The Day the Geekosphere Stood Still: Windows 7 Beta

Well, wasn’t yesterday fun? It was the same sort of feeling you get after getting off an over-the-top rollercoaster. A feeling of sickness, while adrenaline pumps it away slowly. With Ballmer’s keynote only a few days previous, geeks, enthusiasts and IT professionals were planning to download, test, and personally or publicly review the most anticipated operating system of 2008. I say 2008, because the build released today was leaked as a late Christmas present to the world of Torrents. 

I woke up at 5am (11pm PST) to a clock running on a laptop at my bedside. Once I clicked around Twitter, and others, I noticed that people had already wormed their way into the Windows 7 public TechNet page. Even at this time, I was too late. I spent at least three hours refreshing this page in a bid to get one of the 2.5 million keys on offer. It was fruitless, as I continued until the celebrity-like blogger from Microsoft, Brandon LeBlanc, posted on the Windows Team blog that it was being taken down. It surprised a lot of people that Microsoft 1) would have the top class server farms in the World, and 2) would have known the hype created by not setting an exact time, and setting a limit.

Next up, after that revelation, I found a direct link from Neowin.net, and began downloading the ISO, with the knowledge I could use it for 30 days. That really completes my heroic story through the depths of Microsoft’s accidental marketing strategy. Make a product launch fail, so EVERYONE knows about it.

My first impressions of Windows 7 are brilliant. The install took less than 30 minutes, and all my hardware was ready to go. The only thing needed was a security suite, which can be freely obtained from ESET as a beta. I’m already hooked on the HomeGroup idea, and the small quirks of being able to tile windows by flicking them to the side with your mouse are really growing on me. 

It’s not only me saying this. Simply watching the live feed here shows that people think that the download is worth the wait, and many, including myself, will be looking to buy a copy. I think it has appealed to two sorts of people: the sort who have used Vista and were appalled and those who haven’t ever used Vista. Both groups will be pleased with this update. Some will argue the need for another $100-200 is a bit much, but it is now, in my opinion, comparable to Mac OS X in its simplicity, usability, and polish. I think my day of mindless F5-punching was worth it. Hopefully though, you won’t have to do the same.

For the moment, here are some useful links. I’ll try to keep them updated.

The Public Beta announcement page.

The TechNet page that was overloaded yesterday morning.

A full blog post on downloading and installing Windows 7 using direct links.

The current way to retrieve keys. Think of it as a lottery.