Sell Your Soul For Microsoft Software

Being a Microsoft guy myself, I often get asked questions about their success (or lack thereof) in the industry. The Mac fans, in particular, take issue with my appreciation for Windows, sometimes with merit, other times without. We all know Vista has its... issues, and it's fairly well known the OS isn't selling as well as the ol' MS would like. So what's a mutli-billion dollar, multi-national, governmentally-supervised behemoth of a company suppose to do? Give it away for free, of course!

Well, ok, that a bit misleading. It's not really free, per se. I mean, you don't have to pay anything for it... you just have to allow Microsoft to collect unspecified data from your system once a day. You know, so they can better tailor the user experience and all.

If you haven't seen it yet, the Windows Feedback Program allows you to download a copy of Vista Ultimate (64 or 32 bit), Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, or Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 for free. The catch, of course, is that you have to be willing to offer up data to big poppa Microsoft. They'll install a program on your machine that will collect data about your usage activity and transmit that data back to MS once a day. Also, they'll ask you to fill out a survey no more than twice a week. The site does claim that you can opt out at anytime, but I'm pretty sure that will opt you out of the software as well (I didn't see that anywhere in particular, just an educated guess).

I suppose this is an interesting concept. Nothing is truly free, afterall.... except, of course, open-sourced free ware. I might give it a shot. They do list the type of data they are collecting, but they also specifically state that you will not be able to see the actual data:

Will I be able to see what data I'm sharing with you? Unfortunately, you will not be able to look at your specific data. We designed the Windows Feedback Program software specifically to avoid any interference with your work or how your computer functions. To do that, the data you are sharing is stored in a binary format (zeros and ones) rather than in text format. Storing the data in binary format makes it very small and easy to share with us, but difficult for you to translate and interpret

If a little data collection doesn't bother you, surf on over and sign up.

UPDATE: Engadget reports that you need to particpate in the program for three months then you recieve the software in the mail. I could not find that on the Microsoft website however.

[via: Slashdot]