I want to re-phrase what I said before. I don't dislike Microsoft because they charge for their products. It is what they do charge and the tactics which they use to keep their monopoly alive. As well as the quality of their product. If they played fair, charged reasonable prices and actually deserved the kind of revenue they get. Then yes I would have no problems giving them my hard earned money, gladly.

The fact is it is the opposite. Microsoft does what they do to make money, they dont' give a damn about you me or anyone else. If anyone comes out with a superior product, they will do everything in their power to destroy them. A perfect example is Google, Google beats Microsoft at everything they do. No matter how much Microsoft copies and copy they do. They fail, apple and the ipod here comes the zone. Microsoft is a pitiful excuse for a company. they have no code, no ethics and certainly not superior products. Why is windows so successful, because its widely known, accepted, endorsed and pushed on you. Go to any oem builder including dell, hp, gateway or anyone else. What do you see in the upper right corner? Our company recommend windows xp, so yes it is pushed on you.

Now look at Microsoft ethics in action, Internet explorer. Destroy the competition using any means necessary. competition is destroyed, don't need any more improvements, ever. It is a free product and not worth it. Even though most of the world is using your product on a regular basis, your security is in shambles, web standards are being ignored, new technology is going unused. That's it, perfect example. Same thing with windows, they have no real competition. if they did we would be far beyond vista and one some futuristic version doing cool stuff. So the cancer continues.

2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 Technical Refresh
http://www.microsoft.com...59fa&DisplayLang=en

Project 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh
http://www.microsoft.com...b88a&DisplayLang=en

Visio 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh
http://www.microsoft.com...c180&DisplayLang=en

About the formats:
1)You can download a plugin for certain earlier version of Office to make the new format readable.
2) You can still select the standard .doc format that is readable by all Office suites

If you aren't even aware of this and already have Office, upgrading is definitely not for you.

You don't need a plugin. If you go to the options page for Word, Excell, PowerPoint, ect. you can change the format to save it in the .doc, .xls, .ppt format compatible with earlier versions.

The plugin is for people with older versions to be able to read files in the new format that people send them. So someone that is not able to get Office 2007 can still access the new formats.

It's definitely heading in the right direction. I saved a 32,000-page document and it was only 2M in size. I understand how the .docx and .xlsx formats work, but that's unbelievable. However, if you're looking to play with both OpenOffice 2.x and Microsoft Office 2003 Word/Excel, only much easier, check out the latest SoftMaker Office 2006.

I think charging, to download the program while it's in beta is a bit rude. I mean they are asking people to beta test their program. Why don't they just cap the number of downloads or some other tactic. I mean think about it, if they charge 1.50 per download that's 5.2 million dollars they made off it. Now I can almost guarantee its not going to cost them that much for bandwidth, if it is why don't they let others distribute it? It is obviously just a tactic leading to try before you buy. The only difference is you buy a download of something you will most likely have to uninstall 5 mins later. This is because the default file format that it saves to is not compatible with any other program except office 2007, previous office versions don't work with it.

As for the final product pricing, holy crap. Why would anyone in their right mind, pay 400 dollars for a new office application that offers nothing new? I mean what do most people think of when you say Microsoft office? I think of Word, now if you are in a office environment you may use PowerPoint or excel or maybe even access. Add in the cost of vista upgrade for basic home or business basic and your talking 500 dollars worth of upgrades, for the basic versions. Who does Microsoft think they are, really?

I would really love to know who it is buying office for those prices. Do they know there are free alternatives? Is it only the power users or Internet guru's who read tech websites that know of openoffice or heck even going on eBay and getting a copy of office 97 or 2000 for dirt. The home users need to get educated along with the government and corporate users. We don't need Microsoft people! Those costs are the price of a brand new computer by itself. Why can they charge something that outrageous for basic software. I mean they wonder why piracy is so popular, imagine if they could stomp it out. You know what would happen? Nothing, because people wouldn't buy it anyway. People don't pirate software because they are cheap, they do it because they can. Microsoft and the industry has this idea that anyone who pirates software, would have bought it so its lost revenue, and damages the industry. so make piracy impossible and see if revenue climbs. I bet it won't in fact sales will decrease. Piracy is the only thing keeping Microsoft popular and a monopoly. Make it impossible to pirate, people will find alternatives that are free.

