OpenOffice.org will host a launch party in Paris on October 13 to celebrate the eighth anniversary of OpenOffice and the release of version 3.0.

That day will hopefully mark the actual availability of the software as well; “[The] target date is now 13th or 14th of October,” Charles Schulz wrote on the OpenOffice marketing blog on Oct. 2.

Meanwhile, OpenOffice 3.0 release candidate 4 is available via the organization’s Web site as of Oct. 7. However, RC4 is not recommended for production use, as it is not the final product, OpenOffice.org said.

OpenOffice, intended to be a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, released the beta version of 3.0 in May. OpenOffice 3.0 will feature a new Start Center, icons, and zoom control in the status bar, as well as support for the “.docx” file format used by Microsoft Office 2007. The release candidate also includes additional, technical updates, details of which are provided on the OpenOffice Web site.