14 DAY TRIAL // Early adopters watching closely the evolution of the next generation of the Office System, undoubtedly already know that Microsoft has announced officially the first Release Candidate for Office 2010. Earlier this week, the Redmond company shared with the public the news that Office 2010 had been graduated from Beta stage to Release Candidate. Unfortunately, the news that Office 2010 hit RC was about all that the software giant shared with the general public, as otherwise, details about the development milestone were not offered to users.
Just one day after the official announcement of Office 2010 RC, Microsoft has started offering the actual bits for the Release Candidate with the members of a select testing pool for the development of the next iteration of the productivity suite and additional server products. Testers started receiving email invitations to access, download and start playing with Office 2010 RC Build 4734.1000. The RC will not be delivered to the public.
“Microsoft Office 2010 is pleased to announce the release of the Release Candidate build for Microsoft Office 2010 client (build 4734.1000) and server products (build 4730.1010), now available at [link removed]. 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,” Microsoft stated in the small email message sent to Office 2010 testers.
At the same time, it seems that some Microsoft testers got their hands on Office 2010 RC faster than others. At the end of January 2010, the first details and screenshots were leaked in the wild on Build 14.0.4734.1000 of Office 2010. At that time, the leaked build was incorrectly labeled RTM escrow. In fact, Microsoft has confirmed officially that Build 4734.1000 is the Release Candidate (RC) development milestone of the next version of the productivity suite. The Redmond company has yet to announce the actual deadlines for the RTM and GA of Office 2010, although the final version of the product is expected to be offered for purchase to customers in June 2010.