It looks like Microsoft has finally made Beta versions of Windows available for public download.
What’s really shocking about this whole thing is how amazingly slow Microsoft is when it comes do doing the right thing for the company.
What they haven’t been able to admit (until now apparently) is that beta version of Windows have been available on warez sites for years.
When I was just in high school I was downloading beta versions of Windows 95 at least once a week and installing them on my desktop. Good times. Downloading 1.44M disk images one by one over my 28.8kbps modem I would dial into the local university with QModem PRO and let the download complete overnight. Fourty – fifty megabytes later I’d have a new and fresh version of 95 to play with.
With this one decision Microsoft can gather more developers, crush the piracy problem (at least for betas), and get feedback to improve the quality of the final release.
What’s really sad is that they didn’t decide to take this path years ago.
I for one plan on downloading the thing and installing it on a free desktop somewhere in my house. Maybe I’ll use a 28.8k modem just for old times sake.
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