OpenOffice 3, released in 2008, reached a new milestone this week with the release of the 3.3 beta build. This new compilation does not offer much new functionalities, but does include several fixes.
We’ve also announced in November of 2009, that OpenOffice 3 reached 1 million downloads, making it the most popular OpenOffice suite so far. The 3.3 build just added a few more small features:
- Improvements in the dictionary and translations.
- Possibility to add different colors in sheets.
- Stability improvements and several bugs fixed.
This build is available to download for Windows, Mac, Solaris and Linux (of course); in Linux versions we can use the 32bit and 64bits. All builds available here.
The open source community maintains a simple way to do things, never stop collaborating. Even though the work it is not always great, they keep offering possibilities; which in this world is a vital thing to have.
For over several years now, the OpenOffice.org Project has been increasing significantly. And on October 28th they’ve reached the 100 million download with their 3.0 version.
Open Office 3, released a year ago, included several improvements:
- Enhanced compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007
- Added edition capabilities for PDF
- Included Open Office extensions (quite similar like you have in Firefox add-ons)
- Various improvements with Writer (Word), Calc (Excel) and Impress (PowerPoint).
The latest and stable build is the 3.1.1 but there is already a Beta available for the 3.2 version, you can check it here.
Open Office originally appeared as StarOffice, owned by Sun Microsystems (back in the year 2000). The first original version of Open Office, 1.0 obviously, showed up in 2002. And for those that worked with it, knew that it had a lot to improve.
Even though all that, this project was the only one that maintains certain stability over the years with an “attempt” to use it as a free possibility working with Office standards. Personally I’ve never got used to it to use it, but continue to be as the main possibility for several governmental and educational entities, related to costs of course.
