StarOffice
| StarOffice
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|---|---|
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 StarOffice 9.1.0 under Windows 7 |
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| Basic data
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| developer | to 1999: Star Division 1999–2010: Sun Microsystems 2010: Oracle |
| Publishing year | 1998 (by Star Division) |
| Current version | Oracle Open Office 3.3 (December 2010) (based on StarOffice 9) |
| operating system | Windows , Linux , Solaris , macOS |
| programming language | C ++ |
| category | Office package |
| License | Proprietary |
| German speaking | Yes |
| Others | Development stopped |
| www.staroffice.com | |
StarOffice was the brand name of an application program in the office suite class . The text program StarWriter was marketed by Marco Börries in 1984 and later expanded into a complete office suite. His company Star Division was later taken over by Sun Microsystems in order to be able to offer an office package for several operating systems - especially Solaris from its own company. It formed the basis for the open source programs OpenOffice.org and the LibreOffice based on it . The developers were involved in the specification and dissemination of the open document format OpenDocument .
history
The software company Star Division was founded in 1984 by Marco Börries in Lüneburg . He commissioned his friend with him programmers Frank Aeffner with the development of StarWriter (then in the spelling "StarWriter I") for the Z80 - home computer system Schneider / Amstrad CPC under CP / M . The program was published in 1985. The third version appeared just a year later, apparently under time pressure, because the manual included functions in the foreword that were not yet or just in time and the more detailed manual was added to the previous version in the sales box attached.
With the appearance of the first Schneider PC1512 i8086 systems , it was ported to MS-DOS 3.2. The other individual programs were later integrated into an office suite with all the program modules relevant to the office for DOS and subsequently until 1995 for Windows, which now operated under the name “StarOffice”. Sun Microsystems acquired StarOffice in 1999 and took over development and sales from then on. During that time, the source code was also disclosed, the package was further developed as Free Software under the name OpenOffice.org and supplemented and distributed by Sun with some non-free additions and, in particular, professional service. In the course of this development, the file format was first converted to a zip- compressed format (SXW), which was already similar to the later OpenDocument format , before the changeover to this open-source standard (see Apache OpenOffice # file format ).
Sun became a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation on January 27, 2010, and the program package was marketed under the name Oracle Open Office from the same year . At the same time, the version designation was adapted to the then OpenOffice.org so that “StarOffice Version 9” became “Oracle Open Office Version 3”, both of which corresponded to OpenOffice.org Version 3.
After founded in September 2010 due to dissatisfaction with Oracle's licensing and development policy by the former by many OpenOffice.org developers The Document Foundation , the elimination LibreOffice was created, shared Oracle in June 2011, set the development of the commercial product and the responsibility for the Wanting to transfer the open source variant of OpenOffice.org at that time entirely to the developer community . Oracle transferred its rights to OpenOffice to the Apache Software Foundation . Since April 2011, this variant has been further developed under the name Apache OpenOffice .
Program properties
Similar to other office packages, StarOffice and Oracle Open Office comprised modules for word processing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing program (Draw), a formula editor (Math) and a database connection (Base).
In earlier versions (up to and including StarOffice 5.2) an e-mail client (StarOffice Mail) and appointment management (StarOffice Schedule) were also integrated.
StarOffice from version 3.0 (1995) was designed so that it could run on different operating systems. It was the world's first cross-platform office program. Most recently (2011) these were the platforms Microsoft Windows , macOS , Linux and Solaris (both for the Sun SPARC and for the x86 processor architecture).
In Asia StarOffice was marketed under the name StarSuite. The files of both programs were interchangeable and compatible. The biggest difference in functionality was the support for Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts (based on Unicode ) and languages in the StarSuite.
StarOffice offered an extension manager that incorporated free and proprietary extensions into the office system. The interface was revised again with program update 1 of version 9 of StarOffice and compared with that of the then OpenOffice.org and standardized. It then no longer supported older extensions. The Duden corrector in version 5 could thus be used in OpenOffice.org from version 3.0.1 as well as in StarOffice 9 from PU1.
