How to get on the Office 2010 Technical Preview

Darn, it's not instant download :(

Ok I applied. Now we wait and hope.

I got this from Demonoid... It's actually REALLY nice. Love the Outlook 2010.

I'll wait for it to just come out in release form in my Action Pack before it graces my production network, thank you very much. I have a non-production machine to test software, but I don't test it day-to-day, so testing is very checklist-y and controlled - that way, final deployment is too. I just think it's easier, and much MUCH faster doing it that way than with the "guinea pig" option. You can test something in a pre-release state, but if you don't plan for new updates and come out with a checklist for interoperability, compatibility, reliability, and necessary functionality, and instead just "wing-it" in day-to-day stuff, you'll be completely lost when business grinds to a halt because something in software doesn't work the way you think it should. I have a number of document templates just for testing software, and nearly half of each document contains sections on dealing with the vendor to come up with a solution and/or workaround. The Microsoft ACT comes in especially handy with that as well. IT people should plan for failures in migration and upgrades probably moreso than for successes. Problem mitigation is part of the job role.

@waethorn, There is nothing wrong with having checklists, and in fact even in my own environment I have a list of critical things that I look for on behalf of my users. But that said, it's impossible to checklist everything unless you take the time to click every single button and test every option, and well, if you have that kind of time you have a very boring job. I find a combination of guinea pigging on MY personal and work systems to be effective tests of end-user day-to-day usability and controlled testing with one highly-technical and one low-tech user to be more beneficial to checklisting, since I get real-world experiences and feedback. Afterall, if my users can't use it effectively and efficiently, it doesn't matter how much functionality it has.

GoodThings2Life "But that said, it's impossible to checklist everything unless you take the time to click every single button and test every option, and well, if you have that kind of time you have a very boring job." Which is why adoption of Windows and Office in large corporations very often takes a year or so. Doing a checklist that you'll have to support is a very time consuming process. Individual users don't do it but when you're planning a 20,000 seat migration you don't tend to do it without a very long, boring process.

Nice ads, Paul: "Genuine Windows Vista 2007 Digital Download from 34.95$ on Retail Versions www.shoparhive.com"