The following or something like it has been appearing on the Windows 7 blog and website all day:

Update on Windows 7 Beta Availability
from The Windows Blog by Brandon LeBlanc

Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta. We want to ensure customers have the best possible experience when downloading the beta, and I’ll be posting here again soon once the beta goes live. Stay tuned! We are excited that you are excited!

The public in fact is obviously WAY more excited that Microsoft – or at least was until Microsoft promised to turn this Beta lose. They had no idea how intense the pent up demand was.  As a Windows user and Microsoft customer since DOS 1.1 I have too much experience invested in Windows to just switch to the Apple or Linux. I’ve tried both. They are fine, but they don’t have all the applications I know and need.  What I, and evidently a whole lot of other people,  really want is a good new version of Windows that doesn’t get in the way. Windows 7 pre Beta – on which I a writing this post – has let the cat out of the bag – Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. It isn’t just good enough already – it is a genuine pleasure to use. So far it seems to work better on less resources than Vista. I know one thing – this Beta is going to kill sales of Vista. In the long run that isn’t bad for Microsoft – they are going to sell huge numbers of copies of Windows 7.

Microsoft, we just want you to go through the Beta process and cut us a good reliable final release and we will pony up. Walk, don’t run, and you will get the walk to the bank with plenty of money even in these bad economic times. Scaling the servers up to meet the demand rather than make a schlamozzle with inadequate servers and frustrate eager customers.

In the end Microsoft didn’t realize how dependent on a good version of Windows the public was. I don’t think they did either – including this member of the public.