content/press/sun_release.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <p><B><i>SUN MICROSYSTEMS OPEN SOURCES STAROFFICE TECHNOLOGY</i></B>
 <p>
 <p><b>Source Code Offered Via GNU General Public License and to Reside at
 www.OpenOffice.org</b>
 <p>
 <p>PALO ALTO, CA - July 19, 2000 -  Today at the O'Reilly Open Source
 Convention in Monterey, California, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced it
 will release the source code of its StarOffice (TM) Suite, a leading, high
 quality, office productivity application software suite, to the open source
 community under the GNU General Public License (GPL).   Sun also announced
 OpenOffice.org will be formed and managed by Collab.Net and will serve as
 the coordination point for the source code, the definition of XML-based
 file formats, and the definition of language-independent office application
 programming interfaces (APIs.)
 <p>
 <p>StarOffice is the leading, full-featured productivity suite for all major
 platforms, including Solaris (TM) Operating Environment, Windows, Linux,
 and, later in the year, the Macintosh.  StarOffice 6, the next version
 currently in development, will serve as the source code base for
 OpenOffice.org.  With the upcoming StarOffice 6 technology, the next
 generation architecture of separate applications and componentized services
 will be introduced.
 <p>
 <p>"Sun's open-sourcing of StarOffice Suite is the single largest open-source
 software contribution in GPL history and it adds a key application suite to
 the open source portfolio,"  said Marco Boerries, vice president and
 general manager of webtop and application software at Sun Microsystems,
 Inc.  "This announcement will leverage StarOffice Suite's role as the
 leading productivity suite for multiple platforms and will further increase
 our momentum as the only competitive alternative to other office suites.
 Sun will also continue to develop and aggressively market future versions
 of StarOffice Suite, which will be based on OpenOffice.org."
 <p>
 <p>"Since innovation happens in many places, making the source code for
 StarOffice Suite available will enable the enormous community of developers
 to bring  their expertise and energy to improve and expand the reach of
 this full-featured software suite.  But OpenOffice.org is much more than
 just source code--it also includes APIs and XML-file formats.  This will
 allow developers to easily work across platforms and have a huge impact,"
 said Boerries.
 <p>
 <p><b>About OpenOffice.org</b>
 <p>OpenOffice.org will host StarOffice source code.  OpenOffice.Org will also
 specify XML file formats for documents; specify language-independent APIs;
 and provide Microsoft Office file filters, so developers can more easily
 modify existing programs and customize specific applications to fit their
 needs.
 <p>
 <p><b>Widespread community support</b>
 <p>OpenOffice.org has already garnered major industry support from many
 open-source luminaries, including Tim O'Reilly, Miguel de Icaza, Brian
 Behlendorf, and Andy Hertzfeld.
 <p>
 <p>"Microsoft's lock in on its Office file formats is arguably at least as
 important to their monopoly position as their control of the operating
 system itself," said Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly and
 Associates.  "The availability of StarOffice under the GPL will give Linux
 a boost on the desktop, but more importantly, the wide availability of
 StarOffice Suite's code for reading and writing Microsoft Office formats
 will allow other open source projects to provide compatible functionality
 as well.  Open data is the other side of the open source coin."
 <p>
 <p>"Sun's announcement to make their office suite free software under the GPL
 and SISSL licenses will be a benefit to everyone.  Their choice of Bonobo
 as a component framework will enable powerful scripting and code reuse not
 only on the desktop, but on the system as a whole," said Miguel de Icaza,
 president and founder of HelixCode Inc. "When I started GNOME three years
 ago, I had two goals: a 100% free, easy-to-use desktop environment and
 component architecture for GNU/Linux.  With Helix Code and Sun working
 together, we can finally see this vision realized.  The GNOME community is
 now investigating the best way to integrate these technologies just
 released with the GNOME environment with the goal to bring a comprehensive
 solution to everyone."
 <p>
 <p>"The release of StarOffice under an open source license is a tremendously
 cool thing," said Brian Behlendorf, co-founder and CTO of Collab.Net.  "The
 influence of closed standards and proprietary software has made the office
 productivity application space an extremely difficult arena for the open
 source community to address.  Sun's action today resolves this problem by
 providing a much needed application."
 <p>
 <p>"One of the last remaining barriers to wide-spread adoption of Open Source
 software on the desktop is the paucity of high quality, easy-to-use
 applications.  Today's announcement of the GPLing of Star Office goes a
 long way toward filling that gap," said Andy Hertzfeld, co-founder of
 Eazel, a leading Linux development software company.  "Everyone at Eazel is
 very excited to work with Sun's talented team to integrate their
 world-class productivity applications with the Gnome desktop."
