When you hear about a product that is beta you instantly think that is free. Well Microsoft wants to contradict you.
Although the majority of software companies don't use this strategy, Microsoft has decided to ask a small fee from the people that will want to test the beta 2 of the new Office 2007. Therefore users that will want to download the Office 2007 beta 2 will have to pay 1, 50 $ per download.

From the end of May till now, apparently 3 000 000 users have downloaded this version of Office 2007, 5 times more then the company expected. Asked about the motive of the 1,50$ fee, they said it was created so it will cover the costs associated with the downloads from their servers.
This is the first time Microsoft asks for a fee in order to use a beta Office version and we hope is the last time too.

Users that will want to have a drive test will access the software free but if they will want to test the beta 2 on their internal systems they will have to download the program with that 1,50$ fee or order the payed cd.
You can download Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 from here.

written by Madalin D.