Use BitTorrent to Aid in Distribution?

BlackGriffen · Guest

Have you considered making a .torrent available for people to download full NO/J releases? I would think that it would reduce the load on your servers at release time quite a bit - even if it doesn't do any good most of the rest of the time. Now, I'm not proposing that you get rid of the full release/patch system - that's a boon for users, too. I just think that you have users who would be perfectly willing to help out your bandwidth situation if given the chance.

I know, I'm one of the people who will use a torrent, all other things being equal.

BlackGriffen

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

We do typically; I did it for the last release because I was around and had broadband full-time when Beta came out and could seed. That's not the case this time, but I'll try to get a torrent up when I can, unless one of the other folks beats me to it....

Smokey

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:10 pm Post subject:

I am in the process of assembling the BT .torrent files for 1.1 RC. I do not have the bandwidth to seed, however, as it must be reserved for the main site, trinity, and CVS.

Will post torrent when available. Hopefully we can also add to download page.

ed

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:17 pm Post subject:

Also, FWIW, torents are not a magical solution to distribution woe for a number of reasons. The initial distribution is, as with straight HTTP/FTP/etc., limited by the bandwidth of the "primordial" seeder. As distribution progresses, the total available download bandwidth is a factor of the number of simultaneous people downloading multiplied by their individual upstream bandwidths (usually capped or intentionally blocked and/or capped).

As the "popularity" wanes, so does the available bandwidth. Just about all folks who use BT to download will close their client after the download completes, therefore not contributing their upstream bandwidth to the cause. The bandwidth still requires a fundamental set of "seeders" to be fully provided.

From my own test cases, aside from the initial spike with each release the FTP/HTTP solutions already in place provide much better bandwidth then the torrents, especially as there's only so long before no one seeds any longer. Torrents are "evolutionary"...HTTP is permanent (in a sense) Smile

ed

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

FWIW, I enhanced the Neo/J download page so that the list of mirrors gets shuffled every 15 minutes. This will hopefully spread the load a little more evenly across all of our mirrors.

Patrick

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

So Ed and I are going to be posting past each other, but...

[I don't think it matters, but I'm seeding based on Ed's torrent file now, and he's posted a story about it on the trinity homepage]

I'll seed as I can. trinity/Ed's bandwidth seems to be getting hammered already....

Smokey

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:55 pm Post subject:

Nah, t'was just a misfire on my ISP.

I'll post this as a story too (or comment):

http://trinity.neooffice.org/torrents/NeoOfficeJ_1.1_RC.dmg.torrent

ed

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

NeoOffice.org needs to be updated, too. And once this release excitement has died a bit (and as we get time!), NeoOffice.org needs to get some love. It looks like the stepchild of planamesa, trinity, bugzilla, and neowiki Crying or Very sad

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

Ed, why is your .torrent file 592K and mine only 12K? Is your torrent for all of the langpacks, too?

Smokey

jakeOSX · Ninja Joined: Aug 12, 2003 Posts: 1373