Google and Sun go after Office? Say What?

Now this is really a stretch in this article. This is what Sun and Google are collaborating on:

Under the deal, the toolbar will be offered as part of the Java Runtime Engine.

Eventually, the Java component could be offered to users who download the free toolbar that offers quick access to Google search, spell checking and a popup blocker.

But since Sun makes an Office suite called OpenOffice people are jumping to the conclusion that Google is somehow pushing OpenOffice. No, that is not what the two companies are collaborating on. They are simply putting Java Runtime Engine which will probably do almost nothing at all for the average user on Google Toolbar. I have Java Runtime Engine (it came with StarOffice 7.0 that I was testing) on my PC and all it seems to do is periodically ask if you want to update the thing.

Also MSFT shouldn't be scared a bit since OpenOffice is a pale competitor to Office 2003. The thing doesn't work very well with newer macro's that are created in Excel2003. It doesn't have any collaboration suite like Office 2003 does. Also a lot of the functionality of Word is missing in the version of OpenOffice that I tested. The interface is also very clunky feeling to a person that uses MSFTs Office a lot.

It is true that I never went into heavy detail testing OpenOffice because an attachment that I tried to open in Outlook Web Access crashed with an RPI not found error. A user shouldn't have to research a weird assed error messages like that. I'm sure there is a fix to the problem but I don't want to have to search for it or patch the program and hope for the best. I would simply have my PC loaded with Office 2003 and the file opens with no muss or fuss. OpenOffice's is only real selling point IMO is that it is free. Google could offer to come to my house and install OpenOffice on my machine personally and I still wouldn't switch from Office 2003.