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README for StarOffice 3.1 for Linux, 01. August 1996
====================================================
Please read the following documentation carefully!
Star Division's Unix Group is proud to announce the availability of the
first beta release of StarOffice 3.1 for Linux.
Please note
-----------
You can find the installation instructions at the end of this
file. But, please, take the time to read the whole document.
To get the latest information about StarOffice, new beta releases, hints on
using StarOffice and general availability information, please send an
email with the subject "Linux" to:
info-linux@stardivision.com
What is StarOffice 3.1 for Linux?
---------------------------------
Star Office 3.1 is a suite of office productivity applications
containing StarWriter 3.1 (word processor), StarCalc 3.1
(spreadsheet), StarDraw 3.1 (graphics and presentation package),
StarImage 3.1 (image manipulation) StarChart 3.1 (bar-, pie- and other
charts) and StarMath 3.1 (formula design).
StarOffice 3.1 makes heavy use of common code in shared libraries,
therefore using relatively few resources for the level of
functionality.
How do I access it?
-------------------
You should be able to obtain StarOffice 3.1 from the same source you got
this file. StarOffice 3.1 for Linux can be downloaded from
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/staroffice
or sunsite's mirrors. (Or look in /pub/Linux/Incoming, if it is not
yet at the designated place.)
Who is Star Division GmbH?
--------------------------
Star Division, founded in 1985, is a German software development
company located in Hamburg, Germany. Star Division produces StarOffice
for several platforms (MS-Windows 3.x, MS-Windows 95, OS/2, Apple
Macintosh, various Unix variants such as Solaris, Sinix and Linux) and a
platform-independent C++ class library, StarView, which also forms the
base for the StarOffice applications.
You can find more information about us on our web server at
http://www.stardivision.com/.
Is this a stable version?
-------------------------
No, not completely :-( That's why we called it "first beta". Due to time
constraints, it has not even been very rigorously tested here. But the
demand for making it available was so high that we decided to provide an
early beta version to the Linux community. By sending in bug reports,
you can help to make it more stable!
There is no warranty at all, neither expressed nor implied. To repeat,
there is no warranty for this beta version of StarOffice 3.1 for
Linux. So if it crashes your hard disk (which is unlikely), you
cannot sue us. You can be mad at us (or better: you can send us your
bug report), but you cannot sue us for defects in the software. If you
do not agree with this, you are not allowed to use StarOffice 3.1 for
Linux and must delete any parts of it on your hard disk.
So, please, do not start to write your master's thesis with StarWriter
3.1 before you have tested if it does what you need! We will try to fix
all reported bugs and will continue to make better versions available
as time permits.
How is StarOffice 3.1 licensed?
-------------------------------
This is not free software! It is not under the GPL, a Berkeley-style
license or any other freeware license. Please do not ask us to
make the sources available. As much as we would personally like to
(e.g. in order not to have to fix all the bugs ourselves :-) ), we
can't! The whole StarOffice 3.1 package is copyrighted by STAR DIVISION
Software-Entwicklung und Vertriebs GmbH, Hamburg, Germany.
This beta version will disable itself on October 31st. You will see a
warning message on standard error everytime you start a StarOffice 3.1
application as of September 30th, 1997. By that time, we will have made
available a newer, hopefully enhanced, version. You will then not need
to retrieve the whole distribution again.
The final version will be free of charge for non-commercial use. You
will have to buy a license for commercial use. The price is not yet
decided on, but we will make this information available as soon as
possible.
What can you do with StarOffice 3.1 for Linux?
==============================================
A lot of things! You may freely distribute this beta version and
even produce CDs from it as long as this file is always included with
the distribution and you give us credit. If you announce the
inclusion of the beta version of StarOffice 3.1 for Linux on the
cover of your CD (or elsewhere), you must clearly indicate that this
is a beta version. When asked, you must point people to the places
on the Internet where StarOffice 3.1 for Linux can be found or to our
WWW server.
Which languages are supported? What documentation is available?
---------------------------------------------------------------
StarOffice is a German product, which means that all texts such as
menu entries, manuals and online help are first written in German.
The current status of the translation is as follows:
Menu entries, dialog boxes etc. are fully translated into English
(though not everything has been professionally translated
yet). Online help is currently only available in German.
There are online manuals in Adobe PDF-format in German, which you will
find in the root directory of your StarOffice installation after you
have completed the system installation step (see below). You can read
these with Derek Noonburg's xpdf which you can download from
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/dn0o/xpdf/xpdf.html.
We will provide at least a shortened version of an English manual (in
PDF-format) as soon as possible. This will be announced via our web
site http://www.stardivision.com/ and comp.os.linux.announce.
You can set the language of the menus and dialog boxes like you do
with most Unix/Linux programs: Just set the LANG environment
variable.
