Sun Microsystems has announced today that StarOffice 9 and its Asian language counterpart, StarSuite 9 have been released, adding new versions of word processor, presentation, spreadsheet, database and drawing apps. The suite now boasts native Mac OS X support (Intel only), meaning it doesn't depend on other software to run on a Mac.

Besides adding native Mac OS X support, Sun's productivity suite delivers significant enhancements, and provides advanced, extensible productivity tools for both professional and casual users.

Mozilla's Thunderbird email client and Lightning extension for calendaring are also built in the suite, making StarOffice 9 a “comprehensive solution for businesses of all sizes,” Sun Microsystems says. Best of all, Sun Services can provide you with enterprise tools to migrate from MS Office to StarOffice 9.

"In the more than 25 years that I've worked in the computer industry, I don't know when I've been as proud as I am today -- with the release of StarOffice 9.0," said Jim Parkinson, vice president and developer, Tools and Services at Sun Microsystems, Inc.

"The StarOffice engineering teams and OpenOffice.org community have come together to produce a first-class product. With the new features in 9.0, businesses get an open standards-based, enterprise-class office productivity suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office, but costs significantly less. With its ability to read MS Office Open XML files, support for MS Access 2007 .accdb files, and improved VBA macro support, StarOffice 9 is a great option for companies looking to reduce their IT costs in these tough economic times."

Some of the first things you'll notice about StarOffice 9 are its fresh, novel look, with a new start center, original icons and a host of usability improvements, but also new features like multiple page editing in Writer, an optimization Solver tool and 1024 columns in Calc, native table support in Impress and more.

Interested parties may acquire StarOffice 9 and StarSuite 9 here. A single user license costs $34.95, while enterprise licenses start at $25 per user.