manly Posted January 27, 2003 Report Share Posted January 27, 2003 I'm looking at buying either a PowerPack or a Club membership. StarOffice 6 is included with both. I am using OpenOffice right now. What are the differences between the two programs? The only thing I've been able to find so far is that OpenOffice has no templates or artwork. Also, do I get a license for a Windows version of StarOffice too? What about compatibility between OpenOffice files and StarOffice files? Thanks, Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted January 27, 2003 Report Share Posted January 27, 2003 I tried the final version of Staroffice 6.0 a few months back (linux version too) thanks to a friend of mine who works at sun. Frankly, since OO.o provides about 90% of the functionality of SO and the 10% of the mission functionality I don't use or I don't care about, I see no reason wasting hd space for SO (well at the time, my hd space is at a premium). This is what I know so far about differences of OO.o and SO. 1. Different spellchecking engine 2. Additional fonts 3. Adabas database 4. Maybe a better filter for some file formats. I think file compatibility wise, they are the same. They both open MS office documents handily, a file saved in OO.o native format (xml) can be opened in SO pretty much 100% and vice versa. The licensing for SO I think is that you can install a paid copy of SO in 5 computers (nicer than MS Office that's for sure), although I am not sure whether you need to buy a separate license for windows version. Anyway, if you want to support mandrake, get the club membership instead. That way mandrake get 100% of your money instead of some odd percent when buying a powerpack. Of course, you may need the disks and manuals instead of downloading them from the net, so powerpack is more handy if you don't have broadband or you are just too lazy to wait for downloading :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polemicz Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 I used OO for a long time and recently with my 9.0 powerpack have been using StarOffice. For my limted use I see no difference (I mainly write and do spreadsheets). As for the fonts since I have Win also on my box I have imported the windows fonts and used them for both OO and Star. Unless you have some pressing need I'd say you're best off keeping your money and using OO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmac Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 The biggest difference is the database that star office has and oo does not. If all you want to do is word processing and use a spreadsheet oo is fine. If on the other hand you need a database then go for star office. So is equivalent to ms office professional and includes e-mail and presentation software. i.e the equivalent of internet explorer, access and powerpoint. So of you need those kind of functions you get whole lot in one. The m9powerpack also comes with Koffice which looks pretty good as well, but as yet has no database. I've have not yet managed to get adabas working but find that the dbase format works fine for my needs. OO and star office were the same until fairly recently so interoperability is not an issue. If you need to switch between different office applications then so lets you do so. You can save your documents in office format if you have to do so. Theres no point sending a star office document office to someone that can't open it. The powerpack contains applications I don't know I need yet but that was part of the appeal. Star office will install on either windows or linux. I bought the box set originally as an alternative to office professional and later on started looking at linux. bit rambly but I hope that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramsret Posted February 1, 2003 Report Share Posted February 1, 2003 Yes, it seems oo and soffice are pretty much the same, although I definitely think that soffice is cleaner looking and feels more professional. The big diff that I like is that I use soffice in Linux and Windoze. I want to be on the leading edge of any suggested migration at the office from Windows to Linux, and these are the apps I think will make the case, so I want to be familiar. I just bought soffice on a whim at Best Buy a few weeks ago. Darn, I wish I had thought of doing the Mandrake Club thing, I woulda done that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aze Posted February 1, 2003 Report Share Posted February 1, 2003 OO.o and SO are not from SUN? Why Sun make OO free and SO shareware? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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