Microsoft collected fees for using Office 2007 Beta

It is expected that next week Microsoft will begin to charge for downloading and trial use of Office 2007 Beta 2 version.

It can be said that Microsoft's latest move has completely gone against the inherent practices of most software vendors - once the software has not been officially commercialized and it has not been tested during testing. There is no charge.

However, Microsoft said the expected fee is only a very small fee with a more nominal nature.

Accordingly, starting from 8:00 pm on August 2, anyone who wants to download and try the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta will have to pay a fee of 1.5USD.

Microsoft spokesman said: " Since the end of May, Office 2007 Beta 2 has been downloaded more than 3 million times - that is, 500% higher than our expected level. The decision to collect is to help us pay for the bandwidth of the system for the servers . "

The fee plan for Office 2007 Beta 2 only applies to people who download the Office 2007 Beta version from 18:00 on August 2. Other users who have downloaded or who want to upgrade technical features will still be free.

Those who only want to test the way Beta works will still have access to the application completely free of charge. If they want to test on their own systems, they will have to download the software or request a software CD. Of course they will have to pay.

" This is the first time that Microsoft has been charging for a version of Office beta. Microsoft does not plan to repeat this step in the future ," a Microsoft spokesman said.

Hoang Dung