The Document Foundation had two news announcements this week - the release of LibreOffice 3.3.3 and the appointment of its first Advisory Board.

Version 3.3.3  may not sound newsworthy given that 3.4.0 arrived two weeks ago. Remember, however, that 3.4.0 it is not yet recommended for general use whereas 3.3.3 is a stable release for end users.

As Sean Michael Kerner puts it:

"the release of a stable version of LibreOffice with the 3.3.3 release in my mind is a big deal. Sure they just put out LibreOffice 3.4 recently, but putting out new releases (in a way) is almost easier than doing the nitty, gritty of maintaining 'older' releases. Keeping two (or more) software tracks on track is no easy task for any open source project, but it seems to be one that the Document Foundation is pulling off with flying colors."

The Advisory Board also adds prestige and respectability to the project. The following have all signed on: Google, SUSE, Red Hat, Freies Office Deutschland e.V., Software in the Public Interest, and the Free Software Foundation.

Both of these developments make LibreOffice continue to look and behave like a model open source project  and will make it even harder for the Apache OpenOffice.org "podling" to regain a firm foothold.

LibreOffice 3.3.3 can be downloaded from http://www.libreoffice.org/download

Related news:

LibreOffice 3.4.0 released

OpenOffice.org voted into Apache Incubator