Windows 7 Torrent Growing In Popularity

If the popularity of the leaked Windows 7 Beta 1 torrent means anything then Microsoft's newest OS promises to be a big hit. Since the OS hit torrents sites on Monday the number of seeders has grown from 2,000 to nearly 4,000, while the number of leechers has been steady ranging anywhere from 7,500 to 10,000.

Since torrent sites don't track the total number of downloads its impossible to tell just how many people have downloaded the Windows 7 Beta 1 torrent. So it would really be anyone's guess, however you can pretty much conclude that the number has to be relatively high.

Several top blogs and bloggers out there have downloaded the torrent, I for one still stand by my position of waiting for the official release. But for those of you that do wish to download it here are a few details of the EULA thanks to Ars Technica.

You may not:

• disclose the results of any benchmark tests of the software to any third party without Microsoft’s prior written approval;
• work around any technical limitations in the software;
• reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, except and only to the extent that applicable law expressly permits, despite this limitation;
• use components of the software to run applications not running on the software;
• make more copies of the software than specified in this agreement or allowed by applicable law, despite this limitation;
• publish the software for others to copy;
• rent, lease or lend the software;
• transfer the software or this agreement to any third party;
• use the Potentially Unwanted Software definitions separately from the software; or
• use the software for commercial software hosting services.

The liscense will expire on August 1, 2009, so we can assume Microsoft plans to have the full retail release ready by then. Ars also notes that there are options for Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate, of which you can only choose Ultimate. These are likely option that are leftover from Vista. I don't expect to see as many different version with Windows 7 as we saw with Vista.

For a great in-depth preview checkout Paul Thurrott's Windows 7 Beta Review.