A macro conversion utility for Sun's StarOfficeTM software is in the works easing the move of customer-written macros from Microsoft Office. This Sun initiative is in response to customers' desire to break from Microsoft's volume-licensing deals while maintaining a semblance of their current desktop. The next major release of StarOffice software is scheduled for sometime early next year.

Barbara Darrow with CRN reported that Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of Sun's Software Group, spoke about this new release as well as operating systems, software licensing and Sun's shift in the server market at a press conference in Boston.

"There will be macro conversion in StarOffice, and Visual Basic-to-Star Basic conversion will be part of that," Schwartz said. "There will also be a management console for the Java Desktop...where in one location you can disable all the macro execution, which is where all the viruses come from."

Manish Punjabi, group marketing manager for StarOffice, noted that the macro conversion utility's packaging and timing has not been determined, but stated that, "it's fair to say these tools will ship no later than early next year."

Corporate customers have been reassessing their desktop investments searching for the best deal. An example is the United India Insurance Company (UIIC) that choose to convert their 10,000-seat Microsoft Office to StarOffice this year.

Schwartz also offered a comparison of the SolarisTM Operating System (Solaris OS) and Red Hat Linux noting that Sun's price and performance is competitive and compares favorably.

Commenting on software licensing, Schwartz described it as evolutionary stating that Sun fosters outside recommendations. "If there was one knock, it was that we were not as sensitive as we needed to be to smaller companies but our new license is not one-size-fits all," he said.

Also on topic was Sun's recent move toward one-, two- and four-way processor boxes encompassing lower-end servers into the company's server market, which had primarily focused on high-end servers. [...read more...]

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