OpenOffice.org 2.4 may be just around the corner. But if you laugh at stable releases and always want to have your hands on the latest beta software, you can download an early beta version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 today. Just check out the list of OpenOffice.org mirrors, choose a download site, and then find the Developer folder and the DEV300 supfolder and you should be able to download a Windows, Linux, or Mac installer. That's right, there's even an OS X installer. OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version of OpenOffice to feature a native Mac client.

So what else does OpenOffice.org 3.0 have that version 2.3.1 is missing? Well, a bunch of bugs. This is a developer preview, after all. But there's also a ton of new features, including the startup screen you see above. That's what you'll get if you launch OOo-dev without choosing a specific application like Writer or Calc first. Here are a few other changes:

• Multi-page view in Writer
• Office 2007 document support
• New Calc theme
• Maximum number of columns in Calc jumps from 256 to 1024
• Multiple users can edit spreadsheets simultaneously

These are just a few of the changes already included in OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta. There are thousands of other tweaks and bug fixes in the works. What features would you most like to see in the next major release? OpenOffice.org 3.0 is scheduled for a September, 2008 launch.

[via OpenOffice.org Ninja]