StarOffice goes open-source

In hopes that open-source coders will do for StarOffice what they have done for Linux and Netscape 6, Sun Microsystems has released its office suite to the open-source world. CollabNet, a provider of open-source tools, will administer OpenOffice.org, including StarOffice code management. StarOffice 6, currently uncompleted, was released in versions for Linux, Solaris and Windows with a Macintosh version pending. StarOffice 6 consists of more than 9 million lines of code in 75 modules and the freely distributed program has the potential to take market share from Microsoft's Office if the open-source community endorses it. Demand was great enough to temporarily bring down the server that hosted the code.

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