The Document Foundation on Monday announced the release of version 3.4.2 of its LibreOffice productivity software suite, which not only offers a raft of improvements but is also the first version of the suite to be declared enterprise-ready.
“LibreOffice 3.4.2 fixes the majority of the most-important bugs identified by users in the previous version, and can be deployed for production needs by most enterprises,” wrote TDF Steering Committee member Italo Vignoli in a post on the Document Foundation blog.
The preceding versions 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 of the free and open source software were aimed primarily at early adopters and power users, and were not recommended for use in production environments. Available for Linux, Windows and Macintosh, LibreOffice 3.4.2 is now available for download from the project's website.
'Substantial Improvements'
Featuring the work of some 300 contributors, the new LibreOffice comes with “substantial improvements,” Vignoli said.
More than 50 issues that were problematic in previous versions have been fixed with this latest release, for example, including numerous bugs associated with the software's Calc, Impress and Writer modules.
Still included in the Google-backed software, meanwhile, are all the enhancements and updates that were introduced in version 3.4.0. A complete list is available on the software's “new features and fixes” page.
Further stability improvements and security fixes can be expected in version 3.4.3, which is due by the end of August, Vignoli said.
'An Indirect Means to Contribute'
Now that the productivity software is enterprise-ready, the Document Foundation encourages large organizations to deploy it with the help of a support partner, which can carefully assess specific requirements, help manage migration and provide custom fixes for any issues that might crop up.
Purchasing LibreOffice support from such a partner “also provides enterprises with an indirect means to contribute financially to the project,” Vignoli notes, “thereby funding its development, improving its stability and accelerating its growth.”
I use LibreOffice every day for all the writing I do, but I didn't think it quite deserved top billing in my enterprise-focused Productivity Software Showdown back in February. I'm excited to check out this new release and see how it compares.
