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The OpenOffice.org group, after several months of testing, has released the final version 1.1 of its free open-source productivity suite.

Version 1.1 is more compatible than previous releases with rival Microsoft Office, according to the OpenOffice.org group. It is loaded with new features, such as the ability to generate PDF files (in Adobe's Portable Document Format) and the ability to export presentation documents to Macromedia's Flash format, OpenOffice.org says. This release offers improved XML support, too, the group says.

The update is available as a free, 70MB download from OpenOffice.org, and it also ships with various Linux distributions, according to Louis Suarez-Potts, community manager for OpenOffice.org.

Office Rival

OpenOffice.org includes applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Version 1.1 succeeds version 1.0, which was released in May 2002. OpenOffice.org issued updates for 1.0 about every four to six weeks and started releasing early versions of 1.1 several months ago. As of Wednesday, the code was solid enough to be called a final release, Suarez-Potts says.

"People in the community have tested and proofed it. It is extremely stable, and we feel comfortable that this can be downloaded by individuals, companies, everybody," he says.

The OpenOffice.org developer community includes Sun Microsystems employees, volunteer developers, marketers, and users, according to the group.

StarOffice Sibling

OpenOffice.org Version 1.1 shares much of its source code with the upcoming version of Sun's StarOffice, Suarez-Potts says. StarOffice 7.0 is being finalized, he says. Sun charges for StarOffice, while OpenOffice.org is free. For the fee, StarOffice buyers get support, training, and a database, Suarez-Potts says.

It is available in versions for Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems. It is also released in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese versions.

Lindows.com is among the supporting hardware vendors. The budget PC maker bundles OpenOffice.org with its systems.