Get Beta2 now or never!

[Daniel Escapa [MS]]

http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6099987.html?part=rss&tag=6099987&subj=news

Microsoft plans next week to charge a nominal fee for Office 2007 Beta 2
downloads, 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 representative said.



Get it now or never!

 

[Daniel Escapa [MS]]

Well you can still get it, you just have to pay.

 

[srdiamond]

This policy should not be applied to OneNote. As a general policy, it sounds
like a good idea. Otherwise, people like me might use unconsciounable
quantities of bandwidth when they can't make up their mind whether they want
to demo something. While it is true that this isn't the general practice of
software developers, software developers in general don't provide 500 mb
downloads. Their overhead is less as a result, plus Microsoft offers more
generous bandwidth to downloaders than most other companies. (Yes, this does
not go unnoticed!)

But OneNote is a different case. Here it isn't merely a chance to demo the
product. Microsoft has expressed an interest in actual beta testing by
downloaders and has even been so arrogant to ask us beta testing public to
do the clerical work of transmitting bug reports from this forum to a special
Connect site.

Put it this way. Anyone who submits a bug report on Connect after paying MS
to download the product is a TOTAL SUCKER.

Stephen R. Diamond

 

[Daniel Escapa [MS]]

What?!

No they are a very passionate user who really wants their problems solved
and who want to make OneNote a better piece of software. For that reason
alone I thank you all for who take the time to fill out those reports.

From the whole team thank you. As for the costs of the download, if I could
do something about it I would but sadly I couldn't so I posted this as soon
as I found out about it. Take care all..

 

[srdiamond]

"

No they are a very passionate user who really wants their problems solved
and who want to make OneNote a better piece of software.

They could be both. One can be stupidly passionate. As MS decides to
compromise potential beta-testing data by charging its beta testers to
download, there is little the user can then do to improve it. Both the duty
and the ability to improve the product reside principally with MS, and its
disregard for beta-testing by imposing the fee should be presumed to reflect
its attitude. There is little employees can do either.

I'm not saying OneNote isn't a good product. It's a great product. But not
because of the current beta testing, which is obviously for show only. I'm
sure you will deny it, but any user with half a brain should conclude that
Microsoft doesn't take this part of the beta testing seriously. The data they
use and respect come from elsewhere. Again, this is an inference warranted by
their conduct in 1) asking beta testers to do the clerical work of
registering their reports in Connect after having made them here (in the
first place) and then 2) announcing a download fee that applies to OneNote.

This only concerns OneNote, because nobody had any illusions that the public
beta of Office at large was a serious beta-testing effort. It isn't that no
one was fooled, but no one even tried.

Just observations. No rancour intended.

Stephen R. Diamond

 

[Patrick Schmid]

This only concerns OneNote, because nobody had any illusions that the
public

beta of Office at large was a serious beta-testing effort. It isn't that no
one was fooled, but no one even tried.

Actually, the publically available Beta 2 is labeled as "preview".
Microsoft is not expecting any serious beta testing effort to be going
on with this. Microsoft is however getting lots of data from all the
installed copies (crash data, UI usage data, etc), which is quite
valuable to them. In addition, there is a lot of direct user feedback
via the send-a-smiles tool.


Patrick Schmid

 

[Daniel Escapa [MS]]

Yes and yes!

Actually, the publically available Beta 2 is labeled as "preview".
Microsoft is not expecting any serious beta testing effort to be going on
with this. Microsoft is however getting lots of data from all the
installed copies (crash data, UI usage data, etc), which is quite valuable
to them. In addition, there is a lot of direct user feedback via the
send-a-smiles tool.


Patrick Schmid