They didn’t even put a WGA validator for people to try it out for free, actually, they didn’t put one up for Windows Vista either. So they wanted to grasp as many people as they could, they shouldn’t be complaining about the consequences now.

If this were a smaller company, I wouldn’t find it surprising, but many, if not all graphics-related websites like Adobe’s site, offer trial versions of all their programs for free.

And when I mention Adobe, I’m also referring to the hundred other sites that follow the same model.

For 1.5$ (if it were the equivalent to euros) I could download 1.5GB of data, and the office package is only 440mb.

Though, on the other hand, after working for a software company for a few years I can think of one or two reasons why Microsoft did this. If there isn’t a time limit (without a crack) on a trial program you present to a company, even if it has restrictions, the person won’t mind not paying you another penny as long as it works, they’d rather live with the restrictions than pay for a license.

And if Microsoft Office, which is Microsoft’s biggest cash cow, gets distributed to way over 3 million computers, those are 3 million people less likely to buy the final version in the future.