Office 2010 beta is out, and you can get a free copy

If you are an Office kind of gal or guy, you'll probably be interested to know that Microsoft has launched the first - and likely only - public beta of the Office 2010 productivity suite.  What's more, not only is it free-of-charge to the public, the preview won't expire until October 31, 2010, or almost a full year.

Takeshi Numoto, the corporate vice president for Office, explained the rationale for the beta to Computerworld in an interview mid-week, "Instead of tens of thousands who tried the Technical Preview, now we're talking about millions and millions of people."

Will Microsoft enforce any numeric cap to Office 2010 beta as it did for the Release Candidate of the Windows 7 operating system?  It appears that the answer is no.  Will Microsoft shut off availability at some point?  "I'm not sure if we have a specific plan to shut off availability at some point," says Numoto, before reiterating Microsoft's plan to ensure that Office 2010 gets maximum exposure.

The download is available from the Microsoft site here.

For more on this story:

- check out this article at Computerworld

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