The next version of Microsoft’s popular office suite, currently under the code name Office 14, will officially be called Office 2010. An anonymous source from within Microsoft’s corporate network tipped of ZDNet columnist Zack Whittaker to the new name of the suite.

Whittaker says the codename Office 13 was skipped due to the superstitious negative connotations associated with the number. The e-mail is seemingly scarce on information, neglecting to include any build numbers but attaching the splash screen of a “recent build”.

Microsoft have often released products with the names including the following year, psychologically making the software seem newer. While some products, such as Windows 98, were released in the same year as the title suggests, many of Microsoft’s other products have had the following year in the name and it looks like Office 2010 will be slated with a late 2009 to early 2010 release.

In addition, it’s been confirmed officially that the upcoming Office edition will come in two flavours – supporting the older x86 architecture along with the newer, more advanced x64 based offering. Very believable rumours, first seen circulating a month ago, have been confirmed as a Microsoft spokesperson said that “Office will have two separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Office 2010 will be the first to do this…” in a recent e-mail exchange with technology site Ars Technica. This is a much welcomed change for the tech community – many users now exclusively use 64 bit and a native Office application will fully utilise the power of the architecture.

Source – ZDNet | Ars Technica
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