Previously on microsoft.public.money, google[at]bpellerin.com said:

- quote -

That's right, it doesn't. Charging full-fare for an incremental
update? Only Microsoft would think they can get away with it. And
they have, for way too long (Win95 is Windows v4, Win98 was Windows
v4.1!)

I'm an MS Money user (though now that I no longer sync it to a
handheld, I can conceivably switch at any time so long as I can import
my data), and I've +always+ skipped years. I went from '97 to '99 to
'03. And the only reason I upgraded to '07 was to gain the ability to
download transactions from my bank, and that broke (again) a couple
months ago, this time apparently permanently.

This isn't something like Tax Cut, where a new version has to be
released annually because of changes in the laws.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"I really can't say." "Some sort of state secret?" "No. Just
difficult to pronounce." - Jack O'Neill and Major Robert Thornbird,
SG1

Looks like Microsoft has killed this product, but they deny this.
See these articles:
http://money.mvps.org/faq/article/562.aspx
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/200...plus-software/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1521

I was going to consider upgrading this year, but not if it's a dead
product. Here's my somewhat humorous, but mostly true, take on their
blog:

Microsoft: "Microsoft Money Plus continues to be a valuable tool for
our customers; however the feedback we are hearing is that the
incremental updates to the software don’t merit a new product every
year."

Translation: Our customers are saying that a year-long development
cycle is more than enough time for a significant release. These tiny
incremental updates are a waste of their time! They actually want us
to build the features on the customer wishlist.


Microsoft: "We are moving off of an annual release cycle for
Microsoft Money Plus (no Money 2009 version in the fall), with future
release dates TBD."

Translation: We've moved our development off-shore and it's taking
much longer than we anticipated. Moral is low, communication is
broken and now we need two years for each release. But don't look
for anything extra. It'll be another incremental release.


Microsoft: "We have been listening to our customers and analyzing
market trends and business dynamics and feel that distribution the
software product online will provide our customers with the right mix
of products and services that will meet their needs."

Translation: Well, we heard lots of complaints about the need for
additional feature content. We tried giving you incremental feature
updates each year, but for some reason you weren't buying each one.
Maybe the cost of gas stopped you from going to the store. Even
though most of our sales were thru retail channels, we've decided to
go green and make you buy it on the web. If you go to the store and
see a bunch of Quicken boxes, just remember, they're red. We're
green.


Microsoft: "Is this a sign that you are getting out of the packaged
PC consumer software business overall?"

Translation: No, we're still selling other retail software
packages. People are buying those, so we keep making them. There's
a thriving discount market for old sofltware releases (the $9.99
software bins). We think that Money fits that model too. We don't
have to spend any money developing anything, and let's see how many
discontinued units we can sell. But, since it's not in the stores,
we don't need to discount it!!!! Money is going to make money!
Finally!


Microsoft: "Retailers are asking for more ways to work with us on the
digital distribution of Microsoft Money, so many are excited about the
additional flexibility the Web offers."

Translation: Dang retailers always want a cut of our profits. This
ought to excite them!