Sun Takes to Personal Productivity Apps >BY William Fellows

Computergram International, Sept 1, 1999

At a press conference yesterday in New York, Sun Microsystems Inc CEO Scott McNealy said he'll have to change his tune on office productivity tools now that he's found a way of using a suite of office applications to sell more Solaris servers. However rather than throw its Star Division acquisition up against Microsoft Office, the 900lb gorilla in the market, Sun will turn the StarOffice suite into a free internet product which can be run from any web browser without the need to download large applications.

The software, StarPortal, is being designed for ISPs and application outsourcing companies that will host the StarOffice- based applications for use by small and medium-sized companies. Sun expects the service companies to integrate StarPortal alongside the ERP, CRM, SFA and other applications as part of the hosted services they provide for customers and employees. Sun gets to sell more servers to the service providers for hosting StarPortal and picks up service and support contracts. It hasn't said what a StarPortal license will cost.

The first versions of StarPortal are due in 60 days, production ships are due in the first quarter of next year. Applications will open as Java applets within a browser. Sun will leverage its iPlanet remote access tools to enable users to access their office desktop from and to synchronize changes from any browser.

Star Division is using Java APIs to develop StarPortal so developers can integrate StarPortal functions within their applications - such as embedding a spreadsheet with a financial application. In addition to binaries, Sun will also make source code available through its Community Source Licence model enabling developers to extend and enhance the code and pay royalties to Sun when they ship finished products.

In a rather cheeky move Sun will also offer StarPortal's Java APIs up to the European Computer Manufacturers Association for standardization, the same body that has agreed to take on the standardization of Java with the intent of submitting it for ratification to ISO. Sun will also submit whatever parts of StarPortal are appropriate to the W3C.

Star's services will be integrated with Sun's Forte Software Inc application development tools, as well as Jini. We think users at 56.6Kbps will be challenged to use StarPortal and that the opportunity for widespread adoption won't be full realized until broadband internet access is ubiquitous. Even using webmail services on fast connections is still slower than using dedicated email applications.

The current StarOffice 5.1 desktop suite is available for free download for Linux, Windows, Solaris and OS/2. It has filters for importing Word, PowerPoint, Excel and other file extensions. It previously cost $160. CDs are $10 and extended media kit is $40.

McNealy, who in the past has often condemned MS-Office as 'bloatware', which is a waste of space and often a waste of users' (employees') time, still has personal reservations about office productivity suites. "It may be alright for you," he said, but McNealy himself still prefers his simple word processed reminder sheet and can't bring himself to write presentation documents. "It's like motorbikes," he said, "some people like them, some don't."

McNealy made through the whole event without mentioning Microsoft: "I made it all the way through without mentioning the M word - Motif!" he joked. Indeed Sun toned down the whole spin of the event to avoid going head-to-head with Microsoft. The branding of the StarPortal strategy - dot coming the office - contained few direct comparisons with the "old world" model of Microsoft Office which it had been planning to underscore.

However it's not all about picking up and office tool and making it free, Sun president and COO Ed Zander said "or we would have picked up Star years ago when it would have been much cheaper." Terms of the acquisition were not revealed. Sun had a full gamut of ASPs, ISPs, portals, service sites and other compa nies doffing their caps toward StarPortal.

An obvious use of StarPortal applications will be by thin clients that are centrally managed and run applications remotely or by downloading small pieces of them. Sun's Corona JavaStation II clearly fits the bill although Sun didn't put the two into alignment yesterday. Corona will be the subject of an announcement at its Enterprise Computing event in New York next wee. Sun said it had originally planed to unveil the Star Division acquisition and plan for StarPortal at the end of September or beginning of October but was forced by the volume of leaks to the press to bring it forward.

Star Division's development operation is in Germany, its marketing operations are based in Fremont, California. Star founder Marco Boerries becomes Sun VP and general manager of webtop and application software. McNealy said "it's nice to have some young blood on board to help carry the load," referring to Boerries who began developing word processing software at 16 and founded Star in 1985.