LibreOffice 3.4.2 update announced by The Document Foundation

The Document Foundation has 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 specifically pitched as a replacement for Microsoft Office in the enterprise.

“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.

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. With this release, the Document Foundation has begun to encourage large organisations 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.”

Featuring the work of some 300 contributors, the new LibreOffice comes with “substantial improvements,” Vignoli said. More than 50 issues have been fixed with this latest release, including numerous bugs associated with the software's Calc, Impress and Writer modules.

Further stability improvements and security fixes can be expected in version 3.4.3, which is due by the end of August, Vignoli said.

Available for Linux, Windows and Macintosh, LibreOffice 3.4.2 is now available for download from the project's website.