BitTorrent/Distributed Download Protocol and Microsoft
A couple of weeks ago, I was discussing our awful download stats and trying to find a solution to the problem. I wondered in this blog whether the problem was that users started to download our SDK and failed, or if 71.87% of all our users were really having problems downloading the SDK. It is true that the ISO version of the SDK is around 1.2 GB in size, but 76% of you choose to download the ISO, so it must be useful.
That post brought a lot of comments (well, a lot for this blog), with most users suggesting we use a BitTorrent or distributed download sort of system for our downloads.
We can't use a system like that, for reasons I'll get to in a minute, but before I do, I'd like to ask if you have any other suggestions for good ways to get the SDK onto users' machines. We are absolutely going to point users at a good download manager for the next release, and that should help, but do you have any other ideas?
Not to go off on a tangent, but unfortunately, the Microsoft Download Manager that is part of the MSDN Subscriptions isn't quite compatible with content in the Download Center. The MDM seems to presuppose that content is on the MSDN Subscriptions site, and our content lives outside of there. So I need to investigate other possible tools that Microsoft offers. That's one of those things that are both a strong point and a weak point of working for such a large and public company: we can't really recommend users utilize non-Microsoft software, but if there's not another solution out there, we're kind of stuck.
Which is a nice segue (always something this former college radio DJ likes to do) into the hairy issue of using a distributed download protocol or Torrent type system for downloading the SDK. The short answer, again, is that we can't do it.
I did a lot of reserach on our Intranet site and was actually kind of shocked by the lack of information out there on this technology. There was a very interesting ThinkWeek paper from January 2005 on how Microsoft could benefit from introducing a component of such technology, but ThingWeek papers by definition are theoretical, and this one didn't seem to spawn a practical application from it.
I also found an external article from 2005 that referenced a torrent-like technology that Microsoft was reportedly working on called Avalanche. An industry analyst reacted to the concept and didn't like it. But I couldn't find a torrent-like technology with that code-name. There was an internal app called Avalanche: Avalanche is a command line tool that can be used to send the various kinds of alerts to an Alerts Notification Router. The Tablet PC team had a project called Avalanche that seemed to have something to do with handwriting analysis. We had a project Avalanche to spur sales of Small Business Server in India, and as a component of Office 95. But nothing on download technology.
It was basically the same story for any term I searched for, even on specific download-related sites. Nothing. A total shutout.
So, long story short (hey, I did kind of give an executive summary at the top of this post), there appears to be nothing on the horizon for a torrent of the SDK ISO. I wish there were. I wish I could send users to get a copy of the SDK in the same way that they can download Linux distros or Battlestar Galactica episodes. But I can't.
As always, I'm really interested in your feedback on this.