StarOffice to Ship on New ThinkPad

Hewlett-Packard isn't the only one expanding its horizons with non-Microsoft software: Lenovo said this week it will ship the new ThinkPad R51e notebook with Sun's StarOffice 8 productivity suite. However, the bundle is only available in Singapore and Lenovo has no plans to feature StarOffice worldwide.

StarOffice 8 is based on the OpenOffice.org project and includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. As part of the version 8 launch, Sun is stepping up its efforts to expose consumers to the Microsoft Office alternative. The company this week inked a deal with Google to promote the suite.