Microsoft to Charge for Office Beta

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday July 28, 2006 @06:22PM from the pay-to-play dept.

theodp writes "Beginning next Wednesday, those who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged $1.50 per download, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman." From the article: "Although Microsoft's Information Worker Product Management Group decided to initiate a fee for new users of Beta 2, the "technical refresh," or update, for current users of the software will remain free, the spokeswoman said. Those who want to test drive Beta 2 to review how it works can access the software for free. But if they need to test it against their internal systems, a download or the CD is required. "

1 of 190 comments (clear)

God MS users are such suckers by sauge · 2006-07-28 18:34 · Score: 0, Troll

My God! LOL! Here, let me charge you for this untested potential peice of sh|t that will ruin your work after two hours - and you tell me what's wrong with it - so I can charge you for the full version when it comes out!

(Of course we will place your credit card number and other information into a database that others have routinely hacked and used the contents there of for identity theft.)

If one wants to use "beta" software - go use OpenOffice and contribute bug reports.