[Raya]

A few days ago, we published an article regarding a new discovery in peer to peer data transfer by MicroSoft. The advanced technology (called Avalanche by MicroSoft) was claimed, in part, to have exciting new applications with respect to patching of games, specifically the large amounts of information transmitted to users in an MMORPG. It was also claimed to be much faster than the current process being used by many game developers, called BitTorrent. The creator of the latter process highly disagrees with the significance of the MS development.

I don't mean to start a bashing session at all. I am a techie tyke and what I don't know about this technology would fill volumes. Journalistically speaking, however, it is fair to provide the other side of it, since it is Bit Torrent applications that are being seemingly one-upped.

Bit Torrent creator, Bram Cohen, had plenty to say about the MicroSoft file-sharing solution, calling it vapourware and other finger-pointing names. Read the full article by Renai LeMai, staff writer of ZDNet Australia, here.

How about it? Any armchair software inventors out there who can (or would like to) comment on this?

[Skarlath]

Well ... I wouldn't think that Microsoft would want to be nice and public about it, going head to head with BitTorrent right away, if it wasn't decent. I heard that it was one of Microsoft's crack teams, based in Cambridge UK, that are working on it. These are incredibly smart people, and so would surely know whether their findings are 'vapourware' type findings or not.

BitTorrent's accusations may well be due to Microsoft hatred in general, but also more to the point the fact that Microsoft might be just about to force them out of business.

I am hoping that Avalanche really will be significantly better, just think of the patching! Zooooom!