Now in regards to the upgrade potential of office 2007, other then those forced to upgrade like on the corporate upgrade programs. I don't see many upgrading to this thing unless they are in the market for a new computer and it comes with it or are going to school or starting a home business and they think, hey I need an office suite, they go to best buy and what is on the shelf, office 2007 because that is the way the consumer is programmed.

The new interface is kind of cool but the new features are worthless. Any existing office app will be fine for average users. This includes office 97 and openoffice.org. The newer versions look pretty but offer little improvement with grammar, spelling or any other features that would actually be useful.

"I think charging, to download the program while it's in beta is a bit rude. I mean they are asking people to beta test their program. Why don't they just cap the number of downloads or some other tactic".

Not everyone has to pay the high price of $1.50. Only those who haven't been a Beta 2 customer. Why don't you...not download it.

"The only difference is you buy a download of something you will most likely have to uninstall 5 mins later. This is because the default file format that it saves to is not compatible with any other program except office 2007, previous office versions don't work with it".

Uninstall 5 min later; I've been using Beta 2 since it's been out. (50mb left and I'll install the refresh)It takes a few seconds to change the "default" file format to the one that is compatible with previous versions of Office.

Your right, its a scandal to charge 1.50 for any business enterprise to download it and test it on there global infrastructure and instead should buy it when it comes out and roll it across the domain when it comes out. Because without 5.2 million people testing it and reporting feedback it will be a better product right ?.

Think about it, this site would be full of PC Twa%'s jumping on every MS thread declairing to everyone how bad and evil Ms are not letting us test there warez.

Yeah you got my point all right, do you honestly think a large 50 thousand pc corporation is going to be paying 1.50 to download it? I think not, its more like Microsoft will be fedexing them a DVD of it overnight express without even being asked. This is a public download of it, not for corps to test it. It is for a mass public relations, download it for free to try, that way maybe the investors won't give us so much crap about being years overdue for our primary products to get refreshed.

Where exactly are you supposed to download this program, and how can someone who's already has the program download the Beta 2 Refresh? (I'll be damned if I have to pay $1.50 for an updated beta release.)

You should get an e-mail from Microsoft telling you how to download it for free...if you your a Beta 2 customer. It uses the same product key from Beta 2.

To download BDD 2007 Beta 2, please follow these steps:

Use your Internet connection to visit the Microsoft Connect Web site (http://connect.microsoft.com).
You will need to sign in using a valid Windows Live ID (previously Passport account) before you can continue to the Invitations page.
Click My Participation on the Connect menu.
Click Download.

Hurray! They opted to skip "Pre-Beta3" or "Pre-RTM". I can't wait for the final version to ship. I'm guessing it'll be named "Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Premium Extras Edition" (snicker-snicker)

There is no excuse to pirate Microsoft Office.

You don't need the "Professional" version, it has features you will never use, so purchase the version that has what you use not what you want.

True. If you want "free" get OpenOffice.org

Microsoft seems to be doing fairly well wouldn't you agree? So piracy must not be that bad. If it is, what would microsoft's numbers be like if they stomped it out? 100's of billions in sales per quarter? Millions of people making thousands more in their paycheck a year? The economy of the united states going up a trillion dollars a year all because millions of people didn't pirate microsoft office? Come on get a clue people.

You do know what is in store for office right? Activation, that means just like windows, once you activate it. It's stuck to that computer. You upgrade, have fun buying a new key at several hundred dollars just to type a work or school paper in word. As for pirating office, why not, it's free, it doesn't feed the monster of the industry. That 130-700 dollars goes to a struggling company, not one that sits on the money I gave it and enters new worthless markets that benefits me in no way. Now ethically, stealing is wrong. But I don't loose one second of sleep at night knowing I didn't give bill gates 1/1000th of a second of his pay or a billionaire/millionaire investor another reason to buy a share of the stagnating stock or pay a drone microsoft programmer an hour to drink another coke. Linux survives on free, why is that any different? Once again, if Microsoft was struggling and me not plunking down 400 dollars for a program I use once a month was bringing it into bankruptcy. then I may feel the littlest bit bad. But the fact Microsoft who is going to make 200 billion on this thing over the next 5 years can't pay for bandwidth to download a beta copy doesn't get much credit in my book. So screw you Microsoft.

"Microsoft seems to be doing fairly well wouldn't you agree? So piracy must not be that bad".

