Microsoft has released Office 2010 RC to technical beta participants today.
The software giant has made available the release Candidate Builds of Microsoft Office 2010 client (build 4734.1000) and server products (build 4730.1010). Earlier this week Microsoft officials confirmed to Neowin that it had made the build available to TAP testers.
Early Release Candidate builds began leaking to the web in January this year as Microsoft was preparing for the RC release to Technology Adoption Program (TAP) testers. Russian site Wzor recently confirmed that the release candidate build (14.0.4734.1000) is an RTM escrow build that Microsoft is testing internally. Screenshots of the build leaked last week and a download was made available on torrent sites early this week.
In an email, the Office team thanked testers, "as a valued Technical Beta participant, you play an important role in preparing Office 2010 for the rest of the world! We thank you for your continued participation, feedback, and hard work."
In January Microsoft announced Office 2010 pricing. The professional edition will retail for $499 boxed. Office 2010 will be released in at least five different flavours, including a free version that includes Microsoft Word and Excel, but comes with limited functionality and includes advertisements. The editions of Office 2010 will include Starter, Home and Student, Home and Business, Professional and Professional Academic.
Microsoft is expected to hit the RTM milestone in the coming months with a general availability date of June.
Thanks to Tom for the news tip
Image Credits: Wzor