Staff WritersMicrosoft Australia is dumping its Australian Beta 2 program forMicrosoft Office 2007, claiming that it has reached its quota of allowable
registrants.
The move follows a controversial decision at Microsoft HQ inthe US to charge users US$1.50 per download of the beta software from today- but Australia appears to be the only country going this way.
“As the Office 2007 Beta 2 program is now full, Microsoft Australia will beclosing the download site for Office 2007 Beta 2 on August 3 2006 at 11amAEST,” Microsoft said. It said it would not continue the download offer as the program in Australia was already full.”
The program is believed to have attracted around 25,000 Australian users.
The new shut-off date is something of a reprieve for local users: earlier yesterday, Robin Young, product solutions manager for the Information Worker Business Group at Microsoft Australia, told journalists that the site would be closed from yesterday.
Microsoft’s explanation for the fee-for-beta scheme being charged in the US and other territories is that the nominal charge would help offset the cost of downloading from the servers. Ah, life must be tough at the shabby end of town.