LibreOffice 7.5 was released over a month ago, yet Check for Updates still only offers 7.4. Is this deliberate? If so, why, and when will 7.5 be offered? Chocolatey is waiting for this before offering 7.5 at all.
Where is the problem? Download and install 7.5.1.
1 Like
Thanks, I know I can do that, but I use Chocolatey for scripting server builds and they won’t offer 7.5 until the official update service offers it, hence my question.
1 Like
Whatever that is, you are free to install any software you want.
I do not claim that TDF follows the logic that I discuss here, but your question looks strange: you could read on the download page, that version 7.5 is currently considered suitable for early adopters. In this situation, showing a prompt to upgrade to all the users of the currently supported version 7.4, which still receives bugfixes, and which is considered more mature, tested and suitable for business use, would look odd, wouldn’t it?
Many people ask the opposite questions on this site, calling the less tested version nothing else than “beta”, and accusing TDF to abuse them as “guinea pigs”.
Thank you for your answer. Chocolatey has two LibreOffice packages:
and another called libreoffice-still.
I asked them why the Fresh package was still offering 7.4 and they told me that it would offer 7.5 when the LibreOffice update service offered it.
Does the update service not offer different versions depending on which channel the installed version came from? i.e. Couldn’t it offer the latest version to those who already had a version installed that was the latest at that time, and a more stable version to others?
We don’t track such kind of information.
I see. Is there anywhere where I can see the change history of the versions offered by the update service (the check.php file) so that I can try to predict when 7.5 might be offered?
Ask at #libreoffice on the IRC, @cloph may provide you some pointers.
By the way, maybe I misunderstood the issue, and the problem that the chocolatey maintainers talk about is that there’s still no prompt to upgrade 7.5.0 to 7.5.1, not the one to upgrade 7.4 to 7.5? In this case, the usual “too early, 7.5.1 is just released” is in effect.
2 Likes
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan/7.4
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan/7.5
I do not claim that TDF follows the logic that I discuss here, but your question looks strange: you could read on the download page, that version 7.5 is currently considered suitable for early adopters. In this situation, showing a prompt to upgrade to all the users of the currently supported version 7.4, which still receives bugfixes, and which is considered more mature, tested and suitable for business use, would look odd, wouldn’t it?
It makes sense for an “early adopters” version to be considered “beta”, due to their similarity in usage, and so I also consider the app auto-update prompt or download or install going for like-version (stable or early) to be proper.
Many Android apps have a “beta” version, typically with language for people to test new features that are not considered stable for the general audience. This of course is beneficial to the app-maker as well as users. I mean, that’s how Beta testing often works… and LibreOffice “early adopters” version seems to fall right in line with that. That’s why I don’t like it being featured on the Download page above the stable version. It gives people a quick impression that they should download that version because it’s the first one, and also the highest number, which people will assume is the “latest” even if they haven’t read or understood that it’s not meant for most users. Most office users are not “early adopters” and would prefer the stable version.
Switching these on the Download page may actually have prevented this user’s post in the first place… anyway, most sites make the stable, older, version most prominent, then the early/beta version less prominent. I find that wise, unlike what LibreOffice does.
Many people ask the opposite questions on this site, calling the less tested version nothing else than “beta”, and accusing TDF to abuse them as “guinea pigs”.
Thank you for referencing me 
I reviewed my original question, and while it may be a bit hyperbolic/histrionic (due to my frustration at the time at an updating issue similar to @matthewk’s), it’s clear what I’m saying before that, the issues with having the early/beta version more prominent to users. Switching those I bet would have prevented (and will prevent) a lot of user posts. I have no idea if LibreOffice devs are using users as guinea pigs that way 
but who knows.
The Downloads page and update logic having user’s eyes focus on the stable version prominently and then using that “branch” for update makes complete sense to me all around. I think it borders on insanity to insist on “pushing” users to the non-stable early “enthusiast”/“tech” users rather than just the average office user. LibreOffice after all is a fork of OpenOffice, which was built to be a free alternative to Microsoft Excel. Does Microsoft show its “early adopters” version for people to download? No That would be insanity. A nightmare for them, I guarantee. But they’re far more experienced than LibreOffice devs when it comes to Excel/Excel-like software, I guarantee.
I’d say no. StarOffice was no free software… ( and note the difference between Star- snd Open).
Yes, they even pay for the right to be in the “insider”-circle. So the big difference is the price-tag. And, if you need a clone of MS-Office, look elsewhere. LibreOffice can read and save MS-files to a high degree, but a lot of things are handled completely different.
I guarantee there is a recipe to manage Excel with chocolatey somwhere on the internet for you…
1 Like
“Sun open-sourced the OpenOffice suite in July 2000 as a competitor to Microsoft Office”
That’s what I meant. I was paraphrasing because I’ve only used OpenOffice in recent years as a CSV viewer (as opposed to most people I work with using Excel as a CSV viewer, which is heartbreaking).
But that’s not free and more prominent than the stable version… Microsoft doesn’t even mention it on the site: https://www.office.com/ Where do you see anything like “early” version mentioned anywhere on a site typical office users are gonna hit to get Office? There’s a huge difference between how Microsoft and LibreOffice present downloads… maybe this is hard to see for some LibreOffice advocates and why I’m sitting here having to explain this multiple different times and ways. The underlying points are still there and easy to see.
I don’t know why anyone would be fighting for showing an “early-adopter” version more prominently and ahead of the stable version. Are early adopters the more-targeted audience for LibreOffice?! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that for a product that isn’t in something like permanent beta with maybe a very old stable release… it kind of makes me think of the LibreOffice team as a bit beta themselves now That’s basically how they’re presenting themselves to users. “Beta first!”
I don’t care about Chocolatey, I wasn’t the one that brought it up.
Let me try to explain simple things to you once more, because you clearly didn’t manage to comprehend that in the topic that I linked to here.
No, we do not offer beta. When we offer e.g. 7.5.0, we consider it to be as tested as we could. We consider it to be as ready as, say, a new version of MS Office when MS starts to sell it.
The only difference is: we do not retract the older version at that moment. Try to stop and think: when MS offers the new version, it removes the old version from its offering, and only talks about the newer one. And indeed, they start to get bug reports with increased rate, because that’s the normal thing in any software lifetime. But when we release a similarly new version, we simply do not remove the older version from the download page; and we clearly say: look, this is a new version; as with any new version, it will create an increased bug report rate. If this is important to you, we do not hide this under the carpet, but tell you that clearly, and suggest you to be careful with upgrading.
At the same time, if there will be no one trying this new version, these bugs will not be discovered. And the more people are early adopters (being informed, and doing that knowingly), the sooner the bug rate would decrease. It’s, again, the same as with MS Office - just with that, you are not informed, and not offered an alternative.
Please stop spreading FUD, and start thinking.