[Am-info] Apple and StarOffice

[Mitch Stone]

On Saturday, July 27, 2002, at 10:31 PM, Paul Rickard wrote:

> ========== On 2002.07.27 09:40 PM, Mitch Stone typed: ============
>
>> If anyone can tell me what StarOffice would offer to Mac owners that they
>> can't already get from several other sources, then I'd like to know what
>> it is.
>
>     That's why Sun is letting Apple port it instead of doing it in-house.
> Apple can use the same file translators it uses in AppleWorks so the
> thing will open Office files, and then it will have all those high-end
> features not present in AppleWorks. It makes sense to me.

Sorry, I've got to laugh at the assertion that Sun is "letting" Apple port 
its product to the Mac. How generous of them! I mean, Sun has up till now 
indicated a conspicuous lack of interest in producing StarOffice for the 
Mac. So now they're giving Apple this huge opportunity -- to do Sun's work 
for them?

Look, it may make sense to some people, it just doesn't to me. Apple 
already owns a Mac productivity application which has developed and 
matured over at least ten years. It seems to me they'd be far better off 
applying their limited resources towards improving that product (possibly 
evolving it into a more Office-like suite, which is the other current hot 
rumor), then attempting the difficult, time consuming and expensive task 
of moving all of that StarOffice code to the Mac. That's a lot of pain -- 
for how much gain?

Mitch