# Will we ever see StarOffice on OSX?



## aluminum (Mar 26, 2002)

Is anyone aware of the current status of StarOffice of OSX? I know that sun dropped Mac support a while ago. Anyone know why? It would seem that if they are making it for Linux, it shouldn't be difficult to make it for OSX, should it?


----------



## samad_lotia (Mar 26, 2002)

Probably not. We  need some guy to port StarOffice source code (which is available to the open) to Carbon, which is certainly not an easy job. Sun cut its support for Apple long ago when Apple started to receive money from Microsoft.


----------



## samad_lotia (Mar 26, 2002)

I spoke too soon. Check this page out:
http://porting.openoffice.org/


----------



## nkuvu (Mar 26, 2002)

I didn't go check out the current status, but I have read that 90% or so of OpenOffice compiles on OS X.

Even if it compiles 100%, there will still be some beta testing to do before it's ready.

Even when it's ready it's still OpenOffice.    Don't get me wrong -- I'd much rather use that than MS Office any day.  But AppleWorks seems to be more stable than OpenOffice.


----------



## samad_lotia (Mar 26, 2002)

To tell you the truth, I rather use StarOffice. I mean common, it's free. It's not by any blood-sucking capitalist monopoly corporation. Sun makes great products that are complete and reliable. Okay, StarOffice for OSX may not be completely stable, but hey it's a free alternative to AppleWorks or MS Office.


----------



## aluminum (Mar 26, 2002)

Office X is pretty good. The biggest beef I have is that it is too much. I can't use Word or PPT because they have TOO MANY features that are poorly thought out. 

Appleworks is OK, but I'd love it if Apple could take it up a notch. Not necessarily be on par with Office (apple doesn't want to piss of MS, after all) but just add a few more features to really make it solid.

Otherwise, I'll patiently wait for StarOffice. I'm very willing to even pay for the pay version, if only Sun would still support it.


----------



## samad_lotia (Mar 26, 2002)

Well AppleWorks needs some hard-core work. A lot of use novice/advanced users find it a bore. It seems to me that StarOffice for OSX is a really great thing for us Mac users. We no longer have to use MS Office for a powerful office tasks. We don't have to stick out the dough either. A free, well-done alternative to MS Office is.. amazing. Perhaps it's more than what we could ask for.


----------



## strikeman (Mar 28, 2002)

StarOffice is not free - it is being sold by Sun for a relatively low price. OpenOffice *is* free, but unfortunately the Mac port that has been mentioned in this thread is nowhere near release status.

So don't hold your breath


----------



## rharder (Mar 28, 2002)

Well, I just have to say that I'm glad there are options out there. I find Open/Star Office repulsive in every way, but if it makes someone else happy, then apparently it's doing something right.

-Rob


----------



## RacerX (Mar 28, 2002)

I guess if you enjoy having the _Windows_ interface pushed onto very platform that you can run StarOffice on, then it is great... I just don't like it that much. Here is what it looks like on my SPARCs system in Solaris/CDE.


----------



## blb (Mar 28, 2002)

It looks really funny to have its Start button right above the Dock.


----------



## aluminum (Mar 28, 2002)

Going a bit off-topic, do any of you remember myBlueOffice? It was a product coming out of Germany. It was written in RealBasic...not a powerhouse by any means, but it had a very mac-specific and (IMHO) fairly innovative GUI. It disappeared...not sure what happened to the project.


----------

