Easier and more reliable ISO downloads, with error correction

[Anthony Bryan]

On 11/4/07, John Richard Moser <nigelenki at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> Anthony Bryan wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Have you thought about using Metalinks for your ISO downloads? It's an
> > XML format used by download apps, and contains the ways to get a file
> > (mirrors/P2P) along with info for automatic error detection/recovery
> > (checksums) and other stuff.
>
> Bittorrent.
>
> >
> > It makes things simpler for the user, since they don't have to
> > manually try a bunch of servers that could be down, can use local
> > mirrors first, and can repair downloads (very useful for large files
> > like ISOs).
>
> Bittorrent.

It's not an either/or situation :)

They are used together. Metalink is focused on describing the content
and how to get it, the download client can use ftp, http, torrent, or
other p2p to get the files.

If you've been following the thread, you've realized that bittorrent
isn't possible or preferable to everyone in every situation.

There are always going to be some people downloading ISOs from
ftp/http mirrors, and those people would definitely be better off
using a metalink for the higher availability/reliability and automatic
error correction.

-- 
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
  )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads