Hi Mike,
Thanks for your notes. You are right. We have to improve the way we
communicate the two different releases on the download page, especially
for the majority of users, who do not understand technical subtleties.
We might change something for the announcement of 24.8.
I think that we should position the two different options in a way which
represents and advantage for the users, which have two options optimized
for their needs (100% more than competing office suites), one with more
features and the other more robust.
Given the reduced level of attention, any other information - especially
if asking for some technical background, and an understanding of what is
a software test and a software bug - is redundant, and there is a risk
that is perceived in a negative way.
Best, Italo
On 18/07/24 11:52, Kaganski Mike wrote:
Hi!
Recently, version 7.6 EOLed; at that point, it was removed from official
download page [1], and since version 2.8 hasn't been released yet [2], the
download page only lists version 24.2.5 currently as the primary download
offer. So far, I don't see a major problem; the related but different topic of
possibly postponing EOL till the release of the next branch is not discussed
here.
In the current situation, 24.2.5 is advertised on the download page as "If you're a technology enthusiast, early adopter or
power user, this version is for you!", the same as previous bugfix releases of the same branch. And here is the problem. The
"early adopter" release it the only one offered to users visiting LibreOffice site. This created FUD, created by
ourselves. There are questions like [3], [4]; there appear advises confusingly suggesting that 24.2.4 may be preferred over
24.2.5 [5]. Even the release announcement of 24.2.5 [6] has "For users who don’t need the latest features and prefer a
version that has undergone more testing and bug fixing, The Document Foundation maintains a version with some months of
back-ported fixes" statement, without a direct reference to it. But the previous announcement [7] had "The current
release is LibreOffice 7.6.7 Community, but it will soon be replaced exactly by LibreOffice 24.2.4 when the new major release
LibreOffice 24.8 becomes available" statement, implying that 24.2.4 was meant to obtain "more tested" status.
Note that "more tested" is not simply "more tested than the other offering on this
download page", but - more importantly - results in a different target audience. And we must
make sure, that at the point when there is no second offering, our single offering has reached the
point of maturity to target those who need stability (note that practically, 24.2.5 is already
there), and that _it_is_marked_as_such_officially_ - both in release announcement, and on download
page.
[1] https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/
[2] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan/24.8
[3]
https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/is-libreoffice-only-for-technology-enthusiasts-early-adopters-power-users-and-business-users/108280
[4]
https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/telechargement-de-libreoffice-version-stable/108157
[5] https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/header-vanishes/108305/2
[6] https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/07/11/libreoffice-24-2-5/
[7] https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/06/06/libreoffice-24-2-4/
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Best regards,
Mike Kaganski
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