It’s been reported that a leaked CD containing Windows 8 Milestone 3 has been up for sale on eBay. The sale was first reported on WinRumors who said the disc was on sale for $1,500.
There’s no way to know if this “real Windows 8 Milestone 3 Leaked CD” was genuine or not, though it certainly isn’t on eBay any more. If this was a genuine copy, the fact that it said it was on “CD” could have been a typo, it would raise important questions about there the copy had come from.
It’s not surprising that unscrupulous people would try and cash in on the hype that Windows 8 is generating, and this is either an example of a genuine build being put up for sale, or a scam for an earlier leaked build or perhaps even nothing at all.
Microsoft have had problems with leaked builds of Windows 8 however and there’s no way to know where they are coming from. The best assumption was the builds were being leaked by hardware partners who were using them to test new drivers. My contacts within Microsoft though have told me that it’s very unlikely that hardware partners would have had this type of access to Windows 8, if at all, at this stage.
This then indicates that the leaks could have been coming from within Microsoft itself, and there aren’t too many people within the company with access to it.
We’ll never know whether this build was genuine or a hoax, and at $1,500 it would have been foolish for anyone to try and find out. Either way we’re just over two months now until the official unveiling of the OS at Microsoft’s BUILD conference on September 13th. The full beta programme will probably begin in January 2012.
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