Report Accuses Microsoft of Purposefully Leaking Windows 7 Beta

From DailyTech: Microsoft's Windows 7 beta 1 was not officially intended for release until January. However, the release somehow hit torrent sites this week. Many, including commenters here at DailyTech, suspected the "leak" was really a clever ruse by Microsoft to drum up tech community excitement for its upcoming release.

Now Microsoft Watch's Joe Wilcox, an observer on all things Microsoft, has thrown in his support for such theories. Mr. Wilcox writes:

"Was this a craftily timed Microsoft marketing leak?

I sure as hell think so. It's certainly what I would do if I worked at Microsoft on Windows evangelism. The timing is perfect, from a marketing perspective. The leaked build hit BitTorrent sometime on Saturday, right after Christmas when the Windows geeks had nothing better to do and bloggers and journalists had nothing better to write about. The leaked build is designated "7000," which strongly suggests that the code is the same as forthcoming Beta 1, or close to it."

With the big announcements of MacWorld (January 5-9) and CES (January 8-11), still a week away, there was a relative quiet that was perhaps the perfect time for a Microsoft leak. Still some are skeptical. Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group has clamped down on beta leaks and during his tenure there have been almost none.

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