The Reg has an article about
Micrsoft wanting to make a Napster-style service of its own called Farsite
Microsoft plans to 'embrace and extend' peer-to-peer file sharing technology with a Napster-style system of |
its own.
Codenamed Farsite, the program is currently little more than a research project, according to a ZDNet US
story. The newswire seems content with M$' line that the code will probably make it into the commercial arena,
but we're not convinced.
Essentially, Farsite follows the true peer-to-peer mode of Gnutella rather than Napster's approach. Farsite
lets PC talk unto PC, without the need for a central server to act as an intermediate directory, as is the
case with Napster.
The Farsite developers' focus is on corporate networks and want to develop a system capable of allowing around
100,000 machines connected on what the research team calls a "serverless network" to exchange files quickly
with each other.
All nice and techie, but let's revisit the phrase "serverless network". Now one of the application areas in
which a certain open source operating system that competes with Microsoft's own offerings is doing rather well
is file sharing. So it might well be to the Windows maker's benefit to be able to bypass said systems using
client-based peer-to-peer sharing technology.
That's one use of peer-to-peer. Another is the approach Napster has taken: media sharing. This is likely to
become a big part of the digital music market if not all of it, and it's hard to see Microsoft not wanting a
share, a very big share of this emerging business. Right now, the music industry is broadly hostile to the
technology, but that may change, as shown by Bertelsmann's deal with Napster.
It makes sense, then, for Microsoft to have the appropriate technology ready just in case. It can certainly
afford to develop the code and risk it never being used.
The big microsoft joins...
