Office 12 Beta in 2-3 Weeks!

[KSoD]

I just got a email from M$:

Thank you for completing our nomination survey sometime within 
the past several weeks, and letting us know about your interest in 
participating in the Microsoft® Office "12" Technical Beta program. 
We are pleased to announce that your request for participation in the 
Office "12" Technical Beta has been approved. 

You will be provided with access to the Office "12" Beta software, 
documentation, and support within the next 2-3 weeks. But we 
wanted to let you know now that you have been accepted, so that 
you can make any preparations that you need (Technical Beta system
 requirements are found below).

Our goal for the Technical Beta is to have a well targeted group of 
testers who are willing to actively participate and provide useful 
feedback to our development team. Regular and consistent 
participation throughout the program is expected.


As an approved Technical Beta tester, we ask that you do the 
following:

* Download Office "12" software and related information
* Participate in private beta newsgroups
* Submit bug reports online
* Complete periodic surveys to share your input on various technical issues
* Observe the non-disclosure terms of participation

*** SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ***
Below are the system requirements for the Microsoft® Office "12" 
Beta-1 software. _NOTE: We have provided these minimum hardware
 recommendations here as guidance for deploying Beta-1, but as with
 any Technical Beta, they do not necessarily represent final Office 
"12" hardware requirements. _

 _ CLIENT
 _ _ * Operating System: Windows XP SP1 or Windows 2003 (RTM or higher) required
 _ _ * Processor: Pentium 512 MHz or higher 
 _ _ * RAM: 256 MB minimum
 _ _ * HD: Varies depending on installation choices 
 _ _ * Resolution: 800 x 600 or higher 

 _ SERVER
 _ _ _ _Operating System: Windows Server 2003 SP1
 _ _ Single box installation:
 _ _ _ _* Processor: 2.5 GHz 
 _ _ _ _* RAM: 2 GB recommended, 1 GB minimum
 _ _ _ _* HD: Scenario dependent 
 _ _ Farm Deployment:
 _ _ _ _* Web server - Processor: 2.5 GHz; RAM - 2 GB 
 _ _ _ _* App server - Processor: Dual proc - 2.5 GHz; RAM - 2 GB
 _ _ _ _* SQL - Processor: Dual proc - 2.5 GHz; RAM - 2 GB

So now i just have to wait for the next email and i got it!!

 

[Osiris]

According to Paul Thurrot, Microsoft will soon be delaying the release of Windows Vista Beta 2 from the original planned date of December 7, 2005 to "sometime in January or February 2006". However, because the Vista development schedule is extremely time constrained, the company will try and make up lost time by eliminating one of the planned release candidate (RC) milestones that were planned for later in the process.

Microsoft claim that they remain on track for shipping Windows Vista in the second half of 2006, and have stated that they will continue to focus on delivering CTPs in the coming months given how successful the CTP program has been.

Previously, sources had revealed to Thurrot that Microsoft would at least delay the release of Windows Vista Beta 2 until late December. This more recent delay suggests that the company is having a difficult time meeting its internal shipping criteria for Beta 2, which is considered a major milestone release and will be made widely available to testers and the public. It's not known at this time whether the delay will affect related product releases such as Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 Beta 2 and Windows Media Player 11 Beta 1, both of which were also originally set for a December 7 public release.

 

[Apokalipse]

I wonder if Office12 is actually going to have some real changes, apart from the graphics or clip-arts.........

 

[Tyler1989]

Changes or not it still owns OpenOffice with takes up 10 times more resources in recent benchmarks.

 

[Osiris]

I cant wait till it comes out. Office 2003 is awesome so Office 12 will be a lot better, the screens shots are very nice

 

[KSoD]

Well i have it from some reliable people who talked to a few sources at M4. Thurott is an idiot. M$ is on schedule to release Beta 2 next month. They are also on schedule to get Vista released by the end of 2006. So Thurrott doesn thave a clue on this one. He is guessing. The guy who got me into the Vista Beta, BSOD, talked to 2 people at M$ that has confirmed this.

Aside from that i am like a kid on christmas to get this new Beta.

