After a long wait, Microsoft has posted the first public beta of MSN Messenger 7 to their servers. The public beta carries the same build number as the most recent private beta build, (7.0.0425) and is available for all to download directly from Microsoft.
Microsoft sent a letter to private beta testers today announcing the release to the general public:
"Today (December 1st, 2004), Microsoft is launching the MSN Messenger Beta to the general public. In order to improve the performance and stability of our product we are deploying the beta build more widely to perform more server scale testing."
Update: Microsoft has put their Messenger 7 site back up, and has officially released the public beta.