OpenOffice.org 2.0 Delayed Slightly

OpenOffice.org developers will miss the planned version 2.0 release Thursday, which was to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the open source productivity suite, due to a last-minute bug. Instead, a third release candidate will be made available for final testing.

The bug stemmed from a problem in saving graphical elements in the OpenDocument format that OpenOffice.org uses. OpenDocument is an XML-based royalty free document standard proposed by OASIS, which was recently selected by the state of Massachusetts for government use.

In addition, two bugs will be fixed in the Mac OS X release of OpenOffice.org 2.0. The delay has also given time for developers to fix a minor issue with printing under certain user interface languages.

"Tomorrow is the fifth birthday for OpenOffice.org. And it would have been nice to release OpenOffice.org 2.0 at the 13th of October," wrote developer Stefan Taxhet in his Web log. "But in the last minute a serious showstopper has been brought up."

"The release will be pushed out for about a week," Taxhet added. "This allows the mirrors to recover from major releases of other large packages. Additionally the new OpenOffice.org hardware should give the main site some relief."

According to a revised schedule, the final OpenOffice.org 2.0 release is now slated for October 20, but developers acknowledge that date could change depending on feedback from RC3.

Since hitting Beta 2 in late August OpenOffice.org 2.0 has received rave reviews from users. Many have said the suite is the first viable alternative to Microsoft Office, while remaining completely free of charge. Sun Microsystems sells a variant of OpenOffice called StarOffice with added services and support.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 RC2 is available for download now from FileForum.

6 Responses to OpenOffice.org 2.0 Delayed Slightly

© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.