Sun Microsystems, Inc. Takes Office Productivity To The Net. 'StarPortal' Initiative to Accelerate Transition to Service-Driven Network; Desktop Software Suite Available Now for Free - office productivity software - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Sept 6, 1999

The StarPortal initiative is Sun's latest step in completing a strategy to provide a complete end-to-end software solution to the industry, including tools, client software, middleware and mission critical software for the datacenter. About Star Division and StarOffice

Star Division Corporation designs and manufactures office productivity tools. Based in Fremont, California, Star Division was a privately held company and responsible for marketing and sales outside of German-speaking countries. Its wholly owned subsidiary, StarOffice Softwareentwicklungs GmbH is responsible for engineering and operations as well as marketing and sales within German-speaking countries. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

StarOffice software is a highly regarded, cross-platform personal productivity suite that has been under development and in distribution for several years. Designed for compatibility, stability, and security, StarOffice is available in eight languages and comes in versions for Windows, Linux, OS/2 and Solaris. StarOffice contains filters for interoperability with other file formats such as those created in Microsoft Office, Framemaker, or WordPerfect. StarOffice is the No. 1 Linux-based personal productivity application suite and won the Editor's Choice Award for Best Productivity Application/Suite at the recent LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Jose.

StarOffice has a fully integrated set of powerful applications that provides Microsoft Office compatible word processing, spreadsheet, graphic design, presentations, HTML editor, mail/news reader, scheduler, and database functions. With the release of the new 5.1 version for worldwide distribution, StarOffice provides significant performance and feature upgrades that improve user experience and productivity.

StarOffice 5.1 includes:

* StarOffice Writer for document editing,

* StarOffice Calc for creating spreadsheets,

* StarOffice Impress for creating presentations,

* StarOffice Draw and StarImage for creating vector and

bit-mapped graphics,

* StarOffice Schedule for managing calendars and to-do lists,

* StarOffice Mail for handling e-mail,

* StarOffice Base for creating interfaces to databases,

* StarOffice Discussion for reading Internet news,

* StarOffice Math for creating complex formulas, and

* StarOffice Workplace for creating a desktop environment.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11.5 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.