Nuove notizie arrivano oggi da Microsoft , il colosso di Redmond ha oggi annunciato con un comunicato stampa il rilascio a 12000 betatester della prima beta del successore di Office XP denominato per ora "Office 11", la nuova suite di programmi per l'ufficio dovrebbe essere disponibile per metà del prossimo anno. Ecco uno stralcio del comunicato stampa:

Microsoft Corp. today announced the first beta release of its next version of Microsoft® Office, code-named "Office 11." Expected to ship in mid-2003, "Office 11" is a significant step forward in the delivery of Microsoft's vision for improving information worker productivity. New technologies in this version of Office enable information workers to connect more effectively with people, information and business processes, thus enhancing the overall productivity of an organization.

"The key word to describe 'Office 11' is 'connected,'" said Joe Eschbach, vice president of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft. "It's about connecting people with all the disparate sources of information in their work environment, with the processes necessary to complete their jobs, and with the other people they rely on to complete projects and make decisions. In short, it's about making them more productive by removing unnecessary barriers to success."

Altresì pare secondo il sito web ActiveNewtork che sia iniziato il programma di reclutamento per partecipare al betatester del Service Pack 4 per Windows 2000.