Sun StarOffice 7 preloaded in AOL PCs

AOL, THE same company that parted ways with Sun after their "iPlanet" alliance two years ago, after cost-cutting execs decided they didn't need no stinking software business) has announced that it will be pre-loading Sun's StarOffice 7 office suite in AOL-branded PCs running Windows XP home and sold at dirt-cheap prices.

StarOffice 7 is Sun's full, cross-platform, MS-Office compatible application suite based on the OpenOffice.org open source code -with some commercial additions like a database, fonts, clip-art and thesaurus, and which otherwise retails for around $65-75.

The AOL branded 2GHz Celeron machines, sporting a 40GB hard disk, a 56kbps modem, built-in Ethernet, and loaded with WinXP home, AOL software and StarOffice 7 (apparently to be renamed "AOL Office" in those systems) will be called "AOL Optimized PCs", and cost users $299 dollars. But to get that price, users will have to commit to a 12-month membership to the online service. The machines will be distributed by retail chain Office Depot.

An analyst from the Yankee Group is quoted as saying: "In a Windows world, it's hard to get a toehold... but if you ink a deal with AOL with these $299 computers, that's a smart deal".

Windows or Linux, Sun wins both ways

This is not the first time that Sun has made an effort to see their software pre-loaded... the often-criticized retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc., dubbed "the world's largest private employer" and retailer, also teamed four months ago with Sun Microsystems to offer a sub-$300 PC manufactured by Microtel and pre-loaded with Sun's own Linux distro and Office program.

The AMD Duron based system apparently did well, currently retailing for $298 greenbacks (keyboard, mouse and speakers included, but lacking a monitor) and comes pre-loaded with Sun's "Java Desktop System Release 2" -the company's own linux distro currently based on SUSE (but with a Gnome, Mozilla and Evolution as the defaults), and StarOffice 7.

You can take a look at the system and its specs here. In a nutshell, it includes a 1.6GHz AMD processor, a 40GB hard drive, a 52x CD-ROM, a built-in 56 Kbps modem, four USB 2.0 ports, and AC'97 audio.

These are big wins for Sun Microsystems, and consumers as well. This surely will give the Sun-haters and doomsday preachers some food for thought. µ