Tags: beta software, download, Microsoft, os, torrent, windows, windows 7
Downloads of a new build of Microsoft Corp.’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system have soared in the past two days, with thousands of systems now pulling pirated copies from BitTorrent sites.
Searches today on the Pirate Bay BitTorrent site, for example, returned multiple listings of Windows 7 Build 7000, which Microsoft identifies as a beta candidate in the file name. The torrent is a disk image of the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate; a 64-bit version is not yet available.
The most heavily trafficked Windows 7 BitTorrent on Pirate Bay showed more than 4,300 “seeders” — the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file — and about 7,500 “leechers,” or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. Less popular BitTorrents of the file on Pirate Bay claimed an additional 1,000 seeders and more than 3,000 leechers.
On Saturday, a day after the first copies of Build 7000 appeared on BitTorrent, Pirate Bay’s prime listing showed less than half as many seeders as it did today.
Read more at ComputerWorld
The next version of Microsoft Windows, the software that defines the computing experience for most people, will nag users much less than its much-maligned predecessor, Vista. PC users will be able to test the new edition early next year.
