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Sun sees stars

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: Sun has launched its open source challenger to Microsoft Windows. Sun’s Java desktop is touted as "the" alternative to Windows, offering everything that Windows has at half the price, plus the promise of a secure, "anti-virus" environment. The key to the success of a desktop environment is its Office productivity suite. And Sun’s StarOffice has not been able to emerge as a "real" threat to the universally accepted MS-Office. StarOffice, introduced as an affordable alternative to MS-Office in 2002, never took off despite the "low-cost" bait. Even its free version OpenOffice.org, failed to edge out pirated versions of MS-Office. According to Gartner, Microsoft's share of the business market for office productivity software is estimated at over 90 percent.



Although StarOffice is feature-complete and can replace Microsoft Office efficiently, there have been complaints about its slow startup time and file formatting problems. The problems that plague StarOffice point to one question, will the acceptance of Java desktop be affected by the lackluster performance of StarOffice?



If Sun is to be believed, the latest versions of StarOffice address the current problems. StarOffice 7 Office Suite also offers graphics and photo editing, and Web publishing. It is interoperable with Microsoft Office file formats: ".doc", ".ppt", and "xls". StarOffice software is multi-platform, available on the Solaris, Linux, and Windows platforms, and supports 10 languages. However, StarOffice takes an average of 10-11 seconds on the first load.



In India, test versions of the Java desktop are already deployed in big enterprises in India. "We have deployed Java desktop in pilot projects for various governments. You will hear some announcements very soon," says Anil Valluri, director (systems engineering), Sun Microsystems India.



Sun has faced a barrage of criticism in the past week. As reported by Reuters, Sun shares tumbled by nearly 15 percent, driven lower by a surprise financial warning a day earlier that prompted analysts to question whether the company has done enough to cut costs and jobs. The future of Sun’s Java desktop is yet to be written, but the prospects for StarOffice seem discouraging. What’s more, with analysts spelling doom for Sun, the company hopes that its new Linux strategy with the Java desktop will salvage some lost glory.

CIOL Bureau

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