Microsoft Longhorn pirated and sold in Asia

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.

Longhorn, when it does arrive, is supposed to be a super-secure OS from the Vole. Well, we'll see.. µ

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Microsoft Longhorn project to cost as much as man on the moon, Gates says