What is the diff. between Star and OO?

[eatager]

I am considering switching my office standard to OO but I have several questions:

Is there any difference between OO and Star?

What replaces MS Outlook?

[hol.sten]

[james_h]

For individual users, the most noticeable differences with StarOffice are:

Additional Fonts
Additional Gallery items (Clip Art etc.)
More templates that show off some of the abilities of the program
Spell checking uses a different source
Some icons are different

OpenOffice.org can read files created with StarOffice and vice-versa, but the appearance may be slightly different if you have used a font that isn't installed on your system.

If you represent an educational institution, you can get a no-cost license for StarOffice. Otherwise, it is a commercial product, so you have to pay to download it or buy the packaged edition. OpenOffice.org is available as a free download and has very open license terms.

There is no OpenOffice.org component that compares with MS Outlook. A discussion of alternative email and calendar programs is beyond the scope of this message, but you might do a web search for Mozilla Thunderbird, Korganizer and Evolution to see how their features compare.