SharePoint 2010 was released to manufacturing (RTM) on April 17, 2010

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is the "Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web".

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 promises to deliver numerous benefits over its predecessor. SharePoint 2010 was released to manufacturing (RTM) on April 17, 2010.

Feature highlights include:
-New user interface, including the new Office Ribbon.
-Web Edit, allowing easy customization of a site.
-Silverlight Web Part, allowing rapid integration of rich Silverlight applications.
-Rich Theming, allowing simplified skinning of a SharePoint 2010 site
-Multiple browser support, including Internet Explorer (Advanced View with Silverlight), Firefox (Standard View) and Safari (Standard View) amongst others.
-Enterprise Metadata Management ("SharePoint taxonomy"), which enables a centralized taxonomy

Will come in two editions: SharePoint Foundation Server and SharePoint Server 2010
There are also a collection of other new features relevant to IT Professionals, Developers and Partners.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits Overview
SharePoint 2010 is the business collaboration platform that enables you to connect and empower people through formal and informal business communities, within the enterprise and beyond, and to manage content throughout the information lifecycle. Whether deployed on-premises or as hosted services, SharePoint’s integrated capabilities are enhanced by search technologies and enable you to rapidly respond to changing business needs by making data-driven decisions and by deploying customized solutions quickly and securely. The consolidation of collaboration solutions onto SharePoint 2010 makes it possible to cut costs by lowering training and maintenance expenses and increasing IT productivity, all within a governable and compliant platform.

Connect and Empower People
Making people more productive is a direct result of enabling them to access resources and knowledge regardless of where they are and what device they use, through a user experience optimized for usability and adoption.

Cut costs with a Unified Infrastructure
Driving cost efficiencies and accomplishing more with the same resources is possible through the consolidation of all the key business collaboration solutions into SharePoint 2010 and using this common platform to deploy solutions for your intranet, extranet, or for your Internet web presence.

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs
When time-to-market is key, SharePoint 2010 enables people to customize the out-of-box platform and deploy solutions that enable them to address specific business requirements quickly and in a secure manner.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits for IT Professionals
For IT professionals, SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment.

Increased Productivity
SharePoint 2010 can help to increase IT professionals' productivity by improving the administrative experience and giving administrators deeper operational insight. Features include a new streamlined Central Administration Web site, new capabilities to manage and monitor the SharePoint farm, and Windows PowerShell support.

Scalable Unified Infrastructure
SharePoint 2010 provides a scalable unified infrastructure. It offers better control over server resources, which can improve processes such as performance and management of large lists and data management and protection using high availability. A scalable services architecture allows you to effectively manage and centralize services like Search, My Sites, and Taxonomy. These service applications can be managed through Central Administration and also can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell. Because the architecture is extensible, third-party companies can build and add services to platform.

Flexible Deployment
With a quick and simple installation and configuration process, SharePoint 2010 provides a flexible deployment experience. The upgrade from SharePoint 2007 is smooth and predictable. New functionality allows you to manage how others use SharePoint. For example, you can safely allow site administrators to upload custom user code with Sandboxed Solutions. You also have more governance controls: If you want to maintain a centralized SharePoint deployment instead of taking a more decentralized approach, you can block those deployments through Group Policy or track them with AD marker support.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits for Developers
​Software developers can use the SharePoint 2010 developer platform to build business collaboration applications for the enterprise and the Web, all with familiar tools and a rich set of interoperable, out-of-box features. SharePoint 2010 includes extensible framework features and tools for building applications, including Microsoft Silverlight Web Parts and Client APIs, LINQ to SharePoint, Business Connectivity Services (BCS), Sandboxed Solutions, and new SharePoint List data relationships. Developers can more efficiently build SharePoint solutions with Visual Studio 2010, Team Foundation Server 2010, and the new SharePoint Designer 2010

Developer Productivity
​Software developers can increase productivity with Visual Studio 2010 and the new SharePoint Designer 2010. SharePoint 2010 can be installed on Microsoft Windows 7 or Windows Vista for development purposes. With SharePoint 2010, software developers get a rich set of resources, including SDK documentation and product features such as the developer dashboard page.

Rich Platform Services
​SharePoint 2010 provides new features for building business collaboration applications, including Silverlight hosting for user interfaces, LINQ to SharePoint, Client Object Model, BCS, data relationships, and large list scalability. Using BCS, developers now can integrate line-of-business data in SharePoint and Office Client solutions easily and with read/write capability.

Flexible Deployment
​Developers can build Sandboxed Solutions to be deployed on-premises or online, with built-in API limits and resource governance for administrators. In SharePoint 2010, new Sandboxed Solutions can be deployed to a corporate intranet or to a shared hosting environment, such as SharePoint Online.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits for Partners
​Partners have opportunities to expand their markets, develop new revenue models, and increase sales with SharePoint. Now is a great time to become a SharePoint partner or expand current offerings.

Connect, Extend, and Build on SharePoint
​SharePoint is the business collaboration platform for the enterprise and the web. Collaboration, content management, enterprise search, business intelligence and web capabilities enable partners to deliver innovative and extensible solutions for customers.

Get Ready for SharePoint 2010
​New capabilities such as cloud services, a new client-side object model, advanced support for .NET and Silverlight development, and business connectivity services open opportunities for partner solutions. Partner resources are being updated regularly to help partners get people and solutions ready for SharePoint 2010.

Engage with Partner Programs
​The Microsoft Partner Network provides opportunities to strengthen capabilities, expertise to help serve customers better and communities to spark innovation and connection. Learn more about the new and expanded benefits of the Microsoft Partner Network.

Resources are available to support partner businesses in information worker solutions and web development solutions. Competencies for enterprise content management, portals and collaboration, search and web development provide partners new ways to differentiate themselves and their SharePoint and FAST capabilities.

Current partners should review the features of the program and begin preparing their organizations to meet the new competency requirements by May 2010.