffice
Encyclopedia
StarOffice, known briefly as Oracle Open Office before its discontinuation in 2010, is a proprietary
office suite
. It was originally developed by StarDivision which was acquired by Sun Microsystems
in 1999. Sun was itself acquired in 2009 by Oracle Corporation
.
StarOffice supports the OpenOffice.org XML
file format, as well as the OpenDocument
standard, and can generate PDF
and Flash
formats. It includes template
s, a macro recorder, and a software development kit
(SDK).
The source code
of the suite was released in July 2000, creating a free
, open source
office suite called OpenOffice.org
, which subsequent versions of StarOffice were based on, with additional proprietary components.
In April 2011, Oracle announced the discontinuation of Oracle Open Office as part of the decision to turn OpenOffice.org into a "purely community-based project".
, Korean
, Simplified Chinese
and Traditional Chinese
interfaces. It also included additional fonts for the East Asian market, resulting in slightly larger installation footprint. Otherwise the features were identical to StarOffice.
The two brands existed because the StarOffice brand was owned by another company in certain Asian countries. Currently NEC
produces StarOffice collaborative software in Japan. After Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems (in January 2010) it re-named both StarOffice and StarSuite as "Oracle Open Office".
For StarOffice Enterprise Edition only:
Other differences are that StarOffice only supports 12 languages, compared to over 110 for OpenOffice.org.
company StarDivision in Lüneburg
(founded by 16-year-old Marco Börries in 1984) wrote the original components of StarOffice. StarDivision developed the first version of StarWriter for the Zilog Z80
home-computer system, the Amstrad
CPC
(marketed by Schneider in Germany) under CP/M
, and later for the Commodore 64
under Microsoft BASIC
, which was later ported to the 8086-based Amstrad PC-1512
, running under MS-DOS
3.2. Later, the integration of the other individual programs followed as the development progressed to an Office Suite for DOS, IBM'S OS/2 Warp, and for the Microsoft Windows operating-system. From this time onwards StarDivision marketed its suite under the name "StarOffice."
Until version 4.2, StarDivision based StarOffice on the cross-platform
C++
class library StarView. In 1998 StarDivision began offering StarOffice for free.
Sun Microsystems acquired the company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice in 1999 for US$73.5 million. Sun wanted to compete with Microsoft Office
, and also wanted to save money on licenses for Microsoft Office and Windows:
Supported platforms included DOS.
Supported platforms included DOS, Windows 3.1, OS/2, Solaris Sparc. Power Mac beta support was introduced in 1996.
relicensing of Mozilla
, by releasing most of the StarOffice source code under a free/open source
license. The resultant free/open source software codebase fork continued development as OpenOffice.org
, with contributions from both Sun and the wider OpenOffice.org community. Sun then took "snapshots" of the OpenOffice.org code base, integrated proprietary and third-party code modules, and marketed the package commercially.
StarOffice 5.2 was the last version to contain the programs listed under Older Discontinued Components. It was also the last version to support multiple virtual desktops, previously available from within the Suite.
Supported platforms included: MS Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000; Linux i386; Solaris Sparc/x86.
Support for OpenOffice.org XML file format.
Supported platforms included Windows 95, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc/x86. OpenOffice.org version also supported Windows ME/2000 for Asian/CJK versions, generic Linux 2.2.13 with glibc2 2.1.3, Solaris 7 SPARC (8 for Asian version).
Supported platforms included Windows 98, Linux i386, Solaris 8 Sparc/x86. OpenOffice.org version also supports generic Linux with Glibc 2.2.0, Mac OS X 10.2 for PowerPC with X11 in OOO 1.1.2.
Product Update 5 added Windows NT 4.0 as a supported platform and incorporated support for the OpenDocument file-format.
Product Updates 6-8 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.1. The OOO version added support for Mac OS X 10.3 for PowerPC, and for Mac OS X 10.4 for x86.
Product Updates 9-11 built on OpenOffice.org 2.2. New features included enhanced Windows Vista integration, PDF export.
Product Update 12 was based on OpenOffice.org 2.4. The OOO version added support for Linux x86-64, Linux MIPS, Linux S390, Mac OS X x86/PPC above 10.4. New features included improved input and sorting in Calc, block markings in text documents, new import filtering, improved security, access to WebDAV
servers via HTTPS, and PDF export for long-term archiving.