What do I need to run StarOffice 3.1? On which configurations does it
run?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The first question is simpler to answer than the second. In any case,
you need an ELF system. We cannot and will not make available an a.out
version. Of course, you need X11 up and running. Then you need Motif
2.0 libraries. You can purchase these from your Linux dealer. Star
Division does not sell Motif libraries!
We are currently considering making available versions that are linked
dynamically with Motif 1.2 or statically. So if you absolutely do
not want to spend your money on Motif libraries, you might want to
wait for these versions. But we cannot promise any release date for
these versions; perhaps we cannot release them at all. It all
depends...
We cannot name all the configurations StarOffice 3.1 for Linux
will run on as there are probably as many different Linux installations
as there are Linux users. We run it here for example on a Pentium 100,
running a somewhat modified RedHat 2.1 distribution which has been
upgraded to a 1.3.79 kernel, a 5.2.18 libc.so (and various other things
needed with newer kernels), and runs XFree86 3.1.2. Many
other configurations will surely work as well. Some
will not.
How can I get help, report bugs, etc.?
--------------------------------------
There is a newsgroup at our NNTP-server which is dedicated to
questions and answers about StarOffice for Unix. The URL is:
news://starnews.stardivision.com/beta.staroffice.linux
The newsgroup is meant for general discussions, problems,
configuration issues, etc. Please do not post bug reports to the
newsgroup (see below). We will not respond individually to postings
(sorry, we simply do not have the capacity to do that), but will read
everything and post a FAQ or answer to some questions as time
permits.
In order to report bugs or make suggestions for new features,
different handling, etc., please use the mail
address
suggest-linux@stardivision.com
In addition, you can register your mail address at
info-linux@stardivision.com
in order to always get the latest information about StarOffice 3.1 for
Linux by email.
This way of online support is still in its experimental stages here,
so please feel free to send us your suggestions at
suggest-linux@stardivision.com.
Installation
------------
StarOffice 3.1 consists of many files, but don't worry:
You do not need all of them just to play with it a bit. Here's a list
of the files, what they contain and what you need them for.
install: the setup program and data files
REQUIRED, you need this for the installation, or you won't
be able to install anything without these files.
disk.01-[1-7]: common required libraries for all applications
REQUIRED, without these nothing will run
Note: this package has been split into seven files to
facilitate downloading.
disk.02-1: common optional libraries
RECOMMENDED, contains libraries for special features like spell
checking, internet access, database features, etc.
If you do not download and install this package, not everything
in the applications (e.g. the addressbook, etc.) will run.
disk.03-1: common filters
RECOMMENDED, contains filters for foreign file formats
If you do not download and install this package, you will not
be able to import most of the foreign formats StarOffice
supports.
disk.04-[12]: StarCalc 3.1
OPTIONAL, download this file if you want to use StarCalc
disk.05-[12]: StarWriter 3.1
OPTIONAL, download this file if you want to use StarWriter
disk.06-1: StarDraw 3.1
OPTIONAL, download this file if you want to use StarDraw
disk.07-1: StarImage 3.1
OPTIONAL, download this file if you want to use StarImage
disk.08-1: StarChart 3.1
OPTIONAL, download this file if you want to use StarChart
disk.09-1: StarMath 3.1
OPTIONAL, download this file if you want to use StarMath
disk.10-[12]: german linguistics
OPTIONAL, contains data files for german spell checking,
thesaurus and hyphenation
disk.11-1: english linguistics
OPTIONAL, contains data files for english spell checking,
thesaurus and hyphenation
disk.12-1: document templates for StarCalc
OPTIONAL, contains demo document templates for StarCalc.
disk.13-1: document templates for StarWriter
OPTIONAL, contains demo document templates for StarCalc.
disk.14-[12]: document templates for StarDraw
OPTIONAL, contains demo document templates for StarCalc.
disk.15-[12]: tutor files
OPTIONAL, contains files described in the manual
disk.16-1: sounds for StarGallery
OPTIONAL, contains some example sounds
disk.17-1: cliparts for StarGallery
OPTIONAL, contains some cliparts
disk.18-1: StarCalc examples
OPTIONAL
disk.19-1: StarWriter examples
OPTIONAL
disk.20-1: StarDraw examples
OPTIONAL
disk.21-1: StarMath examples
OPTIONAL
disk.22-1: Database examples
OPTIONAL
disk.23-1: Online help for StarCalc (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.24-[12]: Online help for StarWriter (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.25-1: Online help for StarDraw (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.26-1: Online help for StarImage (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.27-1: Online help for StarChart (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.28-1: Online help for StarMath (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.29-1: Online help for StarBasic (German)
OPTIONAL
disk.30-[12]: Manuals for the applets (German)
OPTIONAL
German manuals for StarChart, StarMath and StarImage in PDF
format. You can view these with xpdf. See the section on
documentation above.
disk.31-[12]: StarCalc manual (German)
OPTIONAL
German manual for StarCalc in PDF format. You can view it
with xpdf. See the section on documentation above.
disk.32-[12]: StarDraw manual (German)
OPTIONAL
German manual for StarDraw in PDF format. You can view it
with xpdf. See the section on documentation above.
disk.33-[12]: StarWriter manual (German)
OPTIONAL
German manual for StarWriter in PDF format. You can view it
with xpdf. See the section on documentation above.
disk.34-[12]: StarOffice manual (German)
OPTIONAL
German manual for the common parts of StarOffice in PDF
format. You can view it with xpdf. See the section on
documentation above.
