LibreOffice 5.1 Updated For Business Users As Microsoft Office Alternative

LibreOffice 5.1, the open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, has been tweaked for the business community and is now available for download.

This is despite the fact that LibreOffice has already reached version 5.2 as of August, which saw the addition of new interoperability, usability and security options in a bid to encourage more businesses to transition away from proprietary alternatives like Microsoft Office and Google Drive.

Stable Update

The Document Foundation is already working on LibreOffice 5.3, and 5.2 is already available, so why update 5.1?

Well, the TDF updated 5.1 as this is considered to be a “still” version, which essentially means it is a stable version that has undergone more testing (over a longer period of time).

Therefore 5.1 is therefore usually recommended for more conservative use, such as businesses. It can be downloaded here.

It should be remembered that LibreOffice is a productivity suite that comprises Writer, Calc and Impress applications, which are used for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations respectively.

The 5.1.6 update is the sixth minor release of the LibreOffice 5.1 family that was launched in January 2016. It is targeted at individual users and enterprise deployments and LibreOffice users should start planning the update to the new version, said the TDF.

LibreOffice 5.0 meanwhile was launched in August 2015, and that version included support for Windows 10, as well as an improved source code, and ‘cleaner’ user interface.

That was also the tenth major release since the launch of the project, after it forked from the OpenOffice.org project in September 2010.

OpenOffice Fork

LibreOffice developers were of course originally behind the OpenOffice suite, but jumped ship after tensions with Oracle and created the independent organisation called ‘The Document Foundation‘ (TDF).

It is claimed that LibreOffice has been downloaded by more than 120 million users worldwide. Meanwhile its open source rival OpenOffice still continues.

That said, last month the leader of project warned that OpenOffice was in danger of retirement because of a lack of developers.

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