Microsoft Office 15 technical preview kicks off
By Mary Jo Foley | January 30, 2012, 9:04am PST

Summary: Microsoft is making available to select testers the technical preview of Office 15 client, server and services as of January 30.


Microsoft is kicking off the technical preview for its Office 15 client, servers and cloud services today, January 30.

A beta of all of the same Office 15 deliverables will be available to the public in “late summer,” according to a new post on the Ofice Exec blog.

Microsoft officials are not commenting on the features in any part of Office 15; on the planned release-to-manufacturing (RTM) or general availability date; or on whether the technical preview will include a version of Office that will work on Windows 8 on ARM. (I asked about all of these.) Update: Also, for those asking, we also have no idea on platform-support specifics — such as whether this preview also encompasses the rumored Office for iPad; and whether it includes a separate non-touch-centric Office 15 update for those not using tablets/touch-enabled laptops.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/mic ... in;content

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"Office 15" Begins Technical Preview
byPJ Hough
on January 30


This morning, we reached an important development milestone: the beginning of the "Office 15" Technical Preview Program. Office 15 is the codename for the next generation of the Microsoft Office products and services, and the Technical Preview is the first time we share our work with a select group of customers under non-disclosure agreements. These customers play a key role in our development process by testing early builds and providing feedback, which we incorporate into the final release.

At this early point in our development cycle, I'm not able to share too much about Office 15, but I can tell you Office 15 is the most ambitious undertaking yet for the Office Division. With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio. Quite simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter and faster than ever before.

While the Technical Preview program is already full, everyone will have the opportunity to try the Office 15 public beta later this summer, and we'll have more to share about the release then. In the meantime, I do want to thank everyone who is participating in the Technical Preview for their contributions and all our customers for their continued support.

PJ Hough
CVP of Development, Microsoft Office Division

Source: http://blogs.office.com/b/office-exec/a ... eview.aspx

It is annoying that Microsoft are making the beta private.

I wouldn't worry, the future will hold public Release Candidates and such (probably).

Even though this is a private beta, all I would like to see are some screen shots during the build phase, at least Microsoft, give us that. Hopefully soon they will make a public build.