Wot, no trial version of Star Office?
As a newbie to Linux computing I know I get OpenOffice as a free application but if I need to import documents from my office that have been created in MS Office it is not a smooth process. This made me consider Star Office, but, there doesn't appear to be a free trial version to tempt me and I'm not one for going down the road of 'Buy now and get your money back if you're not satisfied'. I don't mind limited trial periods ... this should at least give me time to test the application and then, if I feel happy with it, I will buy!!
So what have you to offer here?
[587 byte] By [
freddie34] at [2007-11-26 11:37:31]
# 1
I was a newbie to Linux (well 12 months now) so welcome!
I have found that using the official OpenOffice builds that are located at openoffice.org are more up to date and with more functionality than the ones supplied with the Linux distros.
What I can say is that the function in Star Office is 99% the same as in Open Office - the reason for no 'try before you buy' is that you have OpenOffice available to try for free.
I notice you said that you need to import documents, what are you trying to open - is it just word and excel files? If so you can just do "File, Open" and this should open your old MS file without a problem.
If you can be more specific to your issue we will try and help you further.
# 2
I have also found a link to the trial version of star office http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/get.jspThis does appear to be a time limited version.I hope this is of assistance to you.
# 3
>
> I have found that using the official OpenOffice
> builds that are located at openoffice.org are more up
> to date and with more functionality than the ones
> supplied with the Linux distros.
To which version do you refer? I have version 2.2
>
> What I can say is that the function in Star Office is
> 99% the same as in Open Office - the reason for no
> 'try before you buy' is that you have OpenOffice
> available to try for free.
What are the main differences between OpenOffice and Star Office and how do they compare with Microsoft Office 2003?
>
> I notice you said that you need to import documents,
> what are you trying to open - is it just word and
> excel files? If so you can just do "File, Open" and
> this should open your old MS file without a problem.
I also use Micrsoft Access
>
> If you can be more specific to your issue we will try
> and help you further.
I am an I.C.T. volunteer at our local Community Centre and am trying to persuade members of the committee that it may be worth their while taking a look at what OPENSUSE 10.1 has to offer, especially as it comes for free and could make a considerable difference, both in financial savings and reliability.
# 4
Thanks for that link, I will give it a try?
# 5
The main difference is to do with the support levels offered by Sun Microsystems OpenOffice is a community effort with portals such as this to support the users.
StarOffice is a chargeable piece of software with a period of time where you get technical support for a period of time after you have bought the software.
Functionality wise I use OpenOffice at home and on my laptop - In the office I use staroffice. One thing I prefer about Ooo is that it has "Open Document Format" available as a file type so as more packages go to an open format your document will look the same on all packages.
If you are looking at going for an 'Open' operating system have you seen Open Solaris, depending on your needs and what equipment you have this may also be an option for you? Im using OpenSuSE 10.1 at the moment on a Toshiba Satellite laptop and it works very well. I have been using OS 10.0 / 10.1 since this time last year and it was the best thing I have done - I have not had any of the usual issues that I used to get with Windows.
# 6
In other words, I believe what you are saying is that if I want to pay for technical support I should go for Star Office, otherwise it's worth sticking with OpenOffice. So, in other words, if I hope to get something like Microsoft Publisher, it won't be in the Star Office application pack!
I'm not certain whether OpenOffice is entirely friendly towards the Microsoft environment. If I create a Publisher-like document in OpenOffice Writer and send it as an email attachment to someone using Windows it does not display correctly, yet it displays perfectly if sent as a PDF file.
I have downloaded the latest version of OpenOffice in order to discover whether it has overcome some of these issues but now I can't install it. I must be going wrong somehow but I can't see where. I'm finding software installation in Linux not as simple as it is in Windows with its exe. files!
# 7
What OS are you using at the moment? if you are using SuSE and using RPM files these just install as simply as in windows if you use YAST (the software installation and system configuration tool in Linux builds, if you have that option installed).
There are some issues regarding cross compatibility, that we are aware of as a community - these are being improved with every release and things are looking better. Don't forget a PDF is like a photograph of your document, it will look and print the same on all systems - this is a cross compatible format for distributing.
There are times where I still need to drop to windows occasionally because of minor compatibility issues., this is why I can stand here and honestly say it is getting a lot better with using Ooo documents under windows.
Depending on what you want to do depends on the tools you should use. For me, I want to move 100% away from the Windows world - which I have done successfully on all machines apart from my laptop. The reason for still having dual boot is that I use Adobe Audition and this only runs on Windows. The only other reason is so that I can check slides in powerpoint before I export them to another format I need to use for WebEx.
To me tho this is only a minor problem for the amount of money I have saved.
# 8
I am currently using OpenSuse 10.1 and have downloaded OpenOffice 2.0.4 but after extracting files to an empty folder I found a problem when I chose YAST to install it. If you look at the number of rpm files once they are extracted , it's impossible to know which one to select for the initial installation. Where am I going wrong!
# 9
Here are the instructions
Installation Steps
1. Unpack the downloaded image into a directory. For example, currently, the following command would unpack into the current directory:
2. tar xvzf OOo_2.0.4_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz
3. su to root, if necessary.
4. cd into the directory with the unpacked image. This could be RPMS.
5. Delete any rpm files that do not apply to your system. For example, on a Fedora Core 3 system, delete any rpms specific to another distribution such as openofficeorg-suse-menus-1.9.79-1.noarch.rpm.
6. Then execute rpm -Uvih *rpm.
Note:
Replacing a 'native' distribution build with the full OpenOffice.org original build can be tricky, but can usually be successfully accomplished by completely removing the existing 'native' install.
If you need more assistance let me know and I will help you via PM
