Office 2010 Beta

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx
you all probably know already of MS Office 2010 beta, but have you guys used it?
I installed Windows 7 at home, so I decided to try the beta since I don't have any other productivity software (I only have games installed so far, PRIORITIES)
So far I like it. I don't know if it is the hardware at home, or the combination of 7 and 2010, or all together (most likely) but 2010 is really snappy. I LIKE IT!!
I like Word and Excel to open in a second, and Outlook opens in 3 to 5 seconds.
Outlook seems to have the biggest improvement on the engine (and it was probably the app that needed it the most)
I use Outlook for my work, and we have Exchange 2003. Anyone that has setup outlook to connect to Exchange knows that the first connection needs to be done on the network so it can connect to the GC server. Well, 2010 work right away, and I did not need to launch the VPN, which is amazing since Cisco's VPN client does not run n 64 bit.My mailbox is 400MB, and at work it takes 10 minutes to start up (because it always checks the integrity of the OST), and even then I disaled search to make it faster.
In 2010, it opens quick, it can search extremely well, and it closes quick (unless it is still doing a sync, in which case it needs to finish)
I made it crash once though. My first application that I made crash in Windows 7 64bit. I downloaded the 64 bit version, which should only be beneficial for people with large spreadsheet, but since it is a beta why not.
downloading the Outlook connector I was also able to connect my hotmail account, and my office live account. It also detected the settings for the gmail really easy.
The display of the emails is clean, and they look good.
All this good stuff, and I haven't tried the social networking connection yet, but then again, I am not social :p and I barely use my FB account. I connect here more than to FB.
I will be taking some docs from work and try them out on the 2010 and see if I can add the trinquets in excel (it can make a chart in a cell to track numbers)

Nice review Dehc, I've heard good things about Office2010, we're looking to skip 2007 and head straight to that too... similar like skipping Vista for W7 ;)

Let us know when the RC is out :D

My guess is that 2010 is a prelude to MS Office being totally in the "cloud".

Rik, that is a good point. It looks like they want to do that, but from what I read it will not be for a long time.
Office 2010 connects easily to the web aps, but they are VERY limited, and their road map and they have lots a lot of ground against google docs and (i can't remember the other online apps). Anyhow, it seems that their focus for now is the online apps to be an emergency toolkit.
Last nice I was very enthusiastic to try the Facebook link on the "People pane" but then I found out that only Sharepoint are supported at this moment. The connectors will be released once Office is released, which makes sense.
As for the jump from 2003 to 2010, Sure, go ahead. It is a great jump.
This rest of the week, I will try a little more the integration with the Sharepoint sites (I use the office live workspaces) and the sparklines in excel.
Unfortunately still Excel opens in one window alone just in 2007. Man, I would really like to look at 2 different Excel Spreadsheets in different monitors.
Well I will keep using it. I need to write some scope of work, so I will do it there