It appears that Longhorn build 3683 leaked to the web last night opening the dawn of a new beta that Microsoft still has yet to announce. Not much is known about this version of Windows. You have one party saying its the major release of Windows that will not see store shelves until 2005 and the other party (myself included) saying that this is none other than Windows XP "Second Edition". Both claims will remain pure speculation until Microsoft themselves announces something. Microsoft have been equally dis-orientated by first announcing that Longhorn won"t be released till 2005 and then later saying that a "in between client version of Windows is likely" citing a 2003 release.
I believe what has leaked is that October 2003 release we will see, or at least the beginnings of it. It is pre-alpha, dated in September 2002 with alot of older technology (like Windows Media Player 8 and Windows Messenger 4.x) The true beta will of course include Media Player 9 and MSN Messenger 5.0. It does have IE 6.5 (so there will be no IE7 before end of 2003) and it also has the DX9 beta. We had some screens made for your enjoyment. We don"t have (or want) any locations for the leaked Longhorn ISO nor will we allow such links to be posted. I can say that consider this build beyond normal use, alot is broken true to the name of "Alpha" (or Milestone build nr 3)