Over a month after its release at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, Longhorn build 4051 has made it into the pirate coves of Malaysia, priced - Reuters tells us - at an eye-watering $1.58. For this you get, well, not a lot actually, but if you happened to be passing the Holiday Plaza centre in Johor Bahru, $1.58 probably beats identifying a warez FTP source and downloading it for free.

This build of Longhorn, which was specially put together for the PDC audience in October, has been widely available in unorthodox channels since it leaked immediately prior to PDC. But it was a demo rather than part of the Longhorn development process, didn't include the new UI, and beyond giving you something odd to look at for a day or two isn't likely to fulfill any useful function for you whatsoever. Actually, if you are passing the Holiday Plaza centre we recommend you spend the money on satay or similar instead; then you won't have to waste time reformatting your hard disk afterwards.

Nor is it likely that any build leaks of interest to a wider than trainspotter audience will emerge from Longhorn development for some considerable time. With two years or more still to go before the finished product hits the streets, it could easily be a year before anything you could start to class as a serious beta will even exist. ®