Open source observers can argue until the end of time over the validity of developing and enhancing free software for Windows, but the fact remains OpenOffice.org is thoroughly committed to the platform and continues to produce a top-notch, cross-platform office productivity suite that work perfectly well on Windows. In this article, we take a look at getting the latest OpenOffice.org 3.0 developer build up-and-running for Windows XP.

Okay, before you ask why not Vista, the reason is simple - numbers! Microsoft might like us to believe Vista is selling like hotcakes, but XP is still by far and away the most popular Windows desktop release. TechWorld is in the process of setting up a Vista box for software testing and reviews, but until it is ready let's stick with XP.

At the time of writing, the latest OpenOffice.org development release was the 3.0 m14 snapshot, which should give us a good idea of what to expect when the final version 3.0 appears later this year.

Now let's get the software.

Download

Getting OpenOffice.org developer builds couldn't be easier.

Make your way to the OpenOffice.org snapshot builds and release candidates download page and grab the binary release for Windows.

The Windows download weighs in at 144MB which, incidentally, is a good 10MB less than packages for other operating systems. If you're not interesting in spending an inordinate amount of time compiling OpenOffice.org then avoid the source code.

I didn't use a download manager, but for a file of this size the ability to resume a download may prove to be a good sanity control measure in the event of a drop-out.

Once downloaded, you can begin the installation.