When it comes to home office suites, you don’t have to go with the best known. Get the lowdown on the alternatives.
Sun Microsystem’s StarOffice 5.2
This much-touted suite comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, email, HTML editing, graphic design, and presentation applications. It doesn’t come with a price tag. StarOffice 5.2 is freeware for Windows and Linux (Mac version coming soon), and it is compatible with Microsoft Office files.
StarOffice 5.2 is the most powerful of the alternatives but is also a huge 80MB download. It’s not as friendly as Office, so novice users may want to try it out before they rip out their Microsoft products.