For example, if you just want to try StarWriter without any extra
functionality, you only need to download the packages 01, 05 and
'install'.
After you have downloaded the files you want, please begin the
installation by starting the installation program 'install' in your
StarOffice distribution directory. install will write some temporary
files to the current directory, so you must not be in a read-only
directory when starting the installation (e.g. on a CD). If you have
no write access to the distribution directory, just switch to a
directory into which you may write and enter the full path to the
install program.
"install" is a shell script that will first unpack itself and then start
the graphical installation program. Please note that you have to have
X running for the installation program. Follow the instructions in the
installation program. The shell script will show a short message that
is only interesting for you if the graphical installation program
cannot be started for some reasons.
The installation program currently does not know about the packages
described above, therefore if you try to install a part for which
you have not downloaded the files, an error message will appear that
the appropriate files cannot be found. Just skip the missing files in
this case. The same will happen if you download only the absolute
minimum, i.e. if you do not install the packages 02 and 03. The
applications that you downloaded should run without problems (as long
as you do not try the features that require these libraries, e.g. the
address book).
We recommend that you download at least the packages 'install', 01 to
03 and the application(s) of your choice.
Please note that there are some more documentation files contained in
package 01. Please read these to find out about font installation,
sound and database issues and other information. You will be given
more information during the installation process as well.
The installation consists of two parts. The first
part, called the system installation, unpacks the files and copies
them to a StarOffice directory tree. In this part, you can choose
which packages to install. After you have completed the system
installation, you do not need the files you downloaded any longer!
The second part is called the user installation. At the end of the
system installation, you will be informed how to start the user
installation. During the user installation, directory structures for
various document (and other) files are set up in the user-specified
directory user specified and configuration files are created for the
user.
It is intended that the system administrator runs the system
installation (though it is not necessary at all to run it with
super-user privileges) and then informs his/her users about StarOffice
(via /etc/motd, local newsgroups or other means of on-site
communication). Then the users run the user installation. Even if you are
administering your own lonely Linux box which is not connected to any
net and has no other users, you still have to run both parts of the
installation, but of course, you can run them one after the other
without changing to another user.
During the user installation, you will be asked if you want to copy
the templates and demo documents to your directory tree. If you answer
'yes', all of them will be copied to your directory tree so that you
can modify them. The setup program informs you about the amount of
hard disk space this will require. If you do not want to copy all these
files, you can still use the templates and demo documents, because the
setup program will create symbolic links to the master files. Of
course, you will probably not be able to modify them, because in a
usual installation, the system administrator only gives you read-only
access to the master files.
We hope that you like this first beta version of StarOffice 3.1 for
Linux and that it is useful for you. Please feel free to make use of
the communication facilities described above; we can only fix bugs or
help with problems that we know about. We will try to make changes to
other versions available on the Linux platform as soon as
possible. We, the developers of the Linux version, are Linux
enthusiasts like you. It's just that we pay our rent by developing
and selling software for other platforms... This may change, though,
if there is enough commercial interest in the Linux version. But
please, do not flood our marketing department with emails or phone
calls that you would buy it. They get a lot of these already. Try this
first beta version, try the others that are to come, try the final
version. Then buy :-) Post to the newsgroups if you like it, and
inform us about what you do not like. There might be a way for us to
fix it (though we certainly cannot make any promises).
Your Star Division Unix Group
CREDITS
=======
StarOffice was developed by Star Division GmbH in several groups
(StarView, StarWriter, StarCalc, StarDraw).
It was ported to Linux by the Star Division Unix Group:
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer
Sven Dombrowsky
Eduard Gode
Michael Matthias Kern
Philipp Lohmann
Wilfried Pohl
Special thanks go to:
Marco Boerries, our CEO (for recognizing the importance of Linux)
Sebastian Hetze (for giving me (Kalle) the opportunity to talk about
porting StarOffice to Linux at the 3rd International Linux Conference
in Berlin)
Dirk Hohndel and H.J. Lu (for helping with various technical and
administrative problems)
Astrid Huette (for helping with spreading the word about StarOffice
for Linux)
our quality assurance department
and, of course, Linus Torvalds and all the others for giving us such a
great operating system to port to.