[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: what Napster means for XML
W. E. Perry writes: > I don't take this as a blanket dismissal at all. In fact, it seems > to me that you validate my argument. What does scalability mean > except adequate supply to meet actual demand? I agree that that's the great advantage of a Napster-like approach (though in Napster's case, there's still a central server managing connections, and that can act as a single point of congestion). The problem is that you're sacrificing availability of lower-demand items. Let's say that 100 people/month want a copy of thing A, and 100,000,000 people/month want a copy of thing B. With a client/server approach, things A and B will both usually be available, but providing thing B is costly (it requires expensive hardware, a complex system of mirrors, or both). With a peer-to-peer approach, thing B can be provided for a much lower up-front cost to the initial supplier (though, perhaps, a higher overall cost), but it will be difficult to find (requiring some sort of central server or ad-hoc contact); thing A will usually not be available at all, at least not at the time of the user's choosing. Clearly, both approaches can work, but I don't think it's very responsible to push either as The Solution To Every Problem. Basically, a peer-to-peer system can make high-demand items available more easily by spreading the cost of distribution among more users, while a client-server system can make all items available predictably and in an easily-referenced location. Look at the kind of information you're publishing, and make the choice. All the best, David -- David Megginson david@m... http://www.megginson.com/ *************************************************************************** This is xml-dev, the mailing list for XML developers. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo@x...&BODY=unsubscribe%20xml-dev List archives are available at http://xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ ***************************************************************************
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