Comparing with MS Office Suite and StarOffice Freeware Suite

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JClarke

JClarke

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I would like to see some of your views with these two comparation - MS Office 2007 and StarOffice Suite (Freeware)

All of you know that I am from Australia - I am doing IT studies (General) Cert IV .. at Uni. in the stage of my first year. I would like to see so,e lots of information you could think of.

I am having apresentation between the comparing of MS Office Suite and StarOffice Suite (Which is a freeware)

The important part of this presentation, I am looking for information on between the Suites below:


1. technical capabilities
2. features
3. suitability


For StarOffice (Freeware)

1.Is is user friendly?
2. Is there support available?
3. Can it do everything a business would require?
4. What does it cost? (Include details on licensing etc.)
5. Is it compatible with other applications?

If you don't understand and you need more clear explaination, I will help. All I would like to see if you have any POV's on these two Suites! your information would be much appreicated.


MOD: Close this thread by 25th November 2007
 
I have done both, not all application. Mainly the spreadsheet, I find Excel to have better graphics and chart engine than Open office numbers. Can't recall the name of it, been a while.

Pros and cons? Mostly it is just money. So, if you want just do basic, everyday task nothing fancy then open office is perfect, but if you want heavy duty, and more power in it; then MS office would be better choice.
 
What about Thunderbird as similar outlook to StarOffice, or any sort under sun mircosystems? Have you tried to use the different ones apart to spreadsheets?
 
MS Office 2007 would be better feature than StarOffice and Open Office, for windows.

I would buy MS Office 2008 for Mac version because it does support intel mac since MS Office 2004 is only based on PPC but not great when use via emulation, plus would get one when I'm going off to college.
 
StarOffice isn't free. Are you referring to its open-source cousin, OpenOffice (OO)? That one is freely available.

I myself use OO suite near daily. It pretty much does all that I ask for in terms of word processing and number crunching. Granted I don't do presentations, so I don't use OO's PowerPoint equivalent.

The only thing that's giving me fits in using the OO suite is opening and editing Microsoft file formats such as Word and Excel. There isn't a seamless transition, and some tweaking and fine-tuning usually is needed.

Bottom line, if you're into simple word processing and number crunching tasks, give OpenOffice a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you continually open/edit Microsoft documents due to work or whatever reason, then OpenOffice may not be for you.
 
My big question is compatibility. Can the StarOffice user easily exchange, open, and edit the files of MS Office, and vice versa? For example, if an instructor requires all reports to be done on MS Word to be downloaded onto the class site, will the StarOffice word processing be usable or convertible?
 
Pacman said:
MS Office 2007 would be better feature than StarOffice and Open Office, for windows.

I would buy MS Office 2008 for Mac version because it does support intel mac since MS Office 2004 is only based on PPC but not great when use via emulation, plus would get one when I'm going off to college.
Click to expand...

Oh, oop... I fogot to add it.

I'm probably change my mind about get iWork from Apple, plus they offers Pages (word processing), Keynote (powerpoint) and Numbers (Excel, spreadsheet), plus they support format to read in MS office too and price is alot cheaper than MS Office.

My apology about not discuss about windows related, can't stop to think about Mac.
 
Cousin Vinny said:
StarOffice isn't free. Are you referring to its open-source cousin, OpenOffice (OO)? That one is freely available.

I myself use OO suite near daily. It pretty much does all that I ask for in terms of word processing and number crunching. Granted I don't do presentations, so I don't use OO's PowerPoint equivalent.

The only thing that's giving me fits in using the OO suite is opening and editing Microsoft file formats such as Word and Excel. There isn't a seamless transition, and some tweaking and fine-tuning usually is needed.

Bottom line, if you're into simple word processing and number crunching tasks, give OpenOffice a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you continually open/edit Microsoft documents due to work or whatever reason, then OpenOffice may not be for you.
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Yes, I meant OO (OpenOffice) thanks for the information. But for further information what about the comparsion between MS OFFICE and MS Works?
 
I have them all - both 2003 and 2007.

Access 2003 and 2007
Accounting 2006 and 2007
Excel 2003 and 2007
FrontPage 2003 and SharePoint Designer 2007
Groove 2007 (that app is new to 2007 system)
InfoPath 2003 and 2007
OneNote 2003 and 2007
Outlook 2003 and 2007
Picture Manager 2003 and 2007
PowerPoint 2003 and 2007
Project Professional 2003 and 2007
Publisher 2003 and 2007
Visio Professional 2003 and 2007
Word 2003 and 2007

I don't have Communicator 2005 and 2007 though. I don't need it.

And no, I'm not bullshitting ya; I have every single MS Office program out there except Communicator.

