Everyone knew the public release of Windows
Vista Beta 2 was going to be a rather big event for Microsoft. Not only
could it give customers a chance to try out its latest operating system, but it
would also get feedback/commentary from the millions of consumers using Vista
before its Q1 07 retail
launch.
According to Microsoft, its public launch of Vista Beta 2
has gone well beyond expectations and is labeled as the "Biggest software
download event in history." Microsoft claims that if they served bits any
faster, they'd risk the possibility of bringing the Internet to its knees.
Microsoft also states that they looked into BiTorrent as a possible delivery
system, but decided against it. Longhorn
Blogs reports:
Q: What about BitTorrent?
A: We thought about Bit
Torrent a lot, especially in the planning stages for this. There are legal and
privacy issues which unfortunately make that not an option for Microsof to
officially sponsor a BitTorrent. I really wish we could do it, but we can't. If
someone BitTorrent's we can't guarantee that they've got an unaltered copy,
etc.