Geeks the world over - admit it or not - spent the best part of the weekend trying hard to obtain one of the "limited" 2.5 million invitations to the beta of Microsoft's Windows 7.
As many may have predicted, Microsoft's servers somehow struggled to cope with "an enormous surge in demand" and the download experience proved to be far from ideal, as evidenced first hand by hundreds of users in the HEXUS.community forums.
Following an apology for the inconvenience caused to its giant user base, Microsoft has since beefed up the infrastructure backing the Windows 7 download and revoked the original 2.5 million-user limit. According to Microsoft, the large-scale rush to obtain Windows 7 has forced the company into rethinking its policy and the Windows 7 beta will now be available to an unlimited number of users up until January 24th.
Of course, the sceptics are likely to point out that Microsoft must have foreseen the demand that a free (up until August '09) copy of Windows 7 would generate. Perhaps the user-limit was always destined to be removed, and was solely designed to generate the kind of Internet buzz that can't be achieved by claiming "the wow starts now". Perhaps.
Nonetheless, with the initial hiccups out the way, the beta of Windows 7 is now available to download with ease for anyone who chooses to do so up until January 24th.
Official Windows 7 beta download link: official Windows 7 website
