Comment 6 for bug 581605

SRU's (-proposed) are handled very conservatively. You can read more about the SRU rationale and process at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates

lucid-backports, on the other hand, is more likely to be unstable.

If you enable lucid-proposed you don't have to install all the newly available updates, just the one you are interested in (openoffice.org 1:3.2.1-6ubuntu2~10.04.1 in this case). If you run into any problems, or just don't like it, you can disable lucid-proposed and then revert to the previously installed version.

Bear in mind that unless a regression or other problem is found, packages in lucid-proposed will eventually make their way into lucid-updates. So it might be a good idea to test it out now so that if you find a bug the package can be rejected. Otherwise the only way to keep your system as stable as you seem to want it to be would be to never accept any of the updates offered by Update Manager, other than security updates. And you did say in your original description of this bug "I suggest that it would be a good idea to incorporate 003.2.1 into Ubuntu Lucid".

Finally, if your primary concern is maximum stability, you may want to consider switching to Debian.