Microsoft on Wednesday announced the public availability of Office 2010, which includes SharePoint Server 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office Web Apps for businesses, and Office Mobile 2010. The products are on track for a final release in the first half of 2010, the company says.
"We are hoping to have millions of people download and test the products, as we depend on that feedback to shape the final product," said Kurt DelBene, the senior vice president of the Office Business Productivity Group at Microsoft. "To get the broadest range of feedback we are making this beta available in seven languages—English, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, French and German—more than any other Office beta program in the past."
As you might expect, the Office 2010 suite includes updates to all of the traditional Office applications, including the addition of the ribbon user interface across the board. Some applications, like Outlook, are receiving major, revolutionary updates, while most are getting a more evolutionary bump.
This week's release also marks the first time that Microsoft has made a mobile version of Office available directly to users in beta form. The Office 2010 Mobile beta can be downloaded from the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which is now accessible from all Windows Mobile 6.x devices.
I'm in the process of reviewing the entire Office 2010 beta release, and the first two parts of that review are now available on the SuperSite for Windows.
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