Microsoft slates Office 2010 public beta for November

Microsoft will launch the public beta of Office 2010 next month, company CEO Steve Ballmer said on Monday.

In a keynote that kicked off Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas, Ballmer announced that the public beta of Office 2010 will be made available in November.

When pressed for details, a Microsoft spokeswoman said the company did not have a specific timeline beyond Ballmer’s pinning the beta to next month.

So far, Microsoft has offered a preview of its next desktop suite only to a relatively small group of testers. It has also opened the online edition , Office Web Apps, to a similar preview. Office Web Apps includes lightweight versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint and will be made available to millions free of charge in the first half of next year, the only timetable Microsoft has set for Office 2010’s ship date.

Anyone will be eligible to test drive the Office 2010 beta, said Microsoft today. However, the company declined to answer questions about whether the number of copies of the beta will be limited — as it tried to do with the Windows 7 beta earlier this year — or be available only for a limited time, as was the Windows 7 release candidate.

Last summer, Microsoft said that it expected to distribute millions of copies of the Office 2010 public beta.

In April, Microsoft said that it would not offer users the chance to test Office 2010, as it had done with other editions, including Office 2007. The company quickly backtracked , saying that it had simply given “the wrong impression” about its plans.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

CDN Staff
CDN Staffhttps://channeldailynews.com
For over 25 years, CDN has been the voice of the IT channel community in Canada. Today through our digital magazine, e-mail newsletter, video reports, events and social media platforms, we provide channel partners with the information they need to grow their business.

Related Tech News

Featured Tech Jobs

 

CDN in your inbox

CDN delivers a critical analysis of the competitive landscape detailing both the challenges and opportunities facing solution providers. CDN's email newsletter details the most important news and commentary from the channel.