 <p>
 <p>Major Linux companies, including Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE, TurboLinux, Easy
 Linux, Mandrakesoft, Stormix, Conectivia, Definite Software PLC, and
 Macmillan, have signed agreements to redistribute StarOffice(TM) 5.2
 software, making it the number one office productivity suite for Linux and
 most have pledged support for OpenOffice.org.
 <p>
 <p>"We support Sun's commitment to an open desktop for all UNIX/Linux
 environments," says Paul McNamara, vice president of Products and
 Platforms, Red Hat Linux, Inc. "The availability of professional
 applications like  StarOffice software with Red Hat Linux only serves to
 further validate the platform and the future growth potential of Linux."
 <p>
 <p>"Sun strengthens their commitment to the Linux community with their
 announcement
 to open source StarOffice," said Dean Taylor, vice president of marketing
 for Caldera Systems, Inc.  "This combination of StarOffice performance and
 OpenLinux reliability, helps us deliver a quality product and needed
 application to the Linux community."
 <p>
 <p>"As a Linux solutions provider, SuSE helps consumers, small to
 medium-sized  businesses, corporations, government agencies and educators
 around the world make informed decisions when purchasing computer
 technology," said Roland Dyroff, CEO SuSE Linux AG.  "With Sun's commitment
 to open source StarOffice this expands the market for product
 implementations based on open standards."
 <p>
 <p>"As long time supporters of StarOffice software on Linux, MandrakeSoft is
 excited Sun is making the source code available.  The benefits that the
 open source community will bring to this feature rich suite will continue
 the momentum in the market for this exciting alternative to  Microsoft
 Office," said Frederic Bastok, COO of MandrakeSoft, a leading Linux publisher.
 <p>
 <p>For more quotes from leading Linux vendors, please visit
 www.sun.com/developers/openoffice
 <p>
 <p>Release of the StarOffice source code will reside at www.openoffice.org
 and will be managed by Collab.Net, a provider of collaborative software
 development services based on open source principles.  Collab.Net is
 creating the project hosting infrastructure for the openoffice.org site.
 This single solution offers a medium for hosting source code and
 accessing a robust set of software development tools.  This environment is
 a cohesive Web-based, open source development platform that provides
 simple, powerful and intuitive access to features including:  code
 versioning, source code browsing, automatic change notification, mailing
 lists and discussion forums and issue tracking Web administration.
 <p>
 <p>In addition to the GPL, Sun intends that all code contributions to the
 OpenOffice.org project, including Sun's contribution of the StarOffice
 source code, will be made available under the Sun Industry Standards Source
 License (SISSL).  This dual-licensing approach is designed to allow all
 organizations and individuals to use the source code freely and openly as
 they choose. An important requirement of the SISSL license is that it
 requires compatibility with the GPL reference implementation of the
 OpenOffice.org source code, including APIs and file formats. Copies of both
 the GPL and the SISSL licenses are available at
 //licensing/
 <p>
 <p>In addition, Sun also announced today the new OpenOffice.org Foundation,
 which will initially be modeled on other successful open source projects
 and will consist of a project management committee, source code
 maintainers, and developers. Sun will hold a
 equal membership position in the OpenOffice.org Foundation project
 management committee.
 <p>
 <p><b>About StarOffice</b>
 <p>StarOffice Suite offers a feature-rich single desktop environment, with
 tools such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings,
 web-publishing, email, scheduling and database applications that offer
 businesses and individuals an alternative to proprietary office suites.
 For more information regarding OpenOffice.org and the StarOffice source
 code, visit / and
 http://www.sun.com/staroffice/opensource.
 <p>
 <p><b>Availability</b>
 <p>The StarOffice source code is scheduled to be available to the open source
 community on October 13, 2000.   Sun will retain copyright to the source
 code and Sun's ongoing engineering work on StarOffice software will be done
 as part of OpenOffice.org. Beginning with StarOffice 6.0, a branded version
 of the OpenOffice.org reference implementation will be made available under
 the StarOffice software brand.
 <p>
 <p><b>About Sun Microsystems, Inc.</b>
 <p>	Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The
 Computer[tm]" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW) to its
 position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software
 and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to
 ".com" their businesses.  With $14.2 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be
 found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at
 http://www.sun.com.
 <p>
 <p><center><pre># # #</pre></center>
 <p>
 <p>Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, StarOffice, Solaris, and the Network
 Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
 Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.


