beta @ amanzi

Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington have created a torrent tracker to allow users to download the publicly available Windows Vista Beta 2. They set it up due to Microsoft’s reluctance to use Bittorrent to distribute the beta despite their servers being overwhelmed by download requests. To ensure security, Chris anf Jake have created an MD5 Hash which you can use to check the validity of the downloaded file.

The site has been set up without endorsement from Microsoft so it will be interesting to see how they handle it. According to Microsoft’s licebsing policies, the site is probably breaking the law and Microsoft should force them to take the site down. On the other hand though, this has already been widely reported, so Microsoft will have a PR disaster if they do so. I predict the site will be down in less than 24 hours…

Links:

• Windows Vista Torrent
• TechCrunch
• Chris Pirillo
• TankBlog
• MSTechToday

UPDATE: The site is still up so I have been proved wrong – maybe Microsoft have seen that this really is a good thing?

UPDATE 2: Well, it had to happen – Chris and Jake have received a cease and desist letter from Microsoft and the VistaTorrent site is now down. This had to happen – Microsoft can’t risk having unauthorised people distributing copies of Vista, even if it is from a trusted source like Chris.

Socialize: