Maybe Adobe could go in halves with them. Half the time when I ask somebody what they’re running, they say, “Pirated Photoshop I got off of BitTorrent”. Microsoft moans about software pirates stealing their product on one hand, then quietly condones it for the market share gain on the other.

So when I see Gizmodo telling us “How to Get, Install and Play With Windows 7, Pain Free”, and it actually tells you to go snarf a copy off of BitTorrent, I have to wonder if torrents are just going to become the official path to releases and updates. Mind you, this isn’t some Warez pirate site we’re talking about. Gizmodo is part of Gawker Media, probably the most mainstream corporate presence on the web after C|Net and Conde-Nast.

Curious as to how important BitTorrent is to the Microsoft ecosystem, I checked some established BT trackers.

Pirate Bay has about 1000 hits for “Windows 7″, but some of those are themes and whatnot. Currently, a seed labeled “Microsoft.Windows.7.Beta.1.Build.7000.x86.DVD-GENUiNE.iMAGE” has 4,580 seeders.

ISOHunt has a broken search (“The following terms are too common and are not included in your search: 07″), (duh!), so you’ll have to figure out how to reformat that so you don’t end up with the 7zip program or something. When you search for “windows7″ with no space, you get some mild results (Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build 6801 x64, 29 seeds), but it also suggests “Did you mean: windows 7″ and when you click that link you go back to the same error page! (duuuuhhhh!)

Mininova also finds plenty of Windows 7 torrents, including “Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD” with 5,624 seeders at this time.

So have at it! If Gizmodo doesn’t get busted, neither will you!

Peter Brittain