 

[Osiris]

The Microsoft Office "12" Technical Beta has now officially been launched at Microsoft's Beta Place. The build is available to download from BetaPlace by those who were selected to participate in the beta, earlier this week.

Beta Testers will find a wealth of resources available to them once logged in. You can click Read More to see the Hardware Requirements that Microsoft have specified for this beta. Microsoft have stressed that the build should not be used in a production environment.

 

[KSoD]

Hello Mak,

**Please read this entire e-mail carefully, as it contains special 
instructions about your participation in the Microsoft® Office "12"
 Technical Beta program.

Welcome to the Microsoft® Office "12" Technical Beta program. 
_We're looking forward to working with you to make this the best 
version of Microsoft Office ever, and this Technical Beta represents an
 important milestone on the road to shipping a great product.

To begin participating in the Office "12" Technical Beta, please visit 
the Office 12 website at <[url]http://beta.microsoft.com[/url]>. _Sign
 in using your Passport Network credentials. _Participation in the 
Office "12" Technical Beta is a personal invitation for you only. 
_Please do not share your Passport Network credentials or your 
access to beta.microsoft.com with others. 

During the program, we need you to exercise Microsoft Office in the
 ways you and your organization would expect to use the product. 
_You can also expect that we'll be asking you to look at particular 
areas of functionality at different points in the project to get feedback
 on specific features or functionality.


FIRST STEPS WITH OFFICE "12"
Before you install the software, please be sure to do the following:
*1. Read the Known Issues, which you will find on the website's left 
navigation bar. We will continue to update this page, so check it 
often. 
*2. Click Product from the left navigation bar to install the software.


OFFICE "12" DOWNLOADS AND BETA SOFTWARE STABILITY
Note that we're engaging you, our key customers, as early as 
possible so we have time to respond to your feedback. _That means
 this is true Beta-1 software - you should be able to use all the new 
functionality of the product, but there are still some rough edges and 
we haven't completed performance tuning. _This is a normal part of 
the product cycle, and an expected consequence of getting timely 
comments from you. _Your willingness to work through these rough
 edges means your feedback can have great impact since final adjustments are still being made.



PRODUCT INSTALLATION KEYS
In order to install the software, you will first need a product 
installation key. We will e-mail you your personal product installation 
keys in a separate e-mail within the next 24 hours. Please remember
 that these product keys are intended solely for your use during the
 installation of the Microsoft Office "12" Beta release and should not
 be shared with anyone else, under any circumstances. If you lose 
your product keys, please contact <mailto:offprp@microsoft.com> 
and we will resend them to you. 


BUG REPORTS
When you encounter bugs, please file them by clicking Submit a Bug
 from the website's left navigation bar. For information on how to file 
a good bug and how to check on the status of bugs you have filed, 
see the Frequently Asked Questions along the website's left 
navigation bar. Please submit only those bugs that you find in Office 
"12" products. 


SUPPORT
We are using newsgroups as the primary source of support for the 
Office "12" Technical Beta. Private newsgroups are accessed from a 
dedicated news server using your Beta ID and a Password. If you do
 not already have a password, you can create a newsgroup password
 on <[url]http://beta.microsoft.com/[/url]>, under the "Modify Your
 Info/Modify Newsgroup Login Info" tab along the top of the screen.
 
 
More detailed information about accessing the newsgroups is 
available on <[url]http://beta.microsoft.com/[/url]> from 
"Participation Info/Newsgroups," also found along the top of the 
website's screen.
 

Thank you for participating in the Office "12" Technical Beta. _We look
 forward to your valuable feedback.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft Office Customer Programs Team

So as you can see their earlier Email was off a bit. I am currently downloading 3 things from this.
After those are done i plan to install them and then download some others depending on what is installed on the versions i have downloaded.

 

[talldude123]

i cant believe the system requirements for it...

1 GB of RAM minimum for the server version!?

even if people have the money for office 12, they wont have the right system for it!

 

[KSoD]

Dont forget. This is to be released around the same time as Vista. Vista has that system requirement also. It is expected that almost everyone who wants to run Vista correctly will have to get a new system. So Office 12 has less requirements than they are talking for Vista.
Plus this is a beta that does require some beefy hardware. It does run on some older and slower systems it just takes longer to do things.