Comments on: Microsoft to charge for Office beta

Software giant next week will start charging a nominal fee for 2007 Office Beta 2 downloads, as it seeks to offset costs.

[AuriRahimzadeh]

Weeding out bad testers

Bad testers, those who wouldn't be willing to put the time and effort into testing, may not pay the $1.50, so I can see this as an effort for such. But, then again, $1.50 isn't enough to dissuade people from downloading and not testing the product. They should at least offer a 10% discount if you paid + tested, or give you your 1.50 back at the end of the process. Normally they have to pay their own testing team, so I'm not sure how I feel about forcing consumers to pay for downloads.

Best,

-Auri

[TV James]

hee hee.

The only real difference here is that they're finally admitting that they sell buggy unfinished code.

[startiger]

Refund for Testers?

I can understand Microsoft trying to reduce costs, but they can loose a lot of potential beta testers by this.

Why not charge the download fee, but offer to refund it if the user finds, say 10 confermed bugs, or something else to better the product.

That way you encourage people to annilize the product and work to better it.

If not a refund, how about a credit on other products or something.

[imguessing]

Short Term Thinking

Every week now it seems, we here another story regarding some sort of public relations miscue by Microsoft. The latest involves Microsoft charging to download their beta version of Office 2007. Not only can you help troubleshoot their buggy software, you can also forfeit some of your hard earned money (not to mention dignity), to do it.

When I first heard of this I had to quick click http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/beta to review the definition, because obviously it changed without me knowing it. Surprise, surprise to find out it reads like this: a nearly complete prototype of a product (as software) <released in beta> <the beta version>

I?m all for programmers & software companies making a good, even obscene financial living, if it delivers a quality product which infinitely makes my life better & easier. A product by the way, that is complete, stable and with as few bugs as possible (as there is no such thing as bug-free software). What part of this description fits MS Office 2007 beta?

Every week, the world is moving closer & closer to an Internet-centric planet, and every week, Microsoft tries to convince us to keep using & propagating 20th century technology. Every $1.50 fee they collect for their beta download, will keep at least one other consumer or business customer from trying it.

Every customer that refuses to pay for beta software, not because $1.50 is a lot of money, but because Microsoft is trying to change the rules so they can win (taking their ball & going home), is another customer who might just decide, ?screw it? when thinking about upgrading.

More short term thinking, but then, that?s all Microsoft has, isn?t it?



I?m Guessing
http://imguessingblog.blogspot.com
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[jimmy202]

omg

You want the beta and not want to pay for it???

Go to demonoid.com, bitme.org, torrentleech.com or other torrent sites.

Also, go to www.phazeddl.com and search for it, you'll get it off warez! OR use limewire, kazza, warez p2p or anything.

**** microsoft

[frankbush]

Charge for Office beta, Microsoft Corp.

Just thought I'd say that being a software developer myself, and sharing ideas and programs with others around the world, it should not be such an unacceptable idea to charge a small fee for the work developers are involved in.

The important thing is, people always want something free, but want to complain it that free stuff just happens to somehow cost the company that offers it free without some type of financial impact on the those companies offering the free items.

Microsoft does not have to offer beta testing, people don't have to get involved with it if they choose not to! I actually obtain the beta testing software and illustrate it's usage to my clients, as well as practice using the software to my advantage on a daily basis.

This free stuff has helped me make money! I don't feel that a small fee will put me into the bankruptcy courts...

Thanks for reading, and for sharing your thougts for free!

[qwerty75]

You are missing a point

People are downloading it and putting in bug reports so MS can make money. Turing around and charging them even a penny is not only wrong it is greedy beyond all reason.