Supported platforms include Windows 98/2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), Linux i386, Solaris 8 Sparc/x86. OpenOffice.org version also supports generic Linux 2.2.13 with glibc2 2.2.0, Mac OS X 10.4 in OOO 2.0.3 with X11.
Product Updates 2-5 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.1. OOO version added support of Mac OS X 10.3 for PowerPC, Mac OS X 10.4 for x86.
Product Updates 6-7 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.2. New features include enhanced Windows Vista integration, PDF export.
Product Updates 8-9 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.3. New features include bookmark support for PDF export, MediaWiki
export in Writer.
Product Updates 10-11 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.4. OOO version added support of Linux x86-64, Linux MIPS, Linux S390, Mac OS X x86/PPC above 10.4. New features include improved input and sorting in Calc, block markings in text documents, new import filter, improved security, access to WebDAV
servers via HTTPS, PDF export for long-term archiving.
It is based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.
Supported platforms include Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), Mac OS X 10.4 (Intel version), Linux 2.4 i386 with glibc2 version 2.3.2 or higher, gtk version 2.2.0 or higher, Solaris 10 for Sparc/x86. OOO version supports Mac OS X PPC, generic Linux platforms.
Product Update 1 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, which adds improved extension manager, but requires extensions in the new format
Product Update 2 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.0
Product Update 3 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.1
Product Update 4 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.2
70, but in 2004, Sun planned to offer subscription-based licenses to Japan
ese customers for about ¥
1,980 (US$17) per year (Becker, 2004). P. Ulander, a desktop products manager for Sun, acknowledged that Sun planned to expand subscription-based licenses to other countries as well. Sun's website offered StarOffice for US$34.95.
Sun used a per-person license for StarOffice, compared to the per-device licenses used for most other proprietary software. An individual purchaser gains the right to install the software on up to five computers. For example, a small-business owner can have the software on laptop, office and home computers, or a user with a computer running Microsoft Windows, and another running Linux, can install StarOffice on both computers.
, StarOffice 9 Software is no longer offered at no-charge to education customers. Education users can use OpenOffice.org 3.0, which has the same functionality as StarOffice 9 Software, or continue using StarOffice 8 Software, which remains no-charge. Sun also offered free web-based training and an online tutorial for students and teachers, free support services for teachers (including educational templates for StarOffice) and significantly discounted technical support for schools.
From August 2007 to November 2008, Google
offered StarOffice 8 as part of its free downloadable Google Pack
application.
Users of the Solaris 11 Express Community Edition receive StarOffice 9 for free along with the operating system. OpenSolaris users who register their OS with Sun have the ability to download the Express Community Edition for free.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
office suite
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
. It was originally developed by StarDivision which was acquired by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
in 1999. Sun was itself acquired in 2009 by Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
.
StarOffice supports the OpenOffice.org XML
OpenOffice.org XML
OpenOffice.org XML is an open XML-based file format developed as an open community effort by Sun Microsystems and other OpenOffice.org project contributors in 2000-2002. The open-source software application suite OpenOffice.org 1.x and StarOffice 6 used the format as their native and default file...
file format, as well as the OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
standard, and can generate PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
and Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
formats. It includes template
Template (file format)
The term document template when used in the context of file format refers to a common feature of many software applications that define a unique non-executable file format intended specifically for that particular application....
s, a macro recorder, and a software development kit
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
(SDK).
The source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
of the suite was released in July 2000, creating a free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
, open source
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
office suite called OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
, which subsequent versions of StarOffice were based on, with additional proprietary components.
In April 2011, Oracle announced the discontinuation of Oracle Open Office as part of the decision to turn OpenOffice.org into a "purely community-based project".
Naming
StarSuite, the version of StarOffice with Asian language localization, included JapaneseJapanese writing system
The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts:*Kanji, adopted Chinese characters*Kana, a pair of syllabaries , consisting of:...
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, Simplified Chinese
Simplified Chinese character
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Xiandai Hanyu Tongyong Zibiao for use in Mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of many standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language...
and Traditional Chinese
Traditional Chinese character
Traditional Chinese characters refers to Chinese characters in any character set which does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. It most commonly refers to characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong, or in the Kangxi...
interfaces. It also included additional fonts for the East Asian market, resulting in slightly larger installation footprint. Otherwise the features were identical to StarOffice.
