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August 31, 1999 -- Choosing not to issue any direct challenges to Microsoft, Sun Microsystems announced the upcoming release of StarPortal, a free Web-based software suite targeted as a competitor to Microsoft's Office and based on technology acquired when Sun bought Star Division.
The StarOffice software suite, which contains word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation applications, is immediately available for free download from Sun's Web site. The 65MB version for "fat" clients, will be followed early next year by StarPortal, the Web- based version that will be accessible from any device with a browser, Sun said.
"Today, we dot-com the office," said Ed Zander, chief operating officer at Sun, at a press conference in New York City on Tuesday, August 31. "We understand that there is a prevailing way of doing {office productivity} and that is with a fat client. But we are not interested in competing with Microsoft on a fat-client basis. This is a network play."
Sun is offering the current StarOffice desktop software for free download at http://www.sun.com/staroffice. StarOffice 5.1 runs on the Linux, Windows, Solaris, and OS/2 operating systems. Users will be able to import various software file formats, including those from PowerPoint, Excel, and Microsoft Word, officials said.
Users of Microsoft Office and other similar software will not...