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  From: Alan Kennington <akenning@dog.topology.org>
  To  : LinuxSA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 02:19:26 +0930

star office disaster on horizon

Topic:  Reliance on Star Office could be dangerous.

At the linuxSA meeting (Tuesday 21 Sep 1999),
someone (Paul Russell esq.?) mentioned that
Star Office could be withdrawn by Sun Microsystems
very quickly. Here's some support for that view:

    http://linuxtoday.com/stories/10276.html

This is quite credible.
Sun could just set up a Star Office portal to
deliver SO as a set of java applets which you have to
be on the net to use, and which you don't get
source etc. for.
It is clear that there are few dollars for Sun Micro
(or should I say "Sun MS") in supporting linux.
Providing a free benefit for linux users is nowhere
near as important to Sun MS as weaning wind95/98/00/nt
users away from MS office.

Therefore......
It's entirely likely that Star Office will become unavailable
some time in the next 12 months or so.
It is a big ueber-Klumpen-Software lump anyway, and has
no real future in the linux sleek-and-fast style of
software unless it can be completely cut to pieces
and rebuilt. 

This means that it is important to find better alternatives
quickly, and not rely on Star Office as the 
conduit for MS-generated document formats.

The alternative MS-format conduits seem to be

Applixware
Koffice
....


....not much else.
There's a real vulnerability here. Since there's a big momentum
tied up in MS-format files and human skills, it's really
important to find out how to survive the withdrawal
of SO from the free market.

The matter of linux office software is very well discussed at

    http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/wp.html

Kword has got to version 0.0.1 !!!

    http://koffice.kde.org/kword/

It should be stunning when it's ready some time in the next decade.

Just some thoughts in passing.
I just wanted to make the point that in the medium term,
the Sun MS acquisition of SO might be a very bad thing.

Cheers,
Alan Kennington.

-- 
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