14 DAY TRIAL // The Document Foundation has announced that LibreOffice 4.3.3 has been released and is now the most advanced stable version available for download.
The developers from The Document Foundation have released a new point update for the latest LibreOffice 4.3.x branch and they are working to further improve the office suite and promote a new version very soon, namely 4.4.
This is a maintenance release for LibreOffice, so you can imagine that no major new features have been implemented, but there are a ton of fixes and improvements. This usually happens with all the point releases and the developers usually promote new stuff with bigger updates. This doesn't mean that it's not worth the update; quite the contrary, users should upgrade their office suites as soon as possible.
LibreOffice 4.3.3 is not exciting, but it's important
The Document Foundation maintains a few stable branches for LibreOffice and that might seem weird at first, but the office suite is used in a number of controlled environments where updating all the time from one branch to another is not really recommended. City administrations for example prefer updates for the same branch of the suite, but that doesn't mean the development for the other ones should stay put.
LibreOffice 4.3.3 "Fresh" is a stable release of the more advanced version of the software and is targeted at users focusing on features. LibreOffice 4.2.7 "Still" is a stable release of the more tested version of the software and is targeted at users focusing on continuity. Both versions can be deployed in enterprise environments, according to corporate policies, when backed by professional support.
"This is the first time we are releasing the fresh and still versions on the same day, and this represents a good opportunity to explain that we maintain two concurrent versions of the software to provide the best option to both power and conservative users, because they focus on different characteristics of the application. In both cases, though, we strongly suggest to back enterprise deployments with professional support, to get the best out of LibreOffice," says Italo Vignoli, a spokesperson for The Document Foundation.
Unlike previous versions, which usually got two Release Candidates, the current iteration only got one. The application is becoming more stable and it requires fewer steps to repair any major problems that might appear. There's nothing particular that needs mentioning, but it's a better version overall.
More details about this latest release can be found in the official changelog.
Download LibreOffice 4.3.3 for Linux Download LibreOffice 4.3.3 for Windows Download LibreOffice 4.3.3 for Mac OS X