March 23, 2001, 2:40 PM —
Sun's decision in October to open StarOffice 6.0's source code represents one of the most significant recent announcements in the open source arena. The impact of opening a major office suite's source code remains to be seen as individuals, companies, and educational institutions explore ways to enhance and customize the software.
Sun targeted the higher education market with the move, which is proving to be mutually beneficial to Sun and its StarOffice end users as the worldwide academic community embraces the software.
Sun's liberal source licensing in numerous ways opens the doors of opportunity for universities and their students, says Phil Parkman, Sun's director of operations for Webtop and applications software, including StarOffice.
This article explores the benefits open source software brings to students, in particular future computer scientists and engineers. It also describes how StarOffice, running on Linux and Sun Solaris, is being used in educational settings.