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	<p><B><i>SUN MICROSYSTEMS OPEN SOURCES STAROFFICE TECHNOLOGY</i></B>
	<p>
	<p><b>Source Code Offered Via GNU General Public License and to Reside at
	www.OpenOffice.org</b>
	<p>
	<p>PALO ALTO, CA - July 19, 2000 - Today at the O'Reilly Open Source
	Convention in Monterey, California, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced it
	will release the source code of its StarOffice (TM) Suite, a leading, high
	quality, office productivity application software suite, to the open source
	community under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Sun also announced
	OpenOffice.org will be formed and managed by Collab.Net and will serve as
	the coordination point for the source code, the definition of XML-based
	file formats, and the definition of language-independent office application
	programming interfaces (APIs.)
	<p>
	<p>StarOffice is the leading, full-featured productivity suite for all major
	platforms, including Solaris (TM) Operating Environment, Windows, Linux,
	and, later in the year, the Macintosh. StarOffice 6, the next version
	currently in development, will serve as the source code base for
	OpenOffice.org. With the upcoming StarOffice 6 technology, the next
	generation architecture of separate applications and componentized services
	will be introduced.
	<p>
	<p>"Sun's open-sourcing of StarOffice Suite is the single largest open-source
	software contribution in GPL history and it adds a key application suite to
	the open source portfolio," said Marco Boerries, vice president and
	general manager of webtop and application software at Sun Microsystems,
	Inc. "This announcement will leverage StarOffice Suite's role as the
	leading productivity suite for multiple platforms and will further increase
	our momentum as the only competitive alternative to other office suites.
	Sun will also continue to develop and aggressively market future versions
	of StarOffice Suite, which will be based on OpenOffice.org."
	<p>
	<p>"Since innovation happens in many places, making the source code for
	StarOffice Suite available will enable the enormous community of developers
	to bring their expertise and energy to improve and expand the reach of
	this full-featured software suite. But OpenOffice.org is much more than
	just source code--it also includes APIs and XML-file formats. This will
	allow developers to easily work across platforms and have a huge impact,"
	said Boerries.
	<p>
	<p><b>About OpenOffice.org</b>
	<p>OpenOffice.org will host StarOffice source code. OpenOffice.Org will also
	specify XML file formats for documents; specify language-independent APIs;
	and provide Microsoft Office file filters, so developers can more easily
	modify existing programs and customize specific applications to fit their
	needs.
	<p>
	<p><b>Widespread community support</b>
	<p>OpenOffice.org has already garnered major industry support from many
	open-source luminaries, including Tim O'Reilly, Miguel de Icaza, Brian
	Behlendorf, and Andy Hertzfeld.
	<p>
	<p>"Microsoft's lock in on its Office file formats is arguably at least as
	important to their monopoly position as their control of the operating
	system itself," said Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly and
	Associates. "The availability of StarOffice under the GPL will give Linux
	a boost on the desktop, but more importantly, the wide availability of
	StarOffice Suite's code for reading and writing Microsoft Office formats
	will allow other open source projects to provide compatible functionality
	as well. Open data is the other side of the open source coin."
	<p>
	<p>"Sun's announcement to make their office suite free software under the GPL
	and SISSL licenses will be a benefit to everyone. Their choice of Bonobo
	as a component framework will enable powerful scripting and code reuse not
	only on the desktop, but on the system as a whole," said Miguel de Icaza,
	president and founder of HelixCode Inc. "When I started GNOME three years
	ago, I had two goals: a 100% free, easy-to-use desktop environment and
	component architecture for GNU/Linux. With Helix Code and Sun working
	together, we can finally see this vision realized. The GNOME community is
	now investigating the best way to integrate these technologies just
	released with the GNOME environment with the goal to bring a comprehensive
	solution to everyone."
	<p>
	<p>"The release of StarOffice under an open source license is a tremendously
	cool thing," said Brian Behlendorf, co-founder and CTO of Collab.Net. "The
	influence of closed standards and proprietary software has made the office
	productivity application space an extremely difficult arena for the open
	source community to address. Sun's action today resolves this problem by
	providing a much needed application."
	<p>
	<p>"One of the last remaining barriers to wide-spread adoption of Open Source
	software on the desktop is the paucity of high quality, easy-to-use
	applications. Today's announcement of the GPLing of Star Office goes a
	long way toward filling that gap," said Andy Hertzfeld, co-founder of
	Eazel, a leading Linux development software company. "Everyone at Eazel is
	very excited to work with Sun's talented team to integrate their
	world-class productivity applications with the Gnome desktop."
