StarOffice – the big brother of Open Office.

Star Office is like a Microsoft* Office that molds to your needs and has full technical support, all the nice extras, templates and it is cheaper (only $69.95 US at the time I am posting this article).

Star Office is developed and sold by Sun* the same folks who created Java* the well-known browser plugin that makes our lives easier (or not) when browsing the Internet.

I am not sure which one was the first but the thing is that Open Office and Star Office are very similar. The main difference is that Star Office has all the templates and all the clipart that Open Office does not have. And of course that Open Office is freeware.

System requirements for Star Office can be found here. Don’t worry, I am sure your computer will do just fine.

Star Office components and their Microsoft* equivalents :

Writer	Microsoft* Word
Impress	Microsoft* PowerPoint
Calc	Microsoft* Excel
Base	Microsoft* Access
Draw	No equivalent. Mistakenly people think it is like Microsoft* Paint. It is not. Draw* creates vector drawings.

Now, you will ask me, “Isn’t this blog supposed to be about freeware?”

Yes, it is! Although the Star Office suite costs $69.95 US, it can be downloaded for free as part of the Google Pack software!

I have no idea why or how Google* and Sun* decided to include a Star Office for free in Google Pack but I am happy about it!

You can download the Google Pack here. Select your language, the applications you want to download, and there you go!

Make sure you have a good Internet connection, as the whole pack is quite large in size.

So, even if Star Office is not freeware, the Google Pack is.

Happy Downloading.