University of Toronto at Scarborough Standardizes on StarOffice for all Student Computing Resources

MARKHAM, Ontario, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. today announced the University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) has standardized on StarOffice(TM) office productivity software for all student computing resources. This ensures every student on campus has access to the leading office productivity suite for Linux, UNIX(R) and the most popular alternative for Windows-based computers.

UTSC supports a mixed computing environment, and required an office productivity application that was available for all of its operating systems. Delivery of a standard, easy-to-use, and cost-effective application is central to UTSC's information technology mandate and was the key to its decision to migrate to StarOffice. Workstations in campus computer labs and the library are currently running StarOffice, and many faculty members have also made the switch. The campus runs StarOffice on Solaris, Windows and Linux systems, and provides its Mac OS X users with NeoOffice, a Mac-supported version of OpenOffice.

"Sun is involved with Canadian academic institutions from kindergarten through post-doctoral research, and our deep understanding of challenges facing the education sector resonated with UTSC," said Lynne Zucker, Director of Education and Research Markets, Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. "Our ability to help UTSC meet both faculty and student computing needs demonstrates our commitment to education."

UTSC has been running StarOffice since January 2004. Staff met with students over the previous summer to ensure the new software addressed student needs. The campus ran tutorials and provided 3,000 new students with free copies of StarOffice in their frosh kits. Sun's StarOffice education license allows for both home and school use of the software for pupils and faculty.

"There were a number of compelling technical reasons for us to provide StarOffice to our 10,000 users, and in the end it came down to ubiquity and value for our students," said Dr. Philip Wright, Director, Computing and Networking Services, University of Toronto at Scarborough. "StarOffice meets the needs of all of our students, independent of their area of study or their choice of operating system."

StarOffice has seen considerable uptake in Ontario academic circles. In May 2004, the Ontario Ministry of Education acquired StarOffice licenses for the Province's 72 public and Catholic school boards. More than 2.5 million students now have access to the leading alternative office suite on Windows. About Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc.

Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, Inc., is headquartered in Markham, Ontario. The company, which employs more than 550 persons, has offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Sun products and services are also available through Sun Authorized Independent Sales Organizations and iForce(SM) partners across Canada. For more information, visit http://ca.sun.com . About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com . Contact: Geoffrey Morgan of MAVERICK, +1-416-640-5525, ext. 228, or geoffreym@maverickpr.com, for Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc.