Microsoft has restricted access to the public beta test download of its next operating system, Windows Vista. The software giant fears that its sheer size and popularity could put the whole Internet in danger:

Longhorn blogger Robert McLaws said that Microsoft revealed in an official Q&A that unrestricted Vista beta downloads could topple other services.

"If we pushed out bits any faster there would be a measurable impact for the internet," McLaws said, quoting Microsoft at the briefing.

"We are literally saying that if we increased our bandwidth any further there is a possibility of taking down the internet. People might have problems with World Cup viewing, etc."

The VNUNet item may sound surprising, yet it reminds us of just how fragile the Internet really is. Vista downloads are sized 3.5GB (32Bit edition) and 4.4GB (64Bit).

Quite how networks expect to cope with growing content services if they can't manage this could be a worrying sign of things to come. Meanwhile, the public beta is now up and running on one of my systems =).