The two brands existed because the StarOffice brand was owned by another company in certain Asian countries. Currently NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
produces StarOffice collaborative software in Japan. After Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems (in January 2010) it re-named both StarOffice and StarSuite as "Oracle Open Office".
Sun ONE Webtop
In 2001 Sun Microsystems announced Sun ONE Webtop - formerly known as project StarPortal - a limited release. It is based on StarOffice components.Components
- Oracle Open Office Writer — word processorWord processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
.sdw (StarWriter 5.x) .sxw (StarOffice 6.x) .odt .ott -files - Oracle Open Office Calc — spreadsheetSpreadsheetA spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
.sdc (StarCalc 5.x) .sxc (6.x) .ods .ots -files - Oracle Open Office Impress — presentation programPresentation programA presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show...
.sdd (StarImpress 5.x) .sxi (6.x) .odp .otp -files - Oracle Open Office Draw — drawing program .sda (StarDraw 5.x) .sxd (6.x) .odg .otg -files
- Oracle Open Office Base — databaseDatabaseA database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
.sdb (StarBase 5.x) .odb -files - Oracle Open Office Math — formulaFormulaIn mathematics, a formula is an entity constructed using the symbols and formation rules of a given logical language....
generator .smf (StarMath 5.x) .sxm (6.x) .odf -files
Older discontinued components
- StarSchedule — personal information managerPersonal information managerA personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study...
.sds -files - StarMail — e-mail clientE-mail clientAn email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent , is a computer program used to manage a user's email.The term can refer to any system capable of accessing the user's email mailbox, regardless of it being a mail user agent, a relaying server, or a human typing on a terminal...
- StarDiscussion — news clientNews clientA newsreader is an application program that reads articles on Usenet . Newsreaders act as clients which connect to a news server, via the Network News Transfer Protocol , to download articles and post new articles...
- Web browser - web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
- HTML editor - html editorHTML editorAn HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related...
Proprietary components
- Several font metric compatible UnicodeUnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
TrueTypeTrueTypeTrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
fonts containing bitmap representations for better appearance at smaller font sizes - Twelve Western fonts (including Andale Sans, Arial NarrowArialArial, sometimes marketed or displayed in software as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Fonts from the Arial family are packaged with Microsoft Windows, some other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X and many PostScript 3 computer printers...
, Arial BlackArialArial, sometimes marketed or displayed in software as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Fonts from the Arial family are packaged with Microsoft Windows, some other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X and many PostScript 3 computer printers...
, Broadway, GaramondGaramondGaramond is the name given to a group of old-style serif typefaces named after the punch-cutter Claude Garamond . Most of the Garamond faces are more closely related to the work of a later punch-cutter, Jean Jannon...
, Imprint MT Shadow, Kidprint, Palace Script, Sheffield) and seven Asian language fonts (including support for the Hong Kong Supplementary character set) - Adabas DAdabas DAdabas D is a relational database management system owned by Software AG since 1994, when Software AG acquired SQL-Datenbanksysteme GmbH from Siemens Nixdorf AG....
database - StarOffice-only templatesTemplate (file format)The term document template when used in the context of file format refers to a common feature of many software applications that define a unique non-executable file format intended specifically for that particular application....
and sample documents - A large clip-artClip artClip art, in the graphic arts, refers to pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively in both personal and commercial projects, ranging from home-printed greeting cards to commercial candles. Clip art comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However,...
gallery - Sorting functionality for Asian versions
- File-import filters for additional older word-processing formats (including EBCDIC, DisplayWrite, MultiMateMultiMateMultiMate was a word processor developed by Softword Systems Inc. for IBM PC MS-DOS computers in the early 1980s. Wilton H. Jones, a programmer turned entrepreneur MultiMate was a word processor developed by Softword Systems Inc. (later renamed Multimate International) for IBM PC MS-DOS computers...
, PFS Write, WordStar, WordStar 2000, and XyWrite (conversion filters licensed from MasterSoft)) - A different spell checkerSpell checkerIn computing, a spell checker is an application program that flags words in a document that may not be spelled correctly. Spell checkers may be stand-alone capable of operating on a block of text, or as part of a larger application, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary,...
(note that OpenOffice.org includes a spell checker as well) and thesaurusThesaurusA thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations... - StarOffice Configuration Manager
- Macro Converter for converting Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
VBAVisual Basic for ApplicationsVisual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6 and its associated integrated development environment , which are built into most Microsoft Office applications...
macros to StarOffice BasicStarOffice BasicStarOffice Basic is a dialect of BASIC that is included with the OpenOffice.org and StarOffice office suites.-Example:...
