Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: January 7, 2009
Tags : microsoft, windows7
Microsoft has announced that it offer 2.5 million downloadable copies of Windows 7 beta for free.
The latest operating system from Microsoft leaked online late last year, and has been a popular download on BitTorrent and other P2P downloading services.
The deal does naturally come with a couple of catches. The biggest is that the beta will expire, although generously you’ll get to use it until August 1, 2009. The other catch is that the Beta version being released is the upgrade version, so it can only be installed on top of Vista.
The Windows 7 Beta will be available in English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi, and each language will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
The download is available from January 9 here. Watch out before hitting the link though: if you’ve not got the latest version of Silverlight installed, it can and does cause browsers to crash.
![[VIDEO] Goosebumps!: Metroid: Other M’s sweet TV spot](http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2010/08/metroid-other-m-sweet-ass-trailer-100x100.jpg)
Jan 7, 2009
Hi Duncan, wanted to clarify the bit about the Windows 7 languages and 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Hindi will be available only in 32-bit.
Thanks,
Brandon
Jan 8, 2009
Ubuntu is already free, forever! and loads onto any computer, even poor peoples computers that are older and slower!
Jan 9, 2009
I'll buy Mac OSX Snow Leopard.
Jan 11, 2009
Ur mom said shed install her ubuntu on my PC, all night long.
Jan 12, 2009
Epic fail on the Windows 7 logo
Jan 23, 2009
Oh my windows 7 isn't looking promising.
Mac's tiger OS was more advanced. I mean in the new features page of windows 7 they're talking about resizing windows – is someone stuck for new features??
“Maximize a window by dragging its border to the top of the screen, and return the window to its original size by dragging it away from the top of the screen. Drag the bottom border of a window to expand it vertically.”
These instructions make little sense. The windows 7 website has fuzzy screenshots. And a video with two “I'm a PC” guys that seem to have less charisma than an ape! They finish the video “I hope you're as excited about windows 7 as we are” – without even smiling. I see PR troubles like Vista had.
The touch screen features look interesting. But are they practical? Are home users going to want to buy touch screens?
I thought W7 would be able to rival Mac Leopard, seems unlikely with it's hideous task bar versus Mac's glimmering dock.