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====== General Information ======

=====What is Greenstone?=====

**Greenstone** is a suite of software which has the ability to serve digital library collections and build new collections. It provides a new way of organizing information and publishing it on the Internet or on CD-ROM. For more information, read the [[http://www.greenstone.org/cgi-bin/library?e=p-en-faqgen-utfZz-8&a=p&p=factsheet|Greenstone Fact Sheet]]. There is a brief history of the Greenstone project [[http://wiki.greenstone.org/gsdoc/others/Greenstone_history.htm| here]].

=====How is Greenstone licensed?=====
Greenstone is open-source software, distributed under the terms of the [[http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html|GNU General Public License]].

=====What platforms will Greenstone run on?=====
Greenstone has been tested on Windows 3.1/3.11/95/98/Me/NT/2000, most distributions of GNU/Linux, Darwin (Mac OS X), Solaris, and FreeBSD. It should in fact work on any Windows or Unix system. If you use a system other than those mentioned and you find Greenstone doesn't run, please [[http://www.greenstone.org/cgi-bin/library?e=p-en-faqgen-utfZz-8&a=p&p=support|contact]] us.

Please note that the downloadable Windows distribution of Greenstone comes with an installer that will not work on 16 bit Windows. If you need to use Greenstone on Windows 3.1/3.11 please [[http://www.greenstone.org/cgi-bin/library?e=p-en-faqgen-utfZz-8&a=p&p=support|contact]] us.

=====Are there any mailing lists concerned with Greenstone?=====
There are two Greenstone mailing lists. You can subscribe to them from the [[http://www.greenstone.org/cgi-bin/library?e=p-en-home-utfZz-8&a=p&p=support|Greenstone support]] page.

=====Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?=====
The most popular mailing list (greenstone-users@list.scms.waikato.ac.nz) is archived as a Greenstone collection at [[http://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library?a=p&p=about&c=gsarch|www.nzdl.org.]] Note that this collection is updated only sporadically so may not always be completely up to date.

=====How do I contribute to Greenstone?=====
We welcome contributions or improvements to the Greenstone software!

Before you send in any contribution, you first need to make sure that your changes are compatible with the latest snapshop of the Greenstone source code. To get the latest code you'll need to use Subversion (see the [[Greenstone_SVN]] page for details).
You should then send the modified files, along with details of the modifications you've made, to [mailto:greenstone@cs.waikato.ac.nz greenstone@cs.waikato.ac.nz].

Before beginning work, you should announce what you're doing on the [mailto:greenstone-devel@cs.waikato.ac.nz greenstone developer's list] to tell us what you plan to do and get some feedback.