For StarOffice Enterprise Edition only:
- Professional Analysis Wizard
- Wizard to create Microsoft Windows Installer Transformation files (.mst files)
Other differences
There are also differences in the documentation, training and support options, and some minor differences in the look and icons between Oracle Open Office and OpenOffice.org.Other differences are that StarOffice only supports 12 languages, compared to over 110 for OpenOffice.org.
History
The GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
company StarDivision in Lüneburg
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs...
(founded by 16-year-old Marco Börries in 1984) wrote the original components of StarOffice. StarDivision developed the first version of StarWriter for the Zilog Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
home-computer system, the Amstrad
Amstrad
Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
(marketed by Schneider in Germany) under CP/M
CP/M
CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
, and later for the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
under Microsoft BASIC
Microsoft BASIC
Microsoft BASIC was the foundation product of the Microsoft company. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first BASIC, and the first high level programming language available for the MITS Altair 8800 hobbyist microcomputer....
, which was later ported to the 8086-based Amstrad PC-1512
PC-1512
The Amstrad PC1512 was Amstrad's mostly IBM PC-compatible computer system, first manufactured in 1986. It was later succeeded by the PC1640.It launched for £499 and sold very well, as it was one of the first cheap PCs in Europe...
, running under MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
3.2. Later, the integration of the other individual programs followed as the development progressed to an Office Suite for DOS, IBM'S OS/2 Warp, and for the Microsoft Windows operating-system. From this time onwards StarDivision marketed its suite under the name "StarOffice."
Until version 4.2, StarDivision based StarOffice on the cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
class library StarView. In 1998 StarDivision began offering StarOffice for free.
Sun Microsystems acquired the company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice in 1999 for US$73.5 million. Sun wanted to compete with Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
, and also wanted to save money on licenses for Microsoft Office and Windows:
- The number one reason why Sun bought StarDivision in 1999 was because, at the time, Sun had something approaching forty-two thousand employees. Pretty much every one of them had to have both a Unix workstation and a Windows laptop, and it was cheaper to buy a company that could make a Solaris and Linux desktop productivity suite than it was to buy forty-two thousand licenses from Microsoft. — Simon PhippsSimon Phipps (programmer)Simon Phipps is a computer scientist and web and open source advocate.Phipps was instrumental in IBM's involvement in the Java programming language, founding IBM's Java Technology Center. He left IBM for Sun Microsystems in 2000, taking leadership of Sun's open source programme from Danese Cooper...
, Sun, LUGradio podcast
StarOffice 1.0
The first StarOffice suite included StarWriter compact, StarBase 1.0, StarDraw 1.0.Supported platforms included DOS.
StarOffice 3.0
StarOffice 3.0 included StarWriter 3.0, StarCalc 3.0, StarDraw 3.0, StarImage, StarChart.Supported platforms included DOS, Windows 3.1, OS/2, Solaris Sparc. Power Mac beta support was introduced in 1996.
3.1
Supported platforms included Windows 3.1/95, OS/2 (16-bit), Linux i386, Solaris Sparc/x86, Mac OS 7.5 – 8.0.StarOffice 4.0
Supported platforms included Windows 3.1/95, OS/2, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc/x86, Mac OS (beta).StarOffice 5
Supported platforms included Windows 95/NT 3.51, OS/2, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc/x86.5.2
Sun offered StarOffice 5.2 as a free download for personal use, and soon went through an exercise similar to Netscape'sNetscape
Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
relicensing of Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
, by releasing most of the StarOffice source code under a free/open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
license. The resultant free/open source software codebase fork continued development as OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
, with contributions from both Sun and the wider OpenOffice.org community. Sun then took "snapshots" of the OpenOffice.org code base, integrated proprietary and third-party code modules, and marketed the package commercially.
StarOffice 5.2 was the last version to contain the programs listed under Older Discontinued Components. It was also the last version to support multiple virtual desktops, previously available from within the Suite.
Supported platforms included: MS Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000; Linux i386; Solaris Sparc/x86.
StarOffice 6
Sun based StarOffice 6 on OpenOffice.org 1.0.Support for OpenOffice.org XML file format.
