"Google and Sun Microsystems will hold a press conference on Tuesday at which they're expected to announce a collaboration to bring StarOffice productivity applications to Google users."
This kicks ass! (assuming it's true) - imagine desktop productivity apps supplied like Gmail through a clean browser interface. If you can store your documents online, then this is a Microsoft Office killer for sure.
It's not quite clear to me exactly what is potentially going to be offered - it might be browser-based online productivity apps from Google, or hosting and collaboration services from Google that hook into a StarOffice client app installed on the local computer.
I'm getting really excited about this - I just hope that Sun keep it free, or at least cheap, with a support subscription or premium services for those who need it. I have a feeling that they won't though; Sun have been pushing the idea of application service provision for a while - it would suit their model to charge a subscription for this kind of service. Anyway, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz has posted an article on his blog entitled "The World Changes This Week", so he's pretty excited about it too.
In any case, check out the dugg internetnews.com article that sums one likely scenario up really nicely:
"Imagine StarOffice running on the desktop, and Google perfecting the [file synchronization]," said Edwards. "Then you have your collaboration space carved out immediately for you, and Google is hosting it."
There'll be security and privacy concerns, of course, but I believe that this will almost certainly mix things up a bit, which is always a good thing :)
The live webcast is here, no later than 10.15 Pacific Time today (that's 6.15pm UK time).
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