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IT Blogwatch

A Daily Digest of IT Blogs from Richi Jennings

Office 2010 roundup: beta download, release date, etc., etc...

3 comments

TAGS:Microsoft, Microsoft office, MSFT, Office 2010
IT TOPICS:Desktop Applications, Enterprise Software & Services, Mobile & Wireless, SaaS & Cloud Computing, Windows & Microsoft

It's time to download the beta of Microsoft Office 2010. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers put it through its paces and play "guess the release date".

By Richi Jennings. November 18, 2009.
(MSFT)

Office 2010 logo Your humble blogwatcher selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention youshouldhaveseenthis.com...

Kelly Fiveash predicts "testing times ahead":

Microsoft plans to punt five different flavours of its Office 2010 suite when it lands in the first half of next year. ... Standard, Home and Business, Professional Plus, Professional ... Home and Student ... with three of those versions hitting public beta testing status today. ... Customers were faced with eight different Office 2007 SKUs..
...
Those interested in the beta should be able to tinker with Home and Business 2010, Professional 2010 and Professional Plus versions of the Office software by downloading the software here.

Emil Protalinski adds:

The most ambitious goal Microsoft is striving for with Office 2010 is making it available via a familiar experience across the PC, phone, and browser. Office 2010 ... will come in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors and on one DVD no less.

In addition to the five editions ... announced in July 2009 ... and the ad-supported one announced last month, Microsoft is also working on the Office Web Apps: Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. As of September 2009 they were in the Technical Preview status but this week they moved into beta. Last month, rumors swirled around Office Mobile 7, the last piece of the Office puzzle we've heard the least about, being ready for Spring 2010.

Preston Gralla got hands-on:

Since I've already reviewed the Technical Previews of both of Office 2010 ... and Office Web Apps ... in this review I will focus on changes made since those releases.
...
Outlook Social Connector ... has a twofold purpose: to track all of your e-mail and other history with each specific contact, and to extend Outlook's reach beyond Office to the Internet and social networking sites.
...
Backstage View [is] an all-in-one location for information about documents and common tasks you can perform, such as saving, printing and sharing documents. It brings features and information that are located in many places in Office 2007 into one location in Office 2010.

Will Will Kelly like it?

Microsoft is really stepping up its game with this release, and even though there are scattered reports of performance issues, I am not seeing them. ... Microsoft has opened up the suite even further for more sharing of content across applications.
...
OneNote has gotten a lot attention this time around. ... As a collaboration platform with its new coauthoring feature. ... PowerPoint 2010 enables you to edit video directly in the application ... fine for video novices but those of you more video literate may find the feature to be a little lightweight.

Better Ben Parr, by far:

It’s becoming more and more clear that Google is breathing down the neck of Microsoft when it comes to office and document-building software. ... Google is asserting that Google Docs will be a viable alternative to Office by 2010. Microsoft isn’t taking this threat sitting down, though.
...
The beta doesn’t boast a ton of differences from the Technical Preview that Microsoft released back in July. However, as you might expect, it is more stable and fixes bugs found in the technical preview. It’s also another chance for the company to gather more data before the ultimate launch next year.

But Harry McCracken's no fan of the Web versions:

I think folks will be disappointed in Word (which doesn’t have graphics tools, at least in this version) and very disappointed in PowerPoint (which is more of a slideshow viewer with rudimentary editing features than a true presentation creator). ... I hope I have this all wrong, and that the Web apps will look better when they ship.
...
Aside from the aforementioned issues with the Web apps (and the connectivity Office 2010’s desktop versions offer with them), the beta seems to be pretty smooth and reliable. I plan to use it from here on out when I’m using Office, and will report back here from time to time. If you try the beta, I’d love to know what you think.

So what's your take?
Get involved: leave a comment.

And finally...

Greg Rutter's Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You're a Loser or Old or Something

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter, or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.

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Office 2010 - Dead on Arrival

Submitted by Anonymous on November 19, 2009 - 6:32 A.M.

Super Bloat from Microsoft: Microsoft has now made available to the "public" a beta copy of MS Office 2010. I was very annoyed to find I couldn't install the 64 bit version as it promised my MS FrontPage 2003 wouldn't work anymore. SO I went back and downloaded the 32 bit version, and despite leaving out the corporate components, the Install was promised to take over 2 Gigabytes of disk space. Must be all those former Vista programmers and disjointed development procedures of Vista that caused that. Office 2010 = The revenge of Vista ! It's that kind of nonsense why I still use Office 2003, and have removed a FREE copy of Office 2007 Microsoft once gave me for attending one of their dog and pony shows. Likely will do the some with 2010 version. Why do Preferences and Settings have to be hidden so deeply in a non-intuitive place ?

TIME (20 minutes later) to Uninstall Office 2010 beta. Despite a configuration during Install to leave all previous Office programs, It only left Excel 2003, and deleted Word, Outlook, Powerpoint and Publisher. I really don't appreciate having to reinstall those after Uninstalling this Bloatware 2010, which has the same ugly Interface as Office 2007, and kept telling me Microsoft Live didn't work with this program. Let's see who wrote Microsoft Live?

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Office 2010 no issues

Submitted by Anonymous on November 20, 2009 - 10:15 A.M.

I do not know what you did when installing the program but its only using 884mb and has 10 apps in office so thats not bad at all. runs better than office 2007. I do agree about the Preferences being hidden, but thats why there are feedback smiley faces. I use office 2003 at work 2007 at home and 2010 beta on my work laptop. Office 2010 loads much quicker than office 2003 and 2007. I have had all 3 versions at 1 time or another on the same Dell Laptop with a core 2 quad cpu and 2 gig of ram. By far 2010 is the best. Vista worked fine as long as you have a dual core cpu and enough ram. Yes vista is a resource hog but is better than XP by far. Vista and Office 2007 did not have bloatware. They just used a lot of resources to run, for security. The corrected the resource issue in Windows 7 and Office 2010 runs much smoother than Office 2007.

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I almost believed you.

Submitted by Lord Necron on November 24, 2009 - 9:54 A.M.

I was almost convinced you knew what you were talking about till you said "Yes vista is a resource hog but is better than XP by far." Then I disregarded everything else you said. I fix other people's PCs every day, and by far the biggest letdown is Vista. Vista is Windows ME2.

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