Supported platforms included Windows 95, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc/x86. OpenOffice.org version also supported Windows ME/2000 for Asian/CJK versions, generic Linux 2.2.13 with glibc2 2.1.3, Solaris 7 SPARC (8 for Asian version).
StarOffice 7
Based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.Supported platforms included Windows 98, Linux i386, Solaris 8 Sparc/x86. OpenOffice.org version also supports generic Linux with Glibc 2.2.0, Mac OS X 10.2 for PowerPC with X11 in OOO 1.1.2.
Product Update 5 added Windows NT 4.0 as a supported platform and incorporated support for the OpenDocument file-format.
Product Updates 6-8 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.1. The OOO version added support for Mac OS X 10.3 for PowerPC, and for Mac OS X 10.4 for x86.
Product Updates 9-11 built on OpenOffice.org 2.2. New features included enhanced Windows Vista integration, PDF export.
Product Update 12 was based on OpenOffice.org 2.4. The OOO version added support for Linux x86-64, Linux MIPS, Linux S390, Mac OS X x86/PPC above 10.4. New features included improved input and sorting in Calc, block markings in text documents, new import filtering, improved security, access to WebDAV
WebDAV
Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...
servers via HTTPS, and PDF export for long-term archiving.
StarOffice 8
In September 2005, Sun released StarOffice 8 (based on the code of OpenOffice.org 2.0), adding support for the OpenDocument standard and a number of improvements.(Supported platforms include Windows 98/2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), Linux i386, Solaris 8 Sparc/x86. OpenOffice.org version also supports generic Linux 2.2.13 with glibc2 2.2.0, Mac OS X 10.4 in OOO 2.0.3 with X11.
Product Updates 2-5 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.1. OOO version added support of Mac OS X 10.3 for PowerPC, Mac OS X 10.4 for x86.
Product Updates 6-7 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.2. New features include enhanced Windows Vista integration, PDF export.
Product Updates 8-9 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.3. New features include bookmark support for PDF export, MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
export in Writer.
Product Updates 10-11 are based on OpenOffice.org 2.4. OOO version added support of Linux x86-64, Linux MIPS, Linux S390, Mac OS X x86/PPC above 10.4. New features include improved input and sorting in Calc, block markings in text documents, new import filter, improved security, access to WebDAV
WebDAV
Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...
servers via HTTPS, PDF export for long-term archiving.
StarOffice 9
StarOffice 9, released in November 2008, added support for version 1.2 of the OpenDocument standard and Microsoft Office 2007 files and a number of other improvements.It is based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.
Supported platforms include Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), Mac OS X 10.4 (Intel version), Linux 2.4 i386 with glibc2 version 2.3.2 or higher, gtk version 2.2.0 or higher, Solaris 10 for Sparc/x86. OOO version supports Mac OS X PPC, generic Linux platforms.
Product Update 1 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, which adds improved extension manager, but requires extensions in the new format
Product Update 2 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.0
Product Update 3 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.1
Product Update 4 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.2
Pricing and licensing
Traditionally, StarOffice licenses sold for around US$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
70, but in 2004, Sun planned to offer subscription-based licenses to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese customers for about ¥
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
1,980 (US$17) per year (Becker, 2004). P. Ulander, a desktop products manager for Sun, acknowledged that Sun planned to expand subscription-based licenses to other countries as well. Sun's website offered StarOffice for US$34.95.
Sun used a per-person license for StarOffice, compared to the per-device licenses used for most other proprietary software. An individual purchaser gains the right to install the software on up to five computers. For example, a small-business owner can have the software on laptop, office and home computers, or a user with a computer running Microsoft Windows, and another running Linux, can install StarOffice on both computers.
, StarOffice 9 Software is no longer offered at no-charge to education customers. Education users can use OpenOffice.org 3.0, which has the same functionality as StarOffice 9 Software, or continue using StarOffice 8 Software, which remains no-charge. Sun also offered free web-based training and an online tutorial for students and teachers, free support services for teachers (including educational templates for StarOffice) and significantly discounted technical support for schools.
From August 2007 to November 2008, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
offered StarOffice 8 as part of its free downloadable Google Pack
Google Pack
Google Pack was a collection of software tools offered by Google to download in a single archive. It was announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, on January 6. Google Pack is currently only available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7...
application.
Users of the Solaris 11 Express Community Edition receive StarOffice 9 for free along with the operating system. OpenSolaris users who register their OS with Sun have the ability to download the Express Community Edition for free.