“With OpenOffice.org 2.4 just released, OpenOffice.org 3.0
(OOo3) has already passed its feature freeze, and is scheduled for
release in September. Based on recent development builds, what can
you expect? In the Base, Draw, and Math applications, very little
change, at least so far. But in the core programs of Writer,
Impress, and Calc, some long-awaited new features are arriving.
Combined with the improvements in the charting system that are the
major feature of the 2.4 release, these new features promise to
increase both usability and functionality, although some of the
changes do not go far enough.“You can download packages for OOo3 development builds from the
/developer/DEV300_m3 directories of the project’s mirror sites, or
from Pavel Janik’s site. The packages can co-exist alongside other
OOo installations, but you should not try to exchange files between
the development build and existing versions, because OOo3 uses
version 1.2 of the Open Document Format, which existing versions
cannot read. While recent builds are remarkably stable, you
probably shouldn’t count on later ones being equally
reliable…”