Editing StarOffice (section)

== History ==
[[File:StarDivision-CPC.png|thumb|left|Logo of ''[[Star-Division]]'' (extracted from the Manual of ''Star-Writer I'')]]

StarWriter 1.0 was written by [[Marco Börries]] in 1985 for the [[Zilog Z80]]. Börries formed [[Star Division]] in [[Lüneburg]] the following year.<ref name="briefhistory">{{cite web|url=http://wiki.openoffice.org/w/index.php?title=A_Brief_History_Of_OpenOffice.org&oldid=186681|title=A Brief History Of OpenOffice.org|date=13 October 2010|work=OpenOffice.org Wiki|publisher=Apache Software Foundation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709182027/https://wiki.openoffice.org/w/index.php?title=A_Brief_History_Of_OpenOffice.org&oldid=186681 |archive-date= Jul 9, 2023 }}</ref> It was later ported to the [[Amstrad CPC]] (marketed by [[Schneider Computer Division|Schneider]] in Germany) under [[CP/M]] and later ported to the 8086-based Amstrad [[PC-1512]], running under [[MS-DOS]] 3.2. Later, the integration of the other individual programs followed as the development progressed to an office suite for [[DOS]], IBM's [[OS/2 Warp]], and for the [[Microsoft Windows]] operating system. From this time onwards Star Division marketed its suite under the name "StarOffice."

Until version 4.2, Star Division based StarOffice on the [[cross-platform]] [[C++]] [[library (computing)|class library]] StarView. In 1998 Star Division began offering StarOffice for free.

Sun Microsystems acquired the company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice in 1999 for {{USD|73.5 million}},<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/Sun-shelled-out-73.5-million-for-Star-Division/2100-1001_3-232561.html |title=Sun shelled out $73.5 million for Star Division |first1=Stephen |last1=Shankland |date=November 9, 1999 |website=CNET News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626090829/http://news.cnet.com/Sun-shelled-out-73.5-million-for-Star-Division/2100-1001_3-232561.html |archive-date=2015-06-26  }}</ref> as it was supposedly cheaper than 42,000 licenses of [[Microsoft Office]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.h-online.com/open/features/OpenOffice-at-the-crossroads-1023702.html?page=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208042359/http://www.h-online.com/open/features/OpenOffice-at-the-crossroads-1023702.html?page=2|archive-date=8 December 2013|work=The H Open|publisher=Heinz Heise|title=OpenOffice at the crossroads: Every bug is a feature|page=2|first=Richard|last=Hillesley|date=21 June 2010|access-date=20 June 2013|quote=Simon Phipps, now an ex-Sun employee, later claimed that "The number one reason why Sun bought StarDivision in 1999 was because, at the time, Sun had something approaching forty-two thousand employees. Pretty much every one of them had to have both a Unix workstation and a Windows laptop. And it was cheaper to go buy a company that could make a Solaris and Linux desktop productivity suite than it was to buy forty-two thousand licenses from Microsoft." }}</ref>

In March 2009, a study showed that StarOffice only had a 3% [[market share]] in the corporate market.<ref>{{cite web |last=McLeish |first=Sheri |date=2009-05-26 |title=Microsoft Office still owns the desktop, future of StarOffice unclear |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-office-still-owns-the-desktop-future-of-staroffice-unclear/ |access-date=2012-05-07 |publisher=[[ZDnet]]}}</ref>