The first LibreOffice 7 revision is officially here

Sep 4, 2020 08:55 GMT  ·  By

The Document Foundation has just released the very first revision to LibreOffice 7, and the update is now available on all supported desktop platforms.

In other words, LibreOffice 7.0.1 is live today on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

If you’re wondering what this new release includes, it’s pretty easy to figure out just by looking at the version number. The focus is entirely on bug fixes, and of course, no new features are included.

TDF says some 80 bug fixes are included in this update, and users who are running LibreOffice 7 are recommended to install it to get this refined performance.

“LibreOffice 7.0.1 represents the bleeding edge in terms of features for open source office suites. Users wanting the robustness of a more mature version optimized for enterprise class deployments can still download LibreOffice 6.4.6,” The Document Foundation explains.

LibreOffice 7

LibreOffice has long been considered the top alternative to Microsoft Office, and version 7.0 further adds to it, coming with improved document support for DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX formats (which actually belong to Microsoft Office), Vulkan GPU-based acceleration, and Skia graphics engine.

“LibreOffice – thanks to its mature codebase, rich feature set, support for open standards, excellent compatibility and long-term support options – represents the ideal solution for businesses that want to regain or keep control of their data and free themselves from vendor lock,” TDF says.

Needless to say, while LibreOffice 7.0.1 does come with additional fixes, it’s still not recommended for all users, and this is the reason TDF claims only power users should install it. Everyone else should just stick with the previous release, which is supposed to provide improved stability and a more polished experience regardless of the platform.

Of course, nothing stops you from giving a try to LibreOffice 7 in a virtual machine if you want to see what it’s up to.