However, this situation could have been handled in two far better ways. The first possibility would have been the bit torrent protocol. Given the ubiquity of torrent clients, this would have been a great way to get the bits into peoples’ hands fast. However, given that bit torrent is, unfortunately, automatically associated with piracy, Microsoft may have felt that using it would have legitimized the protocol’s existence, thus causing “problems” down the road for their anti-piracy teams.

Thus, bit torrent usage for distribution of Windows 7 Beta 1 would have been a Very Bad Thing™. However, this doesn’t mean Microsoft didn’t have another far more tantalizing tool up their sleeves. Keep in mind that Microsoft needed a

1. cost effective
2. internet scalable
3. very fast file distribution solution

for distributing Beta 1.

Enter Avalanche. Let’s do a quick take on the first paragraph of Avalanche’s description, shall we?

The code-named research project “Avalanche” studies how to enable a cost effective, internet scalable and very fast file distribution solution (e.g. for TV on-demand, patches, software distribution). Such an approach leverages desktop PCs to aid in the distribution process, relieving congested servers and network links from most of the traffic.

Right. Obviously, Akamai, identified in part thanks to the wonders of 20/20 hindsight, hasn’t served its role as a “cost effective, internet scalable, very fast file distribution solution.” Avalanche, on the other hand (assuming proper implementation), would have worked perfectly given that Microsoft would have had a few “peers” online to kickstart the distribution (a fraction of the Akamai capacity it asked for). This was one of those times where Microsoft had a shot at implementing something absolutely wonderful but skipped on doing so for… well, nothing’s sake really.

Implementing Avalanche would have posed a solid number of benefits for Microsoft:

1. A new protocol and application would have seen mass deployment across a solid number of computers.
2. Microsoft would have reinforced their desired image as an “innovator” (using bit torrent has its benefits, but it’s hardly considered secure. The largest benefit to Avalanche is that peers have “zero-information of who has what,” which is certainly an innovation in its own right given the lack of privacy with the bit torrent protocol).
3. Windows 7 Beta 1 would have been handed off to those wanting a copy far faster than the current direct download solution.

Maybe it was the piracy stigma associated with p2p technology, but a quick rewording of how Avalanche works would have solved this in the public eye.

In the end, it just seems as if Microsoft blew a great shot.

Update: Stebet points out that Avalanche did leave whitepaper status for the distribution of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, but it seems the client is no longer available for download.

Mike held a small roundtable for a number of pressies. He gave a quick rundown of things you all basically already know, so I took the time to ask a few questions which kept you guys in mind. The questions I asked:

• What’s the difference between “API Complete” (build 6801) is and “Feature Complete” (Beta 1)?
• Why were lots of code samples and features being shown off for the Superbar at PDC when developers can’t develop for it? (Rafael’s extension of my API v. Feature Complete question)
• Why were the sensor demonstrations missing from the Windows 7 keynote today?

The answers to these questions can be found in the true-to-life* transcript after the break.

*Given that this is a transcript, it may be wrought with grammatical errors, but this is exactly how the chat went down.

Bryant: I had a question which I had myself but my colleague Rafael phrased it much better than I did, and it kinda ties into your note about how the build given to developers here at PDC this week is “API Complete” whereas the builds you were… whereas beta 1 is going to be “Feature Complete” or at least that’s the attempt… my own question is: what’s the difference between “API Complete” and “Feature Complete”? More specifically, Rafael’s question is, um, he noted that there are a lot of sessions at PDC talking about the superbar, and developing for the superbar, and one session that he went to had a lot of code samples being shown, but he also took note that developers can’t even develop for it because the superbar isn’t even in the build.

Mike: So the question really is, first of all, “What’s the difference between ‘API Complete’ and ‘Feature Complete’, and what is a developer to do who wants to write software that takes advantage of features that aren’t in the current ‘M3’ build.” So API complete, um, says that all the interfaces that developers are gonna code to… are in the product, and the third milestone of Windows 7 always had the goal of being API complete, which means  we’re not going to add any more APIs subsequently. Feature complete means that all the functions that are gonna be part of Windows 7 are in that build, and our beta, which will ship early next year [in time for CES], will be Feature Complete. The real – One of the hard questions we had… which we faced, is “Well, do we give everyb—do we only demo the API Complete release even though we have been working since September when we cut M3, do we demo more than the M3 build” and the answer is “aaah! We only have these developers together that often. It’d seem like kind-of a shame to not show them everything we had,” which then begged the question “Well why don’t you just give them the build that Steven used on stage?” which was the stuff from last Friday. The answer is “Well, in order to stabilize that, we woulda had to start stabilizing it back in August to be done in September (which is kinda what we did), so we couldn’t give you something from last Friday at this scale, or at the same time, it’d seem like a shame to not show you everything that we had. So what you see here is that optimization. Is it perfect? No. I think the other thing—hey well I could tell anybody anything til it’s all the way done. The problem there is, you don’t give the ecosystem the chance to get going. So, you are here a little bit watching the sausage being made in the sense that you’re watching us have this dialog with our partners to make sure that they are ready so that when we get to beta, there’s some momentum for Windows 7, and then certainly as we get towards general availability for Windows 7, there’s a healthy set of things that take advantage of Windows 7 that are out there.

Bryant: So, I guess tying back into the API Complete v. Feature Complete stuff, could a developer develop for the superbar in 6801?

Mike: Certain aspects of it, yes; certain aspects of it, no.

Bryant: Okay.

Mike: and some of that is sorta enough work to do between now and then that when the beta comes out they can get, you know, have all those features be there.

Bryant: Okay, thanks.

Mike: Great question.

Bryant: A few more questions, I guess, but… in the keynote that I saw today, there was one thing that was notably absent, and that was the sensor demos which were later discussed in the expo hall. Are you guys saving the sensor demonstrations — like the accelerometer demos, the touch demos and such… well not the touch demos so much but mostly just sensor work) — but are you saving that more for… WinHEC?

Mike: If I told you, I’d have to kill you.

Some other pressie: Cool!

Mike: Okay, here’s the challenge. Today was the first time that we talked about Windows 7 in any scale, and I’d say, again, sorta the… how advanced this thing is – this phase, we’re further along than we’ve been at least in a long time. How much do people know? We’ve held a lot more back than ever, so today was like “WOW; lot to talk about and not a lot of time,” and we had to be sorta choiceful about what we talked about.

Bryant: Yeah.

Mike: Next week we have WinHEC – things that are about sorta the core of Windows 7 by default happened here. Things that are more… developer oriented… happened here. Things that are more hardware oriented, without being specific, you could expect to be in a convention center not unlike this one in a town with the same zipcode.

[laughter]

Mike: Yeah, in about a week.

Summary:

• What is API Complete v. Feature Complete? API Complete has the developer bits ready for the developers to work with, even if some of them are dead-ends for now. Feature Complete expands on this by making all of the APIs functional.
• Why were code samples and such being shown off for the Superbar? Developers will be able to code for it anyway, but they’ll have enough to work with between now and Beta 1 that once Beta 1 hits the scene, they’ll have a good amount of code that doesn’t require functional awareness actually prepared.
• Why were the sensor bits missing from the Windows 7 keynote? Because it’s more relevant to WinHEC, but there’s a session on that which I’ll be covering today, so it’s all good.

There you have it. I’ll be covering today’s sensor demonstration at 10:30 today. I look forward to bringing you what I see.