[tdf-discuss] The Document Foundation launches LibreOffice 3.3

The Document Foundation launches LibreOffice 3.3

The first stable release of the free office suite is available for download

The Internet, January 25, 2011 - The Document Foundation launches 
LibreOffice 3.3, the first stable release of the free office suite 
developed by the community. In less than four months, the number of 
developers hacking LibreOffice has grown from less than twenty in late 
September 2010, to well over one hundred today. This has allowed us to 
release ahead of the aggressive schedule set by the project.

Not only does it ship a number of new and original features, LibreOffice 
3.3 is also a significant achievement for a number of reasons:

- the developer community has been able to build their own and 
independent process, and get up and running in a very short time (with 
respect to the size of the code base and the project's strong ambitions);

- thanks to the high number of new contributors having been attracted 
into the project, the source code is quickly undergoing a major clean-up 
to provide a better foundation for future development of LibreOffice;

- the Windows installer, which is going to impact the largest and most 
diverse user base, has been integrated into a single build containing 
all language versions, thus reducing the size for download sites from 75 
to 11GB, making it easier for us to deploy new versions more rapidly and 
lowering the carbon footprint of the entire infrastructure.

Caolán McNamara from RedHat, one of the developer community leaders, 
comments, "We are excited: this is our very first stable release, and 
therefore we are eager to get user feedback, which will be integrated as 
soon as possible into the code, with the first enhancements being 
released in February. Starting from March, we will be moving to a real 
time-based, predictable, transparent and public release schedule, in 
accordance with Engineering Steering Committee's goals and users' 
requests". The LibreOffice development roadmap is available at 
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan

LibreOffice 3.3 brings several unique new features. The 10 most-popular 
among community members are, in no particular order: the ability to 
import and work with SVG files; an easy way to format title pages and 
their numbering in Writer; a more-helpful Navigator Tool for Writer; 
improved ergonomics in Calc for sheet and cell management; and Microsoft 
Works and Lotus Word Pro document import filters. In addition, many 
great extensions are now bundled, providing PDF import, a slide-show 
presenter console, a much improved report builder, and more besides. A 
more-complete and detailed list of all the new features offered by 
LibreOffice 3.3 is viewable on the following web page: 
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/new-features-and-fixes/

LibreOffice 3.3 also provides all the new features of OpenOffice.org 
3.3, such as new custom properties handling; embedding of standard PDF 
fonts in PDF documents; new Liberation Narrow font; increased document 
protection in Writer and Calc; auto decimal digits for "General" format 
in Calc; 1 million rows in a spreadsheet; new options for CSV import in 
Calc; insert drawing objects in Charts; hierarchical axis labels for 
Charts; improved slide layout handling in Impress; a new easier-to-use 
print interface; more options for changing case; and colored sheet tabs 
in Calc. Several of these new features were contributed by members of 
the LibreOffice team prior to the formation of The Document Foundation.

LibreOffice hackers will be meeting at FOSDEM in Brussels on February 5 
and 6, and will be presenting their work during a one-day workshop on 
February 6, with speeches and hacking sessions coordinated by several 
members of the project.

The home of The Document Foundation is at http://www.documentfoundation.org

The home of LibreOffice is at http://www.libreoffice.org where the 
download page has been redesigned by the community to be more user-friendly.


*** About The Document Foundation

The Document Foundation has the mission of facilitating the evolution of 
the OOo Community into a new, open, independent, and meritocratic 
organization within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a 
better reflection of the values of our contributors, users and 
supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient and transparent 
community. TDF will protect past investments by building on the 
achievements of the first decade, will encourage wide participation 
within the community, and will co-ordinate activity across the community.


*** Media Contacts for TDF

Florian Effenberger (Germany)
Mobile: +49 151 14424108 - E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org
Olivier Hallot (Brazil)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812 - E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org
Charles H. Schulz (France)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424 - E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org
Italo Vignoli (Italy)
Mobile: +39 348 5653829 - E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org

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Florian Effenberger <floeff@documentfoundation.org>
Steering Committee and Founding Member of The Document Foundation
Tel: +49 8341 99660880 | Mobile: +49 151 14424108
Skype: floeff | Twitter/Identi.ca: @floeff

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