In mid-2009, when Microsoft released the first external build of Office 2010, the Technical Preview (TP), it limited distribution to a relatively small group of people. (See my exhaustive, multipart overview of the Office 2010 Tech Preview for details.) But with a public beta release now available, virtually anyone can get their hands on a near-feature-complete version of Microsoft's next office productivity suite. That means this is the perfect time to evaluate what Microsoft's doing with Office 2010 and determine when and how you want to roll it out in your own environments.

Here's what you need to know about the Office 2010 public beta.