Difference to the open source variant
StarOffice was a commercial version of OpenOffice.org, the fully open source sister project, which is now being continued under the name Apache OpenOffice . One of the main differences between the then OpenOffice.org and StarOffice was that Oracle and earlier Sun offered updates ("update packs") for StarOffice, whereas the users of OpenOffice.org had to download the entire package. However, the cumulative updates increased as the version number progressed and, for example, with StarOffice 8, they were overall larger than the corresponding OpenOffice.org full versions.
Furthermore, Sun integrated a commercial spell check module into StarOffice and Oracle OpenOffice , which was for a long time superior to the free version in OpenOffice.org. There was also a thesaurus , the Adabas D database module , some templates and cliparts . These commercial components purchased by Sun were funded by StarOffice license fees; Corresponding free modules that were available for OpenOffice.org had to be installed separately. The deluxe edition contained internet programs, a personal information manager (PIM) and Lightning, a free calendar application developed by the Mozilla calendar project.
Another difference to the open source variant was for a long time that Sun initially only offered commercial customer support for StarOffice and StarSuite, which was an exclusion criterion for many companies with regard to OpenOffice.org. However, this policy was later changed and Sun offered commercial services for both programs. The three free requests for single user licenses from Oracle Open Office were continued with the takeover by Oracle. For individual users there was telephone support and a ticket help desk, through which licensed users could open a support ticket using a serial number.
After changing the license model several times, StarOffice was finally licensed again according to the number of users. The Standard Edition was available in the language and for the computer system of the download (as with OpenOffice.org) for one user and one installation or the Enterprise Edition for all 17 supported languages and all supported systems from 100 users. In the past, the program was licensed per user and licensed users could install it up to five times on, for example, notebook and desktop, Linux and Windows. StarOffice could be downloaded license-free for schoolchildren, students and academic institutions, but from version 9 this group was referred to the OpenOffice.org project. The Solaris variant, however, remained free.
From August 2007 to November 2008, version 8 of StarOffice could be obtained free of charge for private users as part of the Google Pack .
Derivatives
The free licensing resulted in numerous derivatives for different platforms after the publication of OpenOffice.org, which is shown in the following graphic. In the following table v. a. the dependencies between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org are compared, since OpenOffice.org is not strictly a derivative, but only a different licensing without software modules requiring a license.
Versions
| free- reproducing |
version | Base | Operating systems | News and special features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Star Writer I. | Schneider / Amstrad CPC | First StarWriter version, later Star-Writer I 3.0 and 3.1 (1986) Double-sided floppy disk to which the CP / M files must be copied before the installation, before the printer, control characters and keyboard layout are set up. The main modules are word processing and address management e.g. B. for serial letters, further modules are graphics for creating letterheads and a character set generator including graphic characters for the printer. Text-based with block graphics and menu bars. | |
| 1986 | StarWriter | Porting Star Writer I | DOS from 3.2 | Several new versions followed. StarWriter had more pleasant graphics than MS Word for DOS, but it was not user-friendly, especially when it came to the correction function. Up to version 3.0 a small graphics program, an address database and was dial module jointly contain. It was called "StarWriterPC". An English language module was purchased separately. The file extension of Star Writer for DOS files was ".txt", but they were not pure text files, but contained formatting features that could only be converted into the actual format with StarWriter for DOS. The documents in the DOS versions of StarWriter are not directly compatible with later StarOffice or OpenOffice applications. |
