Dangerous downloads
A very active thread over at The Green Button (no, you’ll have to find the exact thread on your own) has links to a bootleg version of Media Center Edition 2005 Rollup 2, which is now being distributed via BitTorrent.
I would rather aim a nail gun at my frontal lobes than download and install system-level code from an untrusted source. In my world, keeping a Media Center PC stable is goal #1. I’m much pickier about what I download and install on this computer than on any other computer in my office or home. This download is probably legitimate. But still, should I trust a download from a random source that may or may not be the final Rollup 2 code, may or may not be infected with some sort of virus, and may or may not be complete? Please …
And no, this is not an anti-BitTorrent post. BitTorrent has a great place in the world, but downloading system-level patches is not one of them.
It’s short-sighted of Microsoft to hold this code in escrow and dribble it out to OEMs first. But that’s what someone decided to do, so I’ll wait until the known good copy is available for download from a trusted source.
I saw the thread you are talking about last week. I thought exactly as you did. It’s just not worth the possible risk.
Now, had there been something exciting in Rollup 2, the temptation might have been a little more difficult to resist.