LibreOffice 3.4.1 fixes bugs, still not ready for enterprises

The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 3.4.1, a landmark update for its open-source, multi-platform office application. With its release, LibreOffice 3.4.1 is now the recommended build for all users except large enterprises, thanks to the bug fixes and improved stability that provide the focus of the release.

LibreOffice is an off-shoot of the OpenOffice project, development of which has stalled since many developers switched across to LibreOffice when it was launched in September, 2010.

At the present time, there are two versions of LibreOffice available: an older 3.3.3 build for enterprise users, plus the recently released 3.4.1 build for all other users. Enterprise users are asked to hold off deploying a 3.4.x build until version 3.4.2 is released at the end of the month.

LibreOffice 3.4.1 is purely a maintenance release, with no new features. However, users who are switching to the 3.4.x build from version 3.3.x, will find a number of a new features that were introduced in version 3.4, which are detailed at the LibreOffice website. These include improved compatibility with Excel spreadsheets in Calc, renamed Data Pilot component (now called PivotTable) and improved HTML export options in Impress and Draw applications.

LibreOffice 3.4.1 is a free and open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux.