used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. Listen folks: I was first in line for the Tiger launch-look where I am now.BitTorrent is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client developed by Bram Cohen and Rainberry, Inc. The first group of people in line was too distracted to talk to us-they were busy being filmed by a local news crew for being hardcore enough to be first. Either that, or everyone was too distracted by the wind and rain-the weather hadn't gotten cold all month until a bunch of nerds had to wait outside of an Apple Store. Let the countdown begin.Ĭhicago's Michigan Avenue line was filled with much less enthusiastic waiters than the San Francisco store, it seems. It will be happening again for Apple in about two years. Well, yeah, that too, I thought, but Steve Ballmer would kill to have losers like these waiting to buy a new release of Windows off the shelf. "Losers," he replied, and shook his head. "Isn't it beautiful? All these people coming together to share in something that brings them joy." The last guy that said something amusing was standing across the street. Tyler Howarth-I hope I got the name right-is first! A "genius" at the store told me that the buzz around Leopard has brought in plenty of PC users to the store. North Shore was busy, too, but Burlington's otherwise sleepy store had a strong share of shoppers. With no worries about Leopard selling out, only the hardcore faithful came out last night, but that still meant little room for movement in the Cambridge Apple store. In the Boston Metro region, Apple Stores are buzzing with business, but it's nothing like the iPhone launch. In other words, BitTorrent activity was high, but as we have seen so often, it's not indicative of how many people are taking Leopard without paying for it.Īs one user said, "BitTorrent delivers faster than FedEx, dude." Apple Stores buzzing What was astounding: a full 80 percent of those we talked to (in all, about 30 people) said that despite grabbing Leopard off BitTorrent, they a) had already ordered a copy that wasn't in yet, or b) were planning on buying one regardless. The answers ran the gamut from the pointless ("I don't even have a Mac, but I want the ISO") to the more pressing (one man, Barc, told us he pirated Leopard so he could upgrade his parent's iMac before heading back to school in time for the weekend-good to see he has his priorities straight). We did a little trolling around the world of IRC this morning to ask the question: are you a dirty pirate, or a clean-but-otherwise still-piratical Mac fan? I jest, but the gist of our question was: why are so many people pirating a $129 OS upgrade? Surely all are loyal to The Steve? It appears that the gold master copy made its way on to BitTorrent by Thursday morning, in fact, more than 24 hours before launch. We found torrents with hundreds of seeders and thousands of leechers. Leopard roars on BitTorrentīitTorrent was the first thing we checked, and to no one's surprise, Leopard is readily available to anyone who wants to "pirate" it. What we found was plenty of activity, a lot of very high expectations, and a healthy (is that the right word?) collection of pirated copies already online. Both last night and today we sent out scouts, into worlds both real and virtual, to gauge the buzz about Leopard on the street and on the Intertubes.
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