Well, it looks like the unloved, misunderstood notion of P2P networking may actually show its detractors a thing or two. In order to stave off a bandwidth/server load meltdown, the folks at OpenOffice.org are eyeing P2P-savvy JXTA to distribute source and binary downloads for its OpenSource Office Suite. According to an article by Anne Zieger of NewsForge,
The idea behind the P2P project is to build on the bandwidth-multiplying benefits P2P file-sharing technology, which should deliver documents more efficiently the more users access a file. Old-style networks clog up when the download frenzy begins, but P2P networks keep adding new nodes, scaling up ad infinitum, proponents say.
My only worry about this sort of scenario is one of version control. There's really only one or two versions of U2's "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me" out there, but oh my, what do you do if you're a software vendor, and you need to recall a bad patch or build? BTW, if you don't think that can happen, just ask Novell, as a few years ago the company had to recall one of its NetWare patches due to an unanticipated and nasty clib conflict.
Posted by Brad Shimmin at 4:13:00 PM
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