Seems like an odd amount. Too low to amount to much in total, but an annoyance to the user. Perhaps they figure the PITA factor will discourage frivolous downloads but won't dissuade anyone who is serious.

Or, perhaps they are moving the market toward accepting micropayments. ;)

It may be $1.50 per Megabyte.

Perhaps they want to test their credit card processing capabilities because they too want to launch a product in competition with Google checkout and Paypal :)

Do you think the Office 2007 beta is safe to use in a live environment?

Do you think the Office 2007 beta is safe to use in a live environment?

Been using it for a while now. Other than being a little slow (because it's in debug mode), it's fine.

Do you think the Office 2007 beta is safe to use in a live environment?

I woulden't. It has an expiry date. One day you will log in and try to use the app to be told the Beta has ended.

Mack.

I think i's just to sort out the serious beta users vs "let me download it and not use it at all." I doubt MSFT make smoney on this at all by the time they pay bandwidth, credit card fees, accounting, customer service etc.

Agreed. I just think this is to cover their costs. In terms of bandwidth all those beta downloads must cost a fair bit.

Mack.

Hooray for magazine cover disks!

When in pre beta discussion did they think that maybe their MSN Search Advertisers would cover the costs? ;) LOL

I love their new beta web development and image software though. But found Open Office to be a much better choice for me a few years back for the books and stuff.

Maybe another more sneaky reason is to insure that the beta was being downloaded by UNIQUE users. A $1.50 might be enough to stop someone from installing this on 7 of their computers sitting around the various rooms of their house which may not serve the interest of the beta program. With the type of network infrastructure that microsoft has in place, it shouldn't cost that much for them to serve.

$1.50 for Beta - that means I get to pay THEM for the privilege of debugging their software?

Oh wait - I already do that every time I buy a M$ product ;)

[edited by: MamaDawg at 5:29 pm (utc) on Aug. 1, 2006]

Another greedy step from MS,their DC must be connected at GBs to the the internet,bandwidth shouldnt be an issue for them

wmuser,
it's simple: they have 500% of their intended beta users; if anyone else wants it,have them pay a lousy dollar or two. It's not exactly a deal breaker