Microsoft has revealed that Office and SharePoint 2010 will hit public beta in November. "The public beta will open November. We don't have a specific date, we'll be announcing that much closer to the launch, but we're on track to deliver [Office and Sharepoint 2010] in the first half of 2010," Steve Marsh, SharePoint's UK Product Manager told PC Pro. Marsh refused to be pinned down on whether Microsoft would limit downloads of the public beta. "There's no details on whether that will be time-stamped, so people will have it for a month and then it'll be taken away. "All I know is that we're on track to deliver in 2010, and there'll be a Release Candidate, which gives you an idea of the time scale we'll be looking at," said Marsh. Limiting the number of downloads was a tactic the company tried with Windows 7, only to scrap the plan after server crashes prevented people from getting their hands on the OS. The company has also recently revealed that it will be offering a free ad-supported version of Office 2010 that will ship with new PCs. Office 2010 Starter Edition is a "reduced-functionality" version of the Office suite offering only Word and Excel, and "a simple path to upgrade to a fully-featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product."
