Microsoft to charge for Office beta

[Chris]

Microsoft plans next week to charge a nominal fee for Office 2007 Beta 2 downloads, in a move that runs counter to the practice held by most software companies.

Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged $1.50 per download, beginning next Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

"Since the end of May, Beta 2 has been downloaded more than 3 million times...That's 500 percent more than what was expected," the spokeswoman said. "The fee helps offset the cost of downloading from the servers."

More | Here

[-pops-]

Hmmmmm.

I recall that you can download a full (not beta) copy of an excellent office suite entirely for free.

http://www.openoffice.org/

[andsome]

I looked at that myself, but it does not seem to contain a direct equivalent to Publisher to print greetings cards. I use Office 2000, and the thing that bothers me about Vista is whether this and other software that I use now will be compatible should support for XP be stopped

[r4may]

I have no intention of using MS Office 2007, I'll stay with Wordperfect and Open Office, and looking at the current state of Vista, I will go to totally using Linux if & when XP support is withdrawn.

This is because I do not need any more 'Bells & Whistles' in my O/S