[LUAU] Star Office vs Open Office?

[Hawaii Linux Institute]

Since OpenOffice/StarOffice is a critical element determining the pace 
at which Linux will be accepted by the mainstream public, this issue 
deserves a further elaboration.

At the outset, I am sure most of us are aware that, for many open source 
projects, the "name" itself is quite irrelevant unless you also mention 
the version number.  For OpenOffice, there is a big jump in performance 
between versions 1.0.2 and 1.0.3.  As I mentioned previously, StarOffice 
7 is based on OOo 1.0.3; thus its performance should be acceptable.

Thus, your first step is to check the version of your OpenOffice.  If it 
is older than 1.0.3, then upgrade to StarOffice 7 or OpenOffice 1.1.1.  
(The most recent version of OOo is 1.1.2.  RedHat/Fedora makes it a true 
international office suite.  I LOVE it, but if you don't have 
multi-langual need, perhaps 1.1.1 is a more appropriate choice--the i18n 
rpm of 1.1.2 is more than 500 MB.)

Then there is the issue of memory caching.   It used to take me almost 
(or even over) two minutes to load OOo 1.0.2 (and longer for prior 
versions).  With OOo 1.1.2 and with memory cach, it now loads in about 
four seconds on my (now almost obsolete) Athlon XP 2500 machine.  (In 
comparison, Microsoft Office loads in about one second on my XP-Pro, 
same machine.  But when you realize that MS Office also takes less than 
one second to "save" a 50 MB file, then for those with even the minimum 
computer/science intelligence, perhaps this is too good to be 
true--something is traveling faster than the speed of light.)

In running OOo or SO in a server (or even in a standalone desktop), it 
is important to keep it in the memory for at least a certain period of 
time after the last user exits the program.  By default, OOo will stay 
in memory for 10 minutes after exiting.  There is a knob (Tool -> Option 
-> Memory) you should turn it up to at least a couple of hours if 
running the office suite is one of your key tasks.  wayne



Wilson wrote:

>Which one is better? Also, in a LTSP situation would you see any benefits
>running Star vs Open Office? 
>
>
>Wilson
>