KOffice 1.2.1 Announcement

December 12, 2002 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KOffice 1.2.1. KOffice is an integrated office suite for KDE which utilizes open standards for data formats, component communication and component embedding. KOffice 1.2.1 constitutes the most stable and feature-complete release of KOffice to date, and the KOffice team encourages all users of earlier KOffice releases to upgrade to KOffice 1.2.1.

This release, which is available in 37 languages, includes the following components: a frame-based, full-featured word processor (KWord); a presentation application (KPresenter); a spreadsheet application (KSpread); a vector-drawing application (Kontour, f/k/a KIllustrator); a flowchart application (Kivio); a chart drawing application (KChart); a formula editor (KFormula); a tool for generating business quality reports (Kugar); and filters for importing documents created by, or exporting documents for use with, other office suites or office programs.

KOffice 1.2.1 is a stability release, with the principal improvements over KOffice 1.2, released last September, occurring in the spreadsheet program (KSpread). A list of changes and notes about the release are available at the KOffice web site.

KOffice 1.2.1 complements the release of KDE 3.0.5 late last month. KDE is a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes, and together with KOffice constitutes the only Open Source project to provide a complete desktop and productivity environment for Linux/UNIX.

KOffice and all its components (including KDE) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE server and its mirrors and can also be obtained on CD-ROM.

Installing KOffice 1.2.1 Binary Packages

Binary Packages. Some Linux / UNIX OS vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KOffice 1.2.1 for some versions of their distribution, and in other cases community volunteers have done so. Some of these binary packages are available for free download from KDE's http or ftp mirrors. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available over the coming weeks.

Package Responsibility. Please note that the KDE Project makes these packages available from the KDE web site as a convenience to KDE users. The KDE Project is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties - typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution - using tools, compilers, library versions and quality assurance procedures over which KDE exercises no control. If you cannot find a binary package for your OS, or you are displeased with the quality of binary packages available for your system, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy and/or contact your OS vendor.

Library Requirements / Options. The library requirements for a particular binary package vary with the system on which the package was compiled. Please bear in mind that some binary packages may require a newer version of Qt and other libraries than the applicable vendor shipped with the system (e.g., LinuxDistro X.Y may have shipped with Qt 3.0.0 but the packages below may require Qt 3.0.3). For general library requirements for KDE, please see the text at Source Code - Library Requirements below.

Package Locations. At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

• Conectiva Linux (README / LEIAME):
  • 8.0: Intel i386 (language packs)
• Debian (README):
  • Sid: Intel i386
  • Woody: Intel i386 (language packs)
• Mandrake Linux:
  • 9.0 with KDE-3.0.3: Intel i386 (language packs)
  • 9.0 with KDE-3.1: Intel i386 (language packs)
• Red Hat Linux (unofficial):
  • 7.3: Intel i386 (readme)
  • 8.0: Intel i386 (language packs)
• Slackware Linux (unofficial) (README):
  • 8.1: Intel i386 (language packs)
• SuSE Linux:
  • 7.3: Intel ix86, PowerPC
  • 8.0: Intel ix86
  • 8.1: Intel ix86
  
  language packs

Binary packages contributed by users rather than the relevant OS vendor are located in the contrib directory. If packages have not been provided for your system and you would like to volunteer to build tested packages for others, please notify the KDE Packager mailing list.

Updates. Additional or updated binary packages will likely become available over the coming days and weeks; please check the servers periodically for updates and pre-compiled packages for other distributions.

Compiling KOffice 1.2.1

Library Requirements. KOffice 1.2.1 requires the following libraries:

• kdelibs 3.0, though kdelibs 3.0.5 is highly recommended. Both KDE releases can be downloaded following the instructions in the respective press releases (3.0, 3.0.5) at the KDE website. For more information on the KDE 3 series, please see the KDE 3.0 press release.
• Qt 3.0.3, which is available in source code from Trolltech as qt-x11-3.0.3.tar.gz and in binary packages from most OS vendors, or later (Qt 3.0.5 is recommended).
• For reading help pages and other KOffice documentation, libxml2 >= 2.4.9 and libxslt >= 1.0.7.

Compiler Requirements. Please note that some components of KOffice 1.2.1 (such as the Quattro Pro import filter and KChart) will not compile with older versions of gcc or egcs, such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2. At a minimum gcc-2.95-* is required.

Source Code. The complete source code for KOffice 1.2.1 is available for free download via one of the KDE http or ftp mirrors. These source packages have been digitally signed with GnuPG using the David Faure PGP Key (available from the KDE Signature page or public key servers), and their respective MD5 sums are listed on the KOffice 1.2.1 Info Page.

Additionally, source rpms and other vendor-specific packages are available for the following distributions:

• Conectiva 8.0
• Debian Sid and Woody (Woody translation packs)
• Mandrake Linux 9.0
• RedHat Linux 7.3 and 8.0 (unofficial)
• SuSE Linux all versions

Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KOffice, please consult the KOffice installation instructions. For problems with SRPMs, please contact the person listed in the applicable .spec file.

Corporate KOffice Sponsors

Besides the valuable and excellent efforts by the KOffice developers themselves, significant support for KOffice development has been provided by MandrakeSoft (which sponsors KOffice developers David Faure and Laurent Montel), theKompany.com (which has contributed Kivio and Kugar to KOffice), Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB (which has contributed KChart to KOffice); and Princeton University (which has contributed WordNet to the Open Source communities). In addition, the members of the KDE League, as well as individual sponsors (donate), provide significant support for KDE and KOffice. Thanks!

About KOffice and KDE

KOffice is part of the KDE Project. KDE is an independent project of hundreds of developers, translators, artists and professionals worldwide collaborating over the Internet to create and freely distribute a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop and office environment employing a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and offering an outstanding development platform. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop, a full, component-based office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking and administration tools and utilities, and an efficient, intuitive development environment featuring the excellent IDE KDevelop. KDE is working proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

Please visit the KDE family of web sites for the KDE FAQ, screenshots, KOffice information and developer information. Much more information about KDE is available from KDE's family of web sites.

Release Coordinator: Thanks to David Faure for his excellent services as release coordinator.

Press Release: Written by Andreas Pour from the KDE League, with the invaluable assistance of numerous gifted volunteers from the KDE Project.

Trademarks Notices. KDE, K Desktop Environment and KOffice are trademarks of KDE, Inc. (KDE e.V.). Adobe Illustrator and PostScript are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems. dBASE is a registered trademark of dBASE Inc. Corel, Quattro Pro and WordPerfect are registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. WordNet is a registered trademark of Princeton University. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.