Office 2010 Release Candidate taps small pool of testers
Microsoft edges closer to June launch
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
Microsoft has pushed out a near-ready version of Office 2010 to a select bunch of testers.
The company plans to ship the software in June this year, however members of Microsoft’s TAP (technology adoption programme) now have a Release Candidate copy of Office 2010.
In November, MS pumped out a beta version of its bundled suite of office apps that includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
"Microsoft made a release candidate available to members in the technology adoption program (TAP)," said a Redmond spokesman.
"This is one of Microsoft's planned milestones in the engineering process; however we do not have plans to make this new code set available broadly."
Microsoft plans to punt five different editions of its Office 2010 suite when it lands later this year.
Customers will be able to get their hands on Ribbon-wrapped Standard, Home and Business, Professional Plus, Professional and Home and Student editions of the software, which will come in 32-bit and 64-bit flavours.
Perhaps more importantly - for MS at least - the vendor will also release browser-based versions of Excel, Word, OneNote and PowerPoint, under the Office Web Apps moniker.
"We remain on track to reach general availability this June but don’t have additional timing details to share at this point," said Microsoft's spokesman.
Inevitably a few copies of Microsoft Office 2010 PRE RTM Build 4730 have already tipped up on BitTorrent tracker sites.
Microsoft has claimed more than two million legitimate downloads of its Office 2010 beta since launch. ®
COMMENTS
None for me thanks
I'll upgrade my Office install when they let me shut off the horrid ribbon interface and go back to standard menus and accelerator keys. I tried to get used to the ribbon for 2 months but it's horrid for my use; it forces mouse use to such an extent that it slows down my workflow considerably.
I mainly now use OpenOffice as a result, and for the one program I can't replace that way (Outlook) at work, I went back to using a 7 year old Windows XP machine that still had Office 2003 on it, shelving the brand new machine with Office 2007.
Somehow I doubt Office 2010 is going to return to sanity though. And it'll probably be unusable on anything less than a quad core CPU with 8GB of RAM.
Erhm...
I kind'a actually like the ribbon now... but, what's the reason for this new version? is it leaner, faster, more intelligent? does it intuitively know what you want to do and finish it for you? maybe the grammar checker is now utterly infallible, or they finally have a built in PDF creator.
I know Outlook now gives you a 'conversation tree' option (and something to do with Journal), but exactly how is Word and Excel 2010 a couple of hundred quid better than 2007? Serious question by the way. 2007 gave us a new file system and UI overhaul.
I've been happily using Office 2010 retail
SoftMaker Office 2010, that is. No more crashes, no more freezes, no more ribbons--just complete compatibility (are you listening, Open Office?) at about € 23 ($27) a seat for a 3-license pack. Try it for free and compare it to Open Office; for me, it was no contest. http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofw_en.htm
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
