Staroffice experts sought

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I am trying to install Staroffice on my new laptop (4 year old tosh) from a 64Mb download from the Sun site. Am having a few difficulties installing it. If anyone has experience of this program I'd love to ask you some questions.

Seems like a brilliant package mind.

WWW

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Now up and running. What a factastic piece of kit. Serves as absolutley everything from Office Suite through Graphics all the way to Email and Browser - all for 65Mb and it works real slick on a 486 Laptop. Not bad for £3.60 wroth of download time.
www.sun.com/staroffice (http://www.sun.com/staroffice)

WWW

[Tinstaafl]

I've read some good reviews about StarOffice and have been wondering about obtaining it. Ta muchly for the link.

Wonder if I should go full tilt & switch to Linux + StarOffice? Or perhaps a dual boot?

Any suggestions or advice, anyone?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Well my experience with Staroffice so far is great. Only snag I have found is that you can't port password protected docs from MS Office across without first removing the protection. Other than that the filters work really well. The on-line support seems well sorted including several newsgroups which are v.helpful.

WWW

[Feline]

Seems to me WWW, that, having successfully installed StarOffice on a 486 laptop, you are now promoted to Pprune resident expert on StarOffice ...

Seriously - would you care to share a few details? What OS are you using, and exactly what problems did you have in installing it?

My interest is some work I am involved in with previously disadvantaged communities. We can get hold of obsolescent 486 machines without too much trouble, but we then have to purchase licenses for the OS and the applications packages (which can be prohibitive).

I would be particularly interested in anyone's experiences with Linux + StarOffice - see too today's story in the Times at
<http://www.the-times.co.uk/interface/insight/story84.html>

I'm just a bit worried about a 64Mb download - will probably chicken out and try and get hold of the CD-ROM (available locally for about $21).

If anyone's interested, I have a copy of a review article from a local mag on Star Office and will be happy to e-mail it offline.

------------------
Feline
(I Sit, I Watch, I Smile)

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Hey you can now get free SOLARIS OS and then put Staroffice on top of it giving you effectively Windows98 and MS Office98 and IE4 and Outlook. All for free. The download took me 6 hours. Solaris would add about 4 hours to that I believe. Not bad at 1p per minute (BT weekend). Should run better than MS product on old machines.

WWW

[OzmateBugsmasher]

I had a look at StarOffice on my Linux partition (dual Boot) and dropped it after about 1/2 a hour.

It has a pretty different way of managing your documents and how you select what sort of document you are working on. Didnt gel with me so I dropped it. YMMV.


I'd suggest having a read of the newsgroups and a good look at any websites detailling it before going to the trouble of downloading it.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Its nowhere near as different from standard MS fare as, say, Lotus Notes which requires a new vocab, new icon recognition and a new way of thinking about layers and structures.

I bashed my head against Notes for months whereas Staroffice is pretty slick after just an hour of playing with it...

Just my experience.

WWW

[Tinstaafl]

Good news for getting StarOffice.

Version 5.1 (is that current?) is available on the cover disk of the March edition of 'Computer Shopper'. The magazine costs 2.75 UKP. I also saw it on another magazine's disk as well.

Now, if only Linux gets put on next month's disk...

Thank <insert deity here> for WH Smith to kill time while waiting at train stations or I wouldn't have seen it.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Bet thats on CD ROM though. The gerbils in my laptop can't run fast enough for those CD's.

After several dozen hours using Staroffice I now rate it as being about 87 percent as comprehensive and useful as MS Office equivalent. Given the few resources it requires to run and the fact that it did not cost me 60quid I have to say its the superior package.

Next stop Solaris OS!

WWW

[Land Lubber]

Love Star Office. I think you can get it on CD for $4.95... I got a comp copy for downloading some java stuff. It is a great program!
Wee Willy could you send me the URL for a group so I can find out how to configure the mail?

Have seen Corel's Linux with GUI similar to Windows for $49 out of a catalogue...

They will be offering a 'Window's Programs compatiblity feature' by mid 2000. That way, if Windows fries in mid-task you can swap OS and continue without doing all the go fix-it work in mid-thought.... I couldn't grok the Linux OS that was about in '98 but this will make it easier, [and gets MS out of the "monopoly" problem quite easily].
Dell and Gateway are launching completely non-Windows systems! ;)

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Haven't got a URL to hand but the main website under the link SUPPORT lists several for different user groups. I think this works:
www.sun.com/staroffice (http://www.sun.com/staroffice)

Cheers, WWW

[OzmateBugsmasher]

If anyone's interested in trying out Linux, and is heading dunnunda, grab "The revised edition LINUX pocketbook" from a newsagent.

It put out by Australian Personal Computer mag and had 3CDs with versions of Red-Hat6.1 and Caldera Open Linux 2.3, plus heaps of other goodies.

The book itself walks you through setting up linux on your pc, from repartitioning your drives to how to use the various GUI's etc.

Well worth the AUD$20

It's available online at: http://apcmag.com/shop/

[Dodgy One]

WWW
Just used my 1.5Mbps home connection to download the StarOffice 5.1 in 46 minutes - really pleased with my new connection.
Have you had any problems transferring MSOffice files to SO5.1 other than the password protected ones?

[spannersatcx]

It's free on the cover of this months computer buyer mag. With a small tutorial inside. Windows version I think.

[This message has been edited by spannersatcx (edited 15 February 2000).]