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. – Microsoft Watch

I have to admit I think it was Microsoft as well that leaked the build. One of the things that surprised people the most with Windows Vista was that it was capable of being installed for a “30 day trial”. Basically this lets anyone use it or wait to buy a legit key just to see if they like it. To me it seems like this type leak was designed by Microsoft back when they were working on Vista just to allow for this type of marketing. If this is the case it would be the first time a Microsoft marketing team did something right and forward thinking.

Check It Out> Microsoft Watch