Windows 7 Leaked To Pirates By Microsoft?

nandemoari writes "The beta version of Windows 7 has been widely distributed through torrents and other file sharing systems. But now some commentators claim Microsoft deliberately allowed the package to get into the hands of pirates. 'I'm not being critical here, as some Microsoft Watch commenters will surely claim. It's rather smart marketing. Microsoft fills a big news void with something bloggers and journalists will write about. The suspense of stealth downloads from torrents and races to post the best screenshots first make the Windows 7 leak buzz all the more exciting. For other people, there is delight in seeing Microsoft squirm because Seven leaked early. Not that I see much squirming going on.'"

Of course they did

[SonicEarth]

Did they leak the beta intentionally? Of course they did. It's a great way to generate buzz about the new OS for virtually no cost.

Well, I'm convinced.

[gandhi_2]

The TFA sums up evidence as: "it's what I would do" and "MS doesn't seem too worried".

I don't doubt they did leak it on purpose...but TFA gives no evidence...save some personal projecting.

I RTFA

[MyLongNickName]

And there is about zero substantiation. No unnamed sources. No evidence.

Slashdot -- speculation for nerds and rumors that matter.

Re:Well, I'm convinced.

[truthsearch]

You mean a journalist whose sole job is to report on Microsoft is making a baseless claim to get attention and traffic to her website? I'm shocked!

Re:I RTFA

[truthsearch]

It's obviously a slow news day here, and I'd much rather see rumors than more idle.

If you come here for the quality journalism, well... I've got some bad news for you...

nonsense

[recoiledsnake]

What nonsense? Those pirates were making millions of dollars by illegally selling code developed by Microsoft at great expense. It's not as if MS is suing individual users like the RIAA does. It doesn't make any sense think they will go after anyone who "pirates" Windows 7 beta.

FTA:

In theory this is bad news for Microsoft: it would represent mass piracy and lost revenue.

Huh? A beta copy of Windows 7 represents mass piracy and lost revenue? The beta expires in July anyway, even if it's production quality. I guess any tripe will get posted on Slashdot if it's anti-Microsoft.

Leaks are more exciting

[HalAtWork]

Well, leaks sound a lot more exciting than previews. Previews are held back by NDAs, pre-configured pre-tweaked setups, and perhaps time limits as well. There's less criticism, less peeking under the hood, and "preview" just has a connotation of being biased or at least very reserved, and perhaps the usual OS previews are not as technical and investigative as we would like.

Re:tag: hypocrisy?

[Dadamh]

I maintain that the entire article is moronic anyway. The fact of the matter is that there's no real reason to believe that MS would bother releasing their beta junk to the world as a pirated system, particularly since pirates (and those that pirate) don't really make good software testers in the sense that they don't write bug reports to Microsoft. That said, I think a real, official open beta would be a very interesting move. MS could get a lot of real-world testing done, and be protected from lawsuits and too much flak for bad crashing and bugs by hiding under a 'beta' umbrella. That, and they could always make the beta lack enough features that people would feel the need to purchase the real product later, or make the beta self-destruct on a timer.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

[twicesliced]

That was the exact problem. Despite being given plenty of warning, many software developers (applications and drivers) did not adjust to the new environment in time for its release. Couple that phenomenon with weak integrated GPUs that should never have been certified for Vista, and that's that. I've run Vista flawlessly on Athlon XPs on nForce2 chipsets and Socket 478 Pentium 4s on Intel 865 chipsets, so old hardware isn't the issue. Windows 7 is just a stripped-down, modular Vista with a streamlined user interface; the big difference is that drivers and applications are finally up to speed.

Re:tag: hypocrisy?

[b4upoo]

No decent pirate will run win 7 as an operating system. I assume that the ones that got it are selling copies to less than able PC users.

Ha, I've practically had it foisted on me

[zullnero]

By MS guys at various events. And no, MS knows full well that Vista was a failure, and generating underground hype for their next rev is kinda a big deal for them. It's worked for them in the past, and they figure it'll work for them again.

Anyway, that's what I heard from one of their employees. But it's not a new thing, I've known a lot of folks who would tell me, off the record, that they know they're a little too "carefree" with their software for many years. The general thought there is that they'd rather have their stuff pirated than not used, but the business folks and shareholders wanted the WGA crap inserted to make themselves feel better. While taking a very broad shot at the pirates that were burning, repackaging, and reselling their stuff. Those are the types of pirates that pretty much anyone can agree are assholes.

Re:That's no leak

[klasikahl]

What is it about Slashdot that attracts racist first-posters and religious zealots?

DO NOT WANT

[Progman3K]

Sorry, I have definitely given up on MS and will only give a crap about them when PAID to.

// Reasonable rates, btw

History repeats itself--think back to Win95...

[BUL2294]

This is nothing new... Microsoft did the exact same thing in '94-'95 with Windows 95, only back then we got our leaked betas by way of pirate BBSs and 28.8 modems. This unofficial beta test put pre-release Win95 in the hands of thousands of computer geeks, who ended up lining up outside CompUSAs, Computer Citys, and Best Buys to get their copies of Win95 at 12:00am on 8/24/95... Win95's positive buzz was a direct result of the leaked betas.

Now, Windows 7 needs to deliver just like Win95 did in terms of app compatibility, drivers, and improvements...

Oh, and for the guy above who said that Vista's driver issue has improved--it really hasn't. People just replaced their older hardware, so the improvement is mostly perception.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

[bhtooefr]

Chances are, it meets Vista's physical RAM requirement of 512, and is just taking that much for video.

This summary is weak even by /. standards.

[localtoast]

MS would never release any build this way. Insinuating such a thing is completely irresponsible for the following reasons.

1. It would be a slap in the face to partners that are made to wait for real builds that have gone through a known set of tests and have known issues noted with the release.
2. It would tell all engineers that work hard on the project that quality doesn't matter, because any old build will do.
3. It would say that MS doesn't care about IP protection, which everyone knows is completely false.
4. The bits are probably only test signed, so who knows what bits anyone is actually getting.

/. should think harder before they post the next brilliant coup.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

[radarsat1]

On the other hand, I was _pleasantly_ surprised to see that they'd changed "Documents and Settings/.../My Documents" into "Users/../Documents", finally making it unnecessary to deal with those damn spaces in every single file path in the home directory. *huge* improvement, or rather, finally a fix to a rather annoying screw-up (imho).

(sure, software should be able to handle the spaces, but if you do any amount of work on the command-line i'm sure you'll agree sometimes it doesn't seem worth the extra effort required)

Re:If authenticode is cracked this time, there wil

[cbhacking]

One is a public entity that needs consumer trust to stay in business, and can be brought to court if they harm their users.

The other one is under no obligation to you the user, is anonymous and unfindable, has demonstrably shady ethics, and can only make money from their work by doing something like bundling malware with it.

I'm not saying all cracked software you find on torrent trackers includes malware, but about half the malware infections I clean off of friends' computers got there through installation of NoCD cracks or pirated software that included a Trojan.

Re:tag: hypocrisy?

[Keen Anthony]

Why not? It's not like career software pirates are known for their exceptional taste. They'll run any zero-day operating system upload they can get their hands just so they can call themselves 'leet.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

[AmiMoJo]

I'd recommend giving Server 2008 a try. You can download it free from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B6E99D4C-A40E-4FD2-A0F7-32212B520F50&WT.sp=_technet_,dcsjwb9vb00000c932fd0rjc7_5p3t&displaylang=en [microsoft.com]

It's basically Vista but highly compartmentalised. Everything but the basic OS and IE is an optional install, even things like audio or wifi support. As such, it's very fast and much lighter on RAM than Vista, but you can use all the Vista compatible drivers and such with it.

Best of all, you can run it for up to 8 months without a product key. It's basically a free copy of "Vista Without the Crap Edition" if you don't mind re-installing every 240 days.