StarOffice will no longer be free.

[CougTek]

Hi,

According to this article (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-844857.html), Sun plans to charge between 50$ to 100$ to people who'll want to download the next version of Star Office. While I would be willing to pay for Star Office rather than paying for Microsoft's bloated MS Office, I think it will be a huge blow for the popularity of this office suite. It better be a lot superior than version 5.2 currently is if Sun wants to convince people to buy it.

I know it cost a lot to develop and maintain a complex software like an Office suite, but IMO, Sun would have more success to sell their new StarOffice version if they would ask something around 20U$ rather than a steep 50$. If they dare to ask 100$ for SO, they'll simply kill it. They are simply not in a position to ask that much for StarOffice considering that it's not very widely used compared to MS Office.

[Adcadet]

ug! Bad news indeed.

I totally agree with you, Coug, on pricing - if it's good, I'd pay $20 for it. If it's really good (as in an MS Office replacement) I might pay $50. But it would have to come pre-loaded on a nice 1200JB for me to pay $100 for it!

Considering what 5.2 was like, it looks like I'll be sticking with AbiWord and KWord for my Linux word processing duties.

[Mercutio]

I've found it's pathetically easy to get SmartSuite licenses for Windows boxes for next to nothing. Too bad. I have installed Star Office on cutomer's machines in the past. To be honest, it wasn't a very popular choice.

[Tea]

The price of SmartSuite is just incredible. Roughly between 10% and 5% of the Microsoft product. In software terms, that's the bargain of the century.

And you get Organiser (which I'm told is good) and FastSite, which isn't bad if you like that sort of thing, and ScreenCam too.

[CougTek]

I've never used SmartSuite. Where can I download it to give it a shot?

[Tea]

It's not shareware! You buy it on a CD. www.lotus.com will have details.

[CougTek]

Well, according to the pricing on www.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce/CategoryDisplay?cntrfnbr=1&cgmenbr=1&cntry=840&lang=en_US&cgrfnbr=2066610&x=11&y=10]this (http://commerce.[url) page[/url], SmartSuite is far from being as cheap as you guys are saying. 205U$ for the digital delivery, that's expensive in my standards.

What's the trick to get it cheaper?

[Mercutio]

Find a company that buys lots of IBM equipment; IBM gives away a copy of smartsuite with just about everything they sell. Almost no "real business" uses smartsuite, so those licenses are usually up for grabs.

I've gotten new copies of smartsuite for free, and I don't think I've paid more than $15 for a copy.

[Tannin]

Like Mercutio said. I retail it with systems for AU $40, and I make more from a $40 SmartSuite than I do from a $420 MS Office. Not more percentage, more actual count-em dollars. Now figure my buy price. :-?

[Buck]

Any offers for selling me SmartSuite so that I can give it a try?

BR