Fans of the free office apps suite, OpenOffice, will be glad to know that version 3.0 is already out the door, and is available for download.

Among the more notable improvements for OpenOffice 3.0 include:

• Out-of-the-box import filters for the latest Microsoft Office file formats, enabling OpenOffice 3.0 to read documents saved with Microsoft Office 2007 or 2008 in .docx, .xlsx and .pptx
• The ability to read and write documents in standardized OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2.
• Native compatibility with the Mac OS X platform. MacHeads rejoice!

While the latest 3.0 release has been available since late last week, the OpenOffice.org website has been hammered by the hordes of eager downloaders, forcing the administrative team to shut down most of the site, leaving a simple, ultra-low-bandwidth-consuming page with an apology of sorts, along with active download links to the 3.0 release installers in a variety of formats.

Thankfully, the download speed is rather speedy, and my download of the OpenOffice 3.0 suite completed in just under 20 minutes tops.

Look out for a future post exploring OpenOffice 3.0 versus Microsoft Office 2007, from a functional point of view.