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StarOffice gains native Mac support

With its latest version, Sun Microsystems is adding native Mac support to its StarOffice productivity suite.

The software, a distant rival to Microsoft's dominant Office package, sells for $35 to individuals and $25 for each user inside a business.

StarOffice 9 is open-source and its code is shared with OpenOffice.org 3.0, which was released last month.

In addition to adding the Apple support, StarOffice 9 can also read the Open XML file formats that Microsoft introduced with Office 2007, but StarOffice cannot write files back into those formats.

Sun may add that ability if the market requires … Read more

Office of the future?

For most everyone working in the U.S. corporate world, Microsoft Office is a must: Outlook for e-mail/calendar; Word for word processing; Excel for spreadsheets; and PowerPoint for presentations. The 2007 release has been covered extensively on CNET Reviews.

However, a recent rise in free office suites has given end users much more choice in productivity software than they've had in many years. Just two weeks ago, IBM announced a free version of Lotus Symphony. Though it's still in beta release, the freeware includes serviceable word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software, all of which support Microsoft Office … Read more