SOFTWARE PIRATES have made an early beta copy of Microsoft Longhorn available on CD, but it's years before the OS will be released. The Longhorn alpha is a pirated version of the edition distributed to programmers in October, and Reuters describes a Voleperson saying that installing the software on a PC as rather risky.
The Longhorn OS, which according to chief software architect Bill Gates recently, will cost as much as it cost for the US to put a man on the moon, is unlikely to appear before 2005. But the OS is being sold for around £1 or so in the bazaars of the Far East, where supply of illegal software is a way of life.
Despite Longhorn being a long way off, there is a lot of interest in the OS, so despite the piracy it may rebound to Microsoft's benefit because of the extra publicity.
News source: The Inq
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