Slimy said:

Microsoft has revealed a bunch of numbers surrounding the development of Windows 7, and boy do they carry a lot of weight.

Full Story: Windows 7 had 8 million testers, biggest beta ever - Ars Technica

What about the other 16 Million or so who also were "testers". Maybe double or triple that number as I'm sure torrent downloaders don't normally register on official sites for Statistic Gathering purposes.

From what I read on these forums -- many many people were using "Unofficial builds" and in a lot of cases also reported feedback to MS -- and MS certainly didn't seem too miffed about the whole "build leakage" issue.

I really have to suppress gigantic giggles when I read these sort of statistics -- maybe that's why the global economy went so pear shaped if the "Greatest and Good" relied on these sorts of stats for forecasting or re-designing their business procedures.

Cheers
jimbo