Sun to offer Microsoft Office competitor for free
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
August 30, 1999, 5:55 p.m. PT
As part of Sun Microsystems' acquisition of software firm Star Division, the computing company will put more pressure on Microsoft by giving a Microsoft Office competitor away for free to anyone, the company said.
As reported earlier by CNET News.com, the Star Division acquisition gives Sun the Star Office suite of office productivity software. Star Office is similar to Microsoft Office, but it runs on Linux and Sun's Solaris operating systems as well. Microsoft Office is by far the most popular office productivity software, containing programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel.
In the longer term, though, an upcoming version of the software suite called StarPortal is more significant, Marco Boerries, founder and former owner of Star Division, said in an interview with CNET News.com. With StarPortal, due by the end of the year, the heavy lifting is handled by a powerful central server and people access the software through gadgets including cell phones, TV set-top boxes, and laptops.
Tomorrow, when Sun officially announces the Star Division acquisition in New York, the company will demonstrate the use of StarPortal on a Java-enabled PalmPilot, which is connected to a server.
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