	<p>
	<p>Major Linux companies, including Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE, TurboLinux, Easy
	Linux, Mandrakesoft, Stormix, Conectivia, Definite Software PLC, and
	Macmillan, have signed agreements to redistribute StarOffice(TM) 5.2
	software, making it the number one office productivity suite for Linux and
	most have pledged support for OpenOffice.org.
	<p>
	<p>"We support Sun's commitment to an open desktop for all UNIX/Linux
	environments," says Paul McNamara, vice president of Products and
	Platforms, Red Hat Linux, Inc. "The availability of professional
	applications like StarOffice software with Red Hat Linux only serves to
	further validate the platform and the future growth potential of Linux."
	<p>
	<p>"Sun strengthens their commitment to the Linux community with their
	announcement
	to open source StarOffice," said Dean Taylor, vice president of marketing
	for Caldera Systems, Inc. "This combination of StarOffice performance and
	OpenLinux reliability, helps us deliver a quality product and needed
	application to the Linux community."
	<p>
	<p>"As a Linux solutions provider, SuSE helps consumers, small to
	medium-sized businesses, corporations, government agencies and educators
	around the world make informed decisions when purchasing computer
	technology," said Roland Dyroff, CEO SuSE Linux AG. "With Sun's commitment
	to open source StarOffice this expands the market for product
	implementations based on open standards."
	<p>
	<p>"As long time supporters of StarOffice software on Linux, MandrakeSoft is
	excited Sun is making the source code available. The benefits that the
	open source community will bring to this feature rich suite will continue
	the momentum in the market for this exciting alternative to Microsoft
	Office," said Frederic Bastok, COO of MandrakeSoft, a leading Linux publisher.
	<p>
	<p>For more quotes from leading Linux vendors, please visit
	www.sun.com/developers/openoffice
	<p>
	<p>Release of the StarOffice source code will reside at www.openoffice.org
	and will be managed by Collab.Net, a provider of collaborative software
	development services based on open source principles. Collab.Net is
	creating the project hosting infrastructure for the openoffice.org site.
	This single solution offers a medium for hosting source code and
	accessing a robust set of software development tools. This environment is
	a cohesive Web-based, open source development platform that provides
	simple, powerful and intuitive access to features including: code
	versioning, source code browsing, automatic change notification, mailing
	lists and discussion forums and issue tracking Web administration.
	<p>
	<p>In addition to the GPL, Sun intends that all code contributions to the
	OpenOffice.org project, including Sun's contribution of the StarOffice
	source code, will be made available under the Sun Industry Standards Source
	License (SISSL). This dual-licensing approach is designed to allow all
	organizations and individuals to use the source code freely and openly as
	they choose. An important requirement of the SISSL license is that it
	requires compatibility with the GPL reference implementation of the
	OpenOffice.org source code, including APIs and file formats. Copies of both
	the GPL and the SISSL licenses are available at
	//licensing/
	<p>
	<p>In addition, Sun also announced today the new OpenOffice.org Foundation,
	which will initially be modeled on other successful open source projects
	and will consist of a project management committee, source code
	maintainers, and developers. Sun will hold a
	equal membership position in the OpenOffice.org Foundation project
	management committee.
	<p>
	<p><b>About StarOffice</b>
	<p>StarOffice Suite offers a feature-rich single desktop environment, with
	tools such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings,
	web-publishing, email, scheduling and database applications that offer
	businesses and individuals an alternative to proprietary office suites.
	For more information regarding OpenOffice.org and the StarOffice source
	code, visit / and
	http://www.sun.com/staroffice/opensource.
	<p>
	<p><b>Availability</b>
	<p>The StarOffice source code is scheduled to be available to the open source
	community on October 13, 2000. Sun will retain copyright to the source
	code and Sun's ongoing engineering work on StarOffice software will be done
	as part of OpenOffice.org. Beginning with StarOffice 6.0, a branded version
	of the OpenOffice.org reference implementation will be made available under
	the StarOffice software brand.
	<p>
	<p><b>About Sun Microsystems, Inc.</b>
	<p> Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The
	Computer[tm]" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW) to its
	position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software
	and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to
	".com" their businesses. With $14.2 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be
	found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at
	http://www.sun.com.
	<p>
	<p><center><pre># # #</pre></center>
	<p>
	<p>Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, StarOffice, Solaris, and the Network
	Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
	Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.



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