View this article at: http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/08/08/staroffice.9.for.the.mac/

Friday, Aug 08, 2008 1:00am

First Look: StarOffice 9 fo...

Practically every business uses Microsoft Office these days. Windows users have always had a much wider variety of Microsoft Office alternatives, but on the Mac, the only serious competitor to Microsoft Office has been Apple’s iWork. However, Sun Microsystems has recently released a beta of its new StarOffice suite, which provides yet another office suite competitor in the Mac market.

The most immediate difference between the two office suites is that the Mac version of Microsoft Office only offers a word processor (Word), spreadsheet (Excel), presentation (PowerPoint), and e-mail client (Entourage) while StarOffice offers a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing program (Draw), and database (Base).

Comparing the retail price of Microsoft Office ($399.95) and its Home and Student Edition ($149.95) with StarOffice ($69.95) clearly shows the price advantage of this rival office suite.

Of course, price isn’t the only criteria for evaluating software. Since so many people rely on and share Microsoft Office files, file compatibility can be crucial. Fortunately, Sun’s office suite shines in this area by supporting a variety of file formats ranging from ancient files such as WordPerfect and Quattro Pro files to the latest Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP/2007 file formats.