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StarOffice was a proprietary office productivity software suite that served as a significant competitor to Microsoft Office in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Developed initially by a German company called Star Division, it was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999. The suite included a comprehensive set of applications for word processing (StarWriter), spreadsheets (StarCalc), presentations (StarImpress), and databases (StarBase), along with other tools like a graphics program and an email client.
A key moment in the history of StarOffice was when Sun Microsystems decided to release a large portion of its source code to the public in 2000. This open-source project was named OpenOffice.org, which quickly gained a community of developers and users. From that point on, StarOffice was based on the OpenOffice.org codebase but included additional proprietary features and tools, along with professional support and documentation, which distinguished it as a commercial product.
The primary appeal of StarOffice was its affordability and its cross-platform compatibility. It was a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Office and was designed to run on various operating systems, including Solaris, Windows, and Linux. This made it a popular choice for enterprises, governments, and educational institutions looking to reduce their software licensing costs. StarOffice was also praised for its high degree of compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats, making it easier for users to exchange documents with those using the dominant software.
The legacy of StarOffice is deeply tied to the evolution of free and open-source office suites. After Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010, the project’s direction shifted. Oracle renamed the product to Oracle Open Office, but the community-driven development of OpenOffice.org was significantly impacted. This eventually led to the creation of LibreOffice, a fork of the OpenOffice.org codebase, which has since become one of the most widely used open-source office suites in the world. StarOffice itself was ultimately discontinued, but its code and its open-source offshoots have had a lasting impact on the landscape of office productivity software.