| 1989 | Star Writer ST | ported from PC version | Atari ST | 3 floppy disks (one-sided, but 10 sectors each) incl. Font editor, templates for common printer models and brief manual (especially incomplete description of font and printer adjustments); around 200 DM; 20 fonts are supported; Keyboard and mouse operation (adjustable to be compatible with Wordstar); Import filter for 1st Word, Word Plus and ASCII , save in * .SW (Writer) or ASCII. Despite the large range of functions, the lack of user-friendliness is criticized. a. by ignoring setting or operating errors without an error message and missing help function. |
| 1990 | StarWriter 5.0 | DOS | ||
| 1991 | StarWriter 5.5 | DOS | First version with its own VGA graphic surface. In addition, StarDraw 1.0 first appeared, later StarDraw 2.0 - a vector graphics program and first DAVID, then StarBase 1.0, later the StarBase 2.0 version, with which dBASE- compatible databases could be created. On the basis of this version, a stripped-down program (only two installation disks ) was sold as StarWriter Compact 2.0. | |
| 1992 | StarWriter 6.0 | DOS | Published in March, updated in December on “swap disk”, various expansion modules were also offered for subsequent purchase, for example a quotation management. | |
| 1992 | StarOffice 1.0 | DOS | StarWriter compact, StarBase 1.0, StarDraw 1.0. | |
| 1993 | StarOffice 2.0 | DOS | StarWriter compact 2.0, StarBase 2.0, StarDraw 2.0. The official name was Office Pack 2.0. | |
| 1993 | StarWriter 1.0 | Windows | September 28th, first version for 16-bit Windows. | |
| 1993 | StarWriter 7.0 | DOS | last version for DOS (July 1993). Compared to version 6, there is a new toolbar and a utility called rasterizer which, together with the supplied fonts, can output scalable fonts and symbols on any matrix printer. Sound files can also be embedded and played with Soundblaster-compatible sound cards. | |
| 1994 | StarWriter 2.0 | Windows, OS / 2, Mac, Power Mac, Solaris Sparc | Windows: 16 bit, Windows NT: Intel and DEC Alpha platforms. | |
| 1995 | StarOffice 3.0 | Windows, OS / 2, Solaris Sparc; Beta for Power Mac 1996 | First cross-platform Office package, Windows: only 16 bit. StarWriter 3.0, StarCalc 3.0, StarDraw 3.0, StarImage, StarChart. | |
| 1996 | StarOffice 3.1 | Windows (16/32 Bit), OS / 2 (16 Bit), Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 and only version for Mac Classic-OS (OS 7.5 - 8.0) | Internet functions, global documents (together with the also new Navigator a kind of container for a collection of documents from a project), numerous functions are expanded for professional purposes (dialogs for graphics, field commands, lists, printing, etc.), version for Linux free of charge for non-commercial use . Free download update of V. 3.0 (or on CD for around 30 DM) | |
| 1997 | StarOffice 4.0 | Windows, OS / 2, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86, still as beta for Mac OS | Integrated working environment for all individual applications with “desktop”, last 16-bit version for Windows. | |
| 1998 | StarOffice 5.0 | Windows, OS / 2, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 | Extended desktop for system integration in Windows (replaces the Windows desktop and provides a desktop for platforms on which there is nothing comparable). Last version for Windows NT 3.51. | |
| 1999 | StarOffice 5.1 | Windows, OS / 2, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 | Last purchase version; shortly afterwards version 5.1a appeared for the first time free of charge, which differs in the fact that the serial number prompt has been removed and was mainly distributed on CDs from computer magazines. The last version that OS / 2 supports. | |
| 1999 | StarOffice 5.2 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 | Free of charge, new spelling, the last StarOffice version still supported Windows 95. Using Odin , the Windows version again unofficially supports OS / 2 Warp. | |
| 1999? | SUN ONE web top | browser-based | Server version of StarOffice - only as beta version, as it was already discontinued before the first release was released. | |
| 2002 | StarOffice 6.0 | OpenOffice.org 1.0 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc |
Desktop, browser and mail client removed again (little acceptance by users), but all individual programs start the same main program with application-specific modules, dialogs and functions. OpenOffice.org (V. 1.0.3.1) last time support for Windows 95. |
| 2004 | StarOffice 7 | OpenOffice.org 1.1 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc |
Direct PDF export native, i.e. H. without additional extensions, extended export functions (including Flash format), macro recorder for Writer and Calc. |
| 2005 | StarOffice 7 PU 1 5 | OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc |
Import filter for the OpenDocument formats, last official support for Windows NT 4.0. |
| 2006 | StarOffice 8 and PU 1 | OpenOffice.org 2.0 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, sparc OpenOffice.org from 2.0.3: Mac OS X (10.4) |
Own database application (Base, thus also in OpenOffice.org), new file format "OpenDocument", system-dependent surface, optimized user guidance for switching from MS Office. |
| 2006 | StarOffice 7 PU 6 to 8 | OpenOffice.org 2.1 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, Mac OS X (10.3. PPC or 10.4. X86) |
Improved HTML export from Calc, revised quick starter, bug with page breaks in the table of contents in Writer. |
| 2006 | StarOffice 8 PU 2 to 5 | OpenOffice.org 2.1 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, Mac OS X (10.3. PPC or 10.4. X86) |
Improved HTML export from Calc, revised quick starter, bug with page breaks in the table of contents in Writer. |
| 2007 | StarOffice 7 PU 9 to 11 | OpenOffice.org 2.2 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, Mac OS X (x86 / PPC) |
Advanced features. |
| 2007 | StarOffice 8 PU 6 and 7 | OpenOffice.org 2.2 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, Mac OS X (x86 / PPC) |
Extended functions for Windows Vista and PDF export. |
| 2007 | StarOffice 8 PU 8 and 9 | OpenOffice.org 2.3 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, Mac OS X (x86 / PPC) |
Reprogramming of charts, structure and display of diagrams improved, export function of the MediaWiki format in Writer, several improvements, including spell check. |
| 2007 | StarOffice 7 PU 12, | OpenOffice.org 2.4 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, sparc, amd64, ia64, mipsel, s390; Mac OS X (x86 / PPC from OS 10.4) |
improved input and sorting in Calc, Impress PDF export with bookmarks, block markings in text documents, new import filters, improved security functions, access to WebDAV server via HTTPS , PDF export for long-term archiving. Last Windows 98 / ME version. |
| 2007 | StarOffice 8 PU 10 to 16 | OpenOffice.org 2.4 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86 OpenOffice.org additionally: Linux powerpc, sparc, amd64, ia64, mipsel, s390; Mac OS X (x86 / PPC from OS 10.4) |
improved input and sorting in Calc, Impress PDF export with bookmarks, block markings in text documents, new import filters, improved security functions, access to WebDAV server via HTTPS , PDF export for long-term archiving. Last Windows 98 / ME version. |
| 2008 | StarOffice 9 | OpenOffice.org 3.0 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86, Mac OS X Intel AQUA | First native version for Mac OS X. Revision of Calc, extended note function in Writer. Import filter for MS Office 2007 and for PDF files (PDF: SO only, reloadable for OpenOffice.org). Minor release OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 or StarOffice 9 PU 1 with improved Extension Manager, but requires extensions in the new format |
| 2009 | StarOffice 9 PU 2 and 3 | OpenOffice.org 3.1 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86, Mac OS X Intel AQUA | Revised antialiasing (antialiasing) for vector graphics for improved display quality with diagrams and graphics, several smaller improvements in handling, XML import (MS Office 07) improved |
| 2010 | StarOffice 9 PU 4 | OpenOffice.org 3.2 | Windows, Linux i386, Solaris Sparc / x86, Mac OS X Intel AQUA | Program start shortened, support for Graphite and OpenType fonts, stability and speed increased, comment and diagram functions expanded; Harmonized with "Oracle Open Office 3.2" version numbers |
1 "Product Update", the updates of the StarOffice full versions with bug fixes and new functions
Web links
- German-language LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org Wiki
- Extensions for OpenOffice.org and StarOffice (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oracle brings paid Open Office version . Magnus.de, December 26, 2010 (accessed on May 26, 2011 at crn.de)
- ↑ Dancer Craemer: Open Office: Oracle hands over development to the open source community - Update from April 19, 2011
- ↑ a b c Star-Writer I at cpc-power.com
- ^ A b Marco Börries: Handbook for Star-Writer I, Version 3.0 - Star-Division, 1986
- ↑ Copy of an advertisement with a description of the functions and purposes of use, CPC International, 1/1986, digitized as an image file at cpcwiki.eu
- ↑ Oracle press release of April 15, 2011. April 15, 2011, accessed April 21, 2011 .
- ^ Statements on OpenOffice.org Contribution to Apache. June 1, 2011, accessed June 1, 2011 .
- ↑ StarSuite 8 General FAQ
- ↑ Press release for OpenOffice.org
- ↑ Information on the current edition of the Duden Korrektor in version 5 , including system requirements
- ↑ a b c Article in Atari magazine (April 1989)
- ↑ No more official information available; Version 3.0 does not yet support Mac OS, cf. heise.de ( Memento from August 17, 2000 in the Internet Archive ), references to V. 3.1 are u. a. under ppcnux.de and forum contributions such as macuser.de available
- ↑ Article on heise.de ( Memento from August 17, 2000 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Information on StarOffice on the de.os2.org website
