Microsoft Reinvents Bittorrent 373
Anon E. Muss writes "Microsoft has a new Secure Content Downloader tool that sounds an awful lot like a Bittorrent clone. It's described as a 'peer-assisted technology' where '[e]ach client downloads content by exchanging parts of the file they're interested in with other clients, in addition to downloading parts from the server.' Right now MSCD is just a time-limited preview, intended to support downloads of select Microsoft beta releases (e.g. Visual Studio 2008). If this test goes well, Microsoft will probably start using MSCD for all their large downloads. How do you feel about subsidizing Microsoft's bandwidth costs?"
Old news (Score:3, Informative)
Rob
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:5, Informative)
Are you kidding? Whenever a patch came out, the chief complaint in the forums was the bittorrent downloader. Blizzard even lists alternative (third party) download sites on their patch page because of this. Besides, they didn't re-invent bittorrent. They stated from the beginning what protocol they were using.
I see nothing wrong with MS doing this just like I see nothing wrong with bittorrent.
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:3, Informative)
Then Blizzard turns around and gives the patch away on FilePlanet, a site you have to pay for if you want to be able to actually download the thing directly. Paying another fee just to be able to download every time there is a patch when youve already got 15 dollars going to them every month? I always thought that was bogus.
Really, I dont care about whoever using my bandwidth for whatever (as long as its legal) but there is no way MS is going to release a downloader as bad as the blizzard downloader for their regular updates. It always surprised me that Blizzard gets away with that mess. I mean how expensive is it to actually pay for the bandwidth? I cant imagine it costs as much as all the tech support for that stupid downloader, the dollars lost in customer dissatisfaction, the R&D for the downloader, etc.
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:5, Informative)
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:5, Informative)
The definition of a double standard is to apply one standard to judge two groups differently for the same infraction because of issues external to the matter at hand. In this instance you want to condemn MS and give Blizzard a free pass because of your stance on open standards. (this seems a bit dubious, every standard Blizzard has is closed, they have sued people in the past for trying to make servers that do the same thing as battle.net and so forth, but I digress) So what you are doing is prettymuch the classic example of a double standard, judging one group differently than another for the same infraction because you dont like them for whatever reason.
I am not sure if you were being sarcastic or not by asking how applying different standards to different groups based on whether or not you liked them constitutes a double standard. If you were joking then my bad.
Re:Flamebait much? (Score:5, Informative)
If bittorrent is patented... which it doesn't appear it ever can be, then this would be a problem. If Microsoft claims they invented it, that's pretty major BS, but that's it. If this stays visible as a variant of p2p file sharing, then it will hold some ground for the rest of the industry. Maybe the best thing to do is to use this to point out that p2p has solid legal uses and value.
Re:It's not Bittorrent. It's better. (Score:2, Informative)
However, the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] on network coding lists a lot of fields where this techology might be useful, so I guess it's not really garbage after all, but neither the holy grail of p2p.
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Flamebait much? (Score:1, Informative)
BitTorrent is nice, and it certainly has proven useful, and most definitely has pioneered the use of distributed networks to disseminate large files, but simply because it's the first p2p protocol you know of that swarmed does not mean it was.
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:3, Informative)
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:4, Informative)
1 on an OLD system
2 using a Mac and have a system level spell checker
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:2, Informative)
You know you can actually install a dictionary for your little colonial dialect^W^W^W^Wseveral major spelling variants of English, do you? Either centrally with your package manager. or locally with the FF extension manager.
Re:bllizard, wow patcher (Score:3, Informative)