Linux

This is in the linux forum so I will talk about Open Office and Star Office. I've used both and I like Open Office better. It has more of the products/features of MS Office. If you are on Linux, Open Office comes with the installation and I would really look at that. Neither has a mail client. Unix has default mail agents that run from the command line. If you are on Sun you can use dtmail for a GUI, but its not pretty. Linux has evolution and a few other nice mail GUIs. Sun really isn't meant to be a desktop OS, linux is better at that. Open Office has just about everything MS Office has. It has Mr. Project, which is not nearly as good as MS Project but is supposed to get better and it doesn't have visio, but linux has similiar programs to visio.

Star Office will install and run properly on a Windows system.

I don't believe that all versions of MS Office can open documents saved as native Star Office documents. You can open and save documents and spreadsheets in MS Office format on Star Office.

I recommend that you go to www.openoffice.org and download the latest version of Open Office. That way, you can evaluate the package at no cost.

Open Office is the same basic software as Star Office. It is just a little older version and has only user forums for support.

If you like Open Office, and would prefer full support, you can go ahead and buy Star Office.

I install Open Office on most of the systems that I build for home users.

Chas

Star Office will read and save in most Office application formats i.e Word, Excel, PowerPoint
It has a builitn mail client that integrates with all its applications.

It will also work on a variety of platforms Windows, Sun, Linux. Mac so it is very flexible

Sandor