The movie industry is doing fairly well also, that's why they don't mind you pirating thier movies.

"You do know what is in store for office right? Activation, that means just like windows, once you activate it. It's stuck to that computer. You upgrade, have fun buying a new key at several hundred dollars just to type a work or school paper in word".

OH NO!!! The big bad "Activation" monster. You don't have to buy another key when you upgrade.
WinXP lets you activate it a number (don't remember how many) of times before you need a new insatllion ID, and then all you have to do is call the 888 # to get it activated. I suppose Office 2007 will be the same way.

"But the fact Microsoft who is going to make 200 billion on this thing over the next 5 years can't pay for bandwidth to download a beta copy doesn't get much credit in my book. So screw you Microsoft".

I have a thought for you. Why not come up with your own "Office" program; charge everyone $30 for it and then you'll sleep beter at night and maybe stop complaining about Microsoft. You said it there are other programs that are free to use. Then don't use Microsoft products...they aren't forcing you.

It's not yours. I don't care how evil you think they are, you are not entitled to anything someone else produces. You can pay for it if you want it, just like everyone else.

You're not a freedom fighter, you're not "sticking it to the man", you're not "starving the monster".

You're just stupid and irresponsible.

"You're just stupid and irresponsible."

No.

He would be stupid an irresponsible if he hadn't thought about his reason behind copying the programme, and I presume from what he's saying that he will buy it, but will use a ripped off copy to put it on any future PC he wishes to purchase because of all this activation crap.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You upgrade, have fun buying a new key at several hundred dollars just to type a work or school paper in word. As for pirating office, why not, it's free, it doesn't feed the monster of the industry.

Why not? It's free....

That's what I got from it. Correct me if I'm wrong...

So get OpenOffice then. Until you do that, you're no different to the other thieves serving time at your local penitentiary and it's thanks to arseholes like you that Product Activation and DRM exists.

As for "As for pirating office, why not, it's free, it doesn't feed the monster of the industry. ". Are you seriously that feckin stupid? It costs 10's if not 100's of $Millions to develop.

It isn't Microsoft that suffers so much but the retailers who lose the business.

Cheers d***head, thanks for nothing. What a wanker.

You're wrong. There is no need to put a ripped off copy on your next PC. You can use the same copy but you may have to ring up to activate.

He is nothing but a thief.

He was saying that he didn't feel the need to pay for a product since the company that sells that product already has a lot of money. "They already have enough money, why shouldn't I be able to steal their stuff?"

many companies even IBM has tried making their own office version. they simply cannot compete because Microsoft has made sure to use their monopoly practices to prevent then. How many years was it before a even partially compatible office program was compatible with .doc?

OEM doesnt have that luxury of reactivating. You pay 90 dollars for a full version of windows, thats it. Buy another one, if you want that option you will be spending 300 dollars for the full version that comes in a box. You also get Microsoft's wonderful tech support, which is worthless and a pretty logo cd. Not to mention the lovely call to India for reactivation.

Even free can't compete with office's strong hold, mainly because openoffice.org and other free alternatives don't have any kind of marketing. I can guarantee if they were capable of putting a 30 second commercial on tv or advertised with Google, there would be a 1 percent drop in office revenue within days. As word got around it would increase. A comparable free alternative to office. What a idea, too bad no one knows about it or have an open mind to even try it.

As for the mpaa and riaa and whoever else claims pirating kicks their bottom line in the crapper, well learn to keep up with technology, lower prices or use meaningful tactics that don't cost money or hurt your honest customers that won't pirate. There is still till this day piracy of movies, music and other software. People use drm which gets cracked in a day, serials which are traded and even activation. All this does is slightly slow it down, keep the average person who don't know better from doing it and that's about it. Not to mention adds developmental cost which hurts them even more. So am I the bad guy? Not really, would i buy the stuff if it was reasonably priced, sure I would.

Cranbers solution to Piracy:

Got Piracy problems? Lower your prices!

As for the mpaa and riaa and whoever else claims pirating kicks their bottom line in the crapper, well learn to keep up with technology, lower prices or use meaningful tactics that don't cost money or hurt your honest customers that won't pirate

Thanks for that. I needed a laugh tonight.

No, the 'RIGHT' thing.

that's more than Vista itself. They gotta do something about those prices, until then pirating Office will still be the 'cool thing'.