A Microsoft employee apparently released a planned free upgrade strategy for Microsoft's Office 2010 later this year.

Charles van Heusen, a partner technology adviser at Microsoft, posted the proposed Office 2007-for-Office 2010 exchange program on his blog, and later pulled down the entry. Ars Technica discovered the post, however, and found the original via a Google cache.

A Microsoft representative declined to comment.

Under the program, a customer who purchases Office 2007 from an authorized Microsoft partner between March 5 – September 30, 2010, and who installs it by Sept. 30, is eligible for a free upgrade to Office 2010 by Oct. 31. That would seem to imply that Office 2010 will be launched sometime in that window.

Full story: PC Magazine