OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta and Extensions Show Strong Momentum; Office Productivity...

OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta and Extensions Show Strong Momentum; Office Productivity Suite Delivers Document Accessibility for Mac Users with Disabilities

Advanced Integration of OpenOffice.org with Apple VoiceOver, ODF
Editing is Now Accessible on All Key Desktop Platforms; More Than 100
Extensions Available for OpenOffice.org
BERLIN--(Business Wire)--
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA), the leading Open Source
company, and the OpenOffice.org(TM) community today announced the
availability of more than 100 extensions in the OpenOffice.org
Extension Repository with the most popular ones achieving downloads of
more than 200,000. Extensions are additional components downloaded on
top of an existing OpenOffice.org installation to add extra features,
templates, languages and dictionaries to the software.

Created through worldwide community collaboration, the
OpenOffice.org Extension Repository includes template packs, a report
designer, tools for professional writers, translation, presentation
compression functionality and more. Two new OpenOffice.org 3.0
features, highlighted on the product roadmap and expected to be
released as extensions within weeks are the Sun Presenter Console and
the Sun PDF Import Extension. The Sun Presenter Console extension is
available now to preview from the extension repository. It allows
users to view their speaker notes, the next slide and the time on
their laptop screens while presenting via a connected projector. The
Sun PDF Import Extension allows users to edit PDF files.

"The Network Economy has ushered in new, dramatically different
business models that have changed both the pace and approach with
which individuals, communities and companies compete and succeed. It
is critical for the participants in this new market to have the right
tools and technologies so we encourage developers to get involved with
OpenOffice.org," said Jim Parkinson, vice president of Tools and
Services at Sun. "With more than 1.2 million downloads per week and
the growing adoption of the ISO standard OpenDocument Format,
OpenOffice.org is a very attractive platform for developers and
consumers. And until June 23, developers have the chance to win a
share of the $175,000 USD that will be awarded by Sun Microsystems as
part of the OpenOffice.org Community Innovation Program."

OpenOffice.org extensions can be easily created by developers as
multi-platform components using technologies, such as, Java(TM) and
NetBeans(TM) Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This is
important as OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta has added platform support for
Apple Mac OS X in addition to Windows, Linux and the Solaris(TM) OS.
The Mac OS X version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta is receiving
particularly good feedback from early testers for its performance,
stability, cross-platform interoperability and feature richness.

In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta is receiving very positive
feedback for its strong accessibility support on Mac OS X.
OpenOffice.org is the first application that is multi-platform
accessible, exposing a rich set of information to assistive
technologies on Windows, Solaris, GNU/Linux and with this upcoming
release, Mac OS X (Intel-based Macs only). OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be
the first version to run on Mac OS X that will have the look and feel
of an Aqua application while supporting the Mac OS X accessibility
APIs, and integrating well with the built-in Macintosh VoiceOver
screen reader - offering better accessibility support than many other
applications available for Mac OS X.

"Sun and the OpenOffice.org community take accessibility very
seriously, whether in schools, in the home, in the workplace or in
government institutions. An accessible solution for editing documents,
spreadsheets, and creating presentations is of vital importance to the
hundreds of millions of people worldwide with disabilities," said
Peter Korn, accessibility architect at Sun Microsystems and co-chair
of the OASIS OpenDocument accessibility subcommittee. "Sun has
listened and responded to the community. Our engineering efforts are a
direct result of the requests we've received from our user community
and exemplifies the innovation and success of the many open source
initiatives at Sun."

"We are very pleased with this latest demonstration of leadership
by OpenOffice.org, Sun, Apple, and the OpenDocument community to
further the cause of accessibility to the Open Document format by the
blind and other people with disabilities," said Curtis Chong,
president of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science.
"This move - to make OpenOffice.org accessible on the Mac - is an
important step for people who want access to the OpenDocument format
and the OpenOffice.org software, and it is reassuring to know that as
OpenOffice.org moves into the Mac arena, it will be usable by
everyone. We sincerely hope that similar efforts are underway to
ensure access to OpenOffice.org on all platforms where it is
available."

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global
marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the
Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared
innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can
be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, OpenOffice.org,
NetBeans and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other
countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and
other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.

Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Harald Gessner, +49-89-46008-2406
harald.gessner@sun.com
Terri Molini, +1 408-404-4976
terri.molini@sun.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008