I use the 2003 version on Windows XP because that 2003 user interface matches the XP theme perfectly. I have the 2007 version on Windows Vista.
 
That's an excellent sources there mate. Can you explain the differences of these softwares and the questions Ihave posted on the first post? It would be interesting to see your full POV.
 
SnAzZyStyLe2002 said:
Currently multi-booting Windows XP Pro SP2, Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate RTM on 3 hard drive partitions *on* the same computer.
Click to expand...
What?! No Linux? Like you, I have a dual-booting computer; Windows XP and Fedora Core (4? 5? I forget.) Like the setup so far.
 
Cousin Vinny said:
What?! No Linux? Like you, I have a dual-booting computer; Windows XP and Fedora Core (4? 5? I forget.) Like the setup so far.
Click to expand...

Ha, I have used Fedora Core 2 Linux when I had to take Linux Admin class at college in spring 2006 - ugh, I hated every single bit of it. I also have used Mac OS X 10.4 - wow it's SO slow it's amazing.

Then, I took Windows Admin that uses Server 2003 in fall 2006 - now, that was more fun IMHO.

I am currently quad-booting - XP, Server 2003 R2, Vista, and Server 2008 RC (almost out of Beta) - will be getting the final in February 2008.
 
SnAzZyStyLe2002 said:
Ha, I have used Fedora Core 2 Linux when I had to take Linux Admin class at college in spring 2006 - ugh, I hated every single bit of it. I also have used Mac OS X 10.4 - wow it's SO slow it's amazing.

Then, I took Windows Admin that uses Server 2003 in fall 2006 - now, that was more fun IMHO.

I am currently quad-booting - XP, Server 2003 R2, Vista, and Server 2008 RC (almost out of Beta) - will be getting the final in February 2008.
Click to expand...

How Mac OS X (10.4) is so slow? You means boot up or load the program? What kind of Mac that you using? G3-G5 or Intel?

It's faster (but some programs are slow to load) on mine since I have Core 2 Duo, also windows vista is boot up so faster via bootcamp too because I don't want install anti-virus or other program to prevent the threat because they will slow my computer down.

I used had XP SP2 with Pentium 4 and it's alittle slow to boot up.
 
Made the switch over MS Office 2007. :( I really wanted to use the OO.org suite, but the lack of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support was the final straw.

Basically, VBA allows me to automotate Excel, having it generate weekly reports for a subsidiary at work. Otherwise, doing it by hand would be too time consuming and is pure drudgery.
 
My uncle emailed me his IBM PC word processor file. My iWork able to open it which came out fine on my Apple computer. I am impressed.

I am not sure why you have so many word processor software on your XP Windows. I can imagine how expensive they are. Which one do you like the most for your word processor? I am curious about that.
 
jclarke

If it is not free support, I am sure that there is a forum that will help you to find the solution for your problem.

My Dreamweaver (website design software) is not free tech support so I read the people's posts on Adobe's forum. It helped me to understand some of them. I thank for that. I do not like Adobe's service because the tech support fee is a horrible price. It does not allow us to "transfer" the software into my laptop for traveling because I paid a lot of money for the software. What a jerk!
 
webexplorer said:
It does not allow us to "transfer" the software into my laptop for traveling because I paid a lot of money for the software. What a jerk!
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What version of Dreamweaver do you have? AFAIK, Adobe CS3 will allow for an installation onto a second computer. But on that second computer, the installation is restricted to one user. (Windows allows many users to log on, i.e., Mom, Dad, kids, etc.)
 
Cousin Vinny said:
What version of Dreamweaver do you have? AFAIK, Adobe CS3 will allow for an installation onto a second computer. But on that second computer, the installation is restricted to one user. (Windows allows many users to log on, i.e., Mom, Dad, kids, etc.)
Click to expand...

My Dreamweaver's version is 8.0.2809 (weird - added three digit numbers at the end). It would have said 8.0.3. I was allowed to upgrade from DM 2005 to DM 8 on my desktop for about 400 dollars. That was in March or April. Later, I upgraded it to DM 8 on my laptop, but the Adobe blocked it. I recalled that it is only one software per computer. I don't buy the story because I bought it and owns it. Right?

I still have my old version on my laptop. I heard that CS3 improved small part of the version. I really don't know how much different between them. I bought the Dreamweaver 8, and then four months later, the Adobe announced a new one - the CS3. They refused to accept me for a discount. I bought my DM 8 which was not a long ago. I hate Adobe Company which is not fair because it is my money. Actually, Adobe earned billions of dollars around the world as a white flagship company.

I wonder if it is the same thing for a MS Office 2007 that would allow you to have a 2nd computer per a household.
 
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