Star struck! Open source suite challenges Office
Summary Description Simon Vandore looks at the new open source StarOffice package and questions whether Sun can challenge Microsoft's dominance in the productivity suite race.
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Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore

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Editorial InformationArticle Location
Article Topic Special Report
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Story Group 001029
Post Date 24/10/2000 02:40 PM Status Posted Entered by Simon Vandore on 24/10/2000 01:21 PM


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Content
Introduction
A new assault on Microsoft's domination of the productivity software market has begun.

Body
In August last year Sun Microsystems bought the German company Star Division, producers of the StarOffice suite, and released the package as a free download. The ability of StarOffice to read and write the major Microsoft Office file formats across multiple platforms was intended to be a headache for Microsoft chiefs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
Sun also made available the source code for StarOffice under its quasi-open Sun Community Source Licence -- a 'look but don't touch' agreement -- but this was controversial with advocates of free software. It seemed Sun was still too nervous to fully embrace open source, because the licence still required royalties from anyone who used StarOffice code. Sun was accused of trying to align itself with the free software community based on the rationale that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', rather than becoming a real ally.
But Sun has finally taken the plunge. On October 13 it released the new StarOffice 5.2 source code under the GNU general public licence (GPL), which effectively opens up the source code to everyone. In fact, it's the largest piece of software ever to use the GPL.
"Developers now have the freedom to use StarOffice technology in any way," trumpets Sun's StarOffice Web site, "To improve their own products; to improve existing technology in StarOffice software; to suggest new directions for the StarOffice suite; and to contribute new StarOffice components to the open source community."
Sun is effectively offering its Microsoft Office competitor to the world and asking for help. The GPL release gives the Internet community carte blanche to enhance or take ideas from StarOffice to compete with or improve on Microsoft's technology. It also gives the open source community a significant leg-up in its struggle to provide alternatives to Microsoft domination.
The GPL requires that any code created using the StarOffice source code must also be released under the GPL, producing the same type of perpetual collaboration that made Linux successful. That is, anyone can add new features or completely rewrite the existing code, which can then be added to the next official release from Sun. Most major Linux distributors have signed agreements to package StarOffice with their Linux distributions. Sun's vice president and general manager of Web-top and application software, Marco Boerries (the founder of Star Division), has been widely quoted as saying, "We wanted to have the same impact on office suites that Linux has had on operating systems".
StarOffice is already cross-platform and is said to have about four million users worldwide, with versions for Windows, Linux and Solaris. The open source community now also has the opportunity to port the code to any other platform -- OS/2, Amiga OS and perhaps BeOS seem likely candidates and there is already talk on Usenet among fans of these platforms. The official OS/2 version of StarOffice was discontinued after the Star Division buyout and the OS/2 source code (still at version 5.1) has not been made publicly available. Sun has promised a Mac OS version later this year.
However, despite embracing the GPL, Sun hasn't abandoned other licensing mechanisms -- it is simultaneously offering the StarOffice source under another licence aimed at companies which do not subscribe to free software philosophies. The Sun Industry Standard Source Licence allows third parties to create add-ons and keep the source code private. Anyone who intends to sell software derived from the StarOffice code must pay royalties to Sun. Fortunately Sun has stated that anything produced this way must remain faithful to the GPL version of the code.
Motivations
So where's the money coming from? Sun may lose money in the short term by giving away StarOffice and releasing the source code but there's more to its strategy than simply annoying Bill Gates. Sun is still hanging on to add-on products like the StarPortal server, which makes it possible to run StarOffice as a thin client-style application accessed by remote terminals over the Internet.
StarPortal relies on very powerful networked servers, which are Sun's core competency. The company is also making a new range of thin clients which it hopes to sell to StarPortal users. Revenue streams advocated by the free software community, such as installation and technical support services, may not be enough to make StarOffice a going concern, but selling more hardware is what makes Sun CEO Scott McNealy happy.
Microsoft itself has plans for server-based versions of its productivity suite. Office Online, a version designed for remote access along the lines of application service provision (ASP), is the first stage, while application rental is also a key part of its next-generation .Net strategy. A radical rethink of software licensing and development procedures will take place over the next few years in line with .Net. However, Microsoft has signalled Office in its traditional client-installation format will be maintained in tandem with Office.Net for at least a decade. The real threat from an open, freely downloadable StarOffice may be at this end of the market..
The biggest losers could be Corel's WordPerfect suite and Lotus SmartSuite, which command relatively small segments of the office productivity market and may be squashed completely by the availability of a free, highly adaptable competitor.
Star central
Sun is sponsoring an organisation to coordinate open source StarOffice development, called OpenOffice.org. Hosted by CollabNet, it offers downloadable resources for anyone interested in furthering the code. The first project announced is the establishment of open, XML-based standards for productivity suite file formats. Sun has signalled that version 6.0 of the suite, due for release in about six months, will include APIs, file formats and reference implementation from OpenOffice.org.
Note that the StarOffice user support site remains at http://www.staroffice.com/, while a cybersquatter has already snapped up openoffice.com.
OpenOffice.org bears a remarkable similarity to the Mozilla.org effort to boost the Netscape Web browser suite. Netscape (a regular Sun ally) went open source back in 1998 and its first new release since that time, Communicator 6, is nearing completion. However, one feature of Mozilla.org has been its slow progress -- projects to give Communicator XML support, fix long-standing bugs, enhance its HTML Composer application and successfully port it to other operating systems have all been sluggish. But significant progress has been made and the same can be expected this time around.
Meanwhile, Sun is winning the popularity stakes in online discussion forums. The only anti-Sun gripe left in the free software community is that Java remains determinedly closed-source.


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Bulletin SummarySpecial Report: Star struck! Open source suite challenges Office
A new assault on Microsoft's domination of the productivity software market has begun. In August last year Sun Microsystems bought the German company Star Division, producers of the StarOffice suite, and released the package as a free download. Can the free software community help Sun beat Microsoft in the productivity suite race?

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Special Report: Star struck! Open source suite challenges Office

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