I’ll start with a foul, bad, mean word: torrent.
For non geeks: Torrent is a technique for massive distribution of computer files.
And is a foul, bad and mean word because most of the files distributed by this technique are covered by copyrights, so that means that torrent networks are basically the contemporary equivalent of the old “warez”, “serialz” or similar websites that contained pirated software, cracks to bypass the registration of shareware and so on.
You may remember the impact that the mp3 file format had, and most important, the numerous methods that were found to distribute them; the so called peer to peer networks.
Each one of this methods fell against the copyright authorities and law enforcement corps all over the world.
Eventually the copyright owners won the war, but it was a Pyrrhic victory: the most popular way of listening to music and films these days is by streaming the audio and video through the internet. And I say Pyrrhic not only because of the streaming, but most significant: the market’s perceived value of the media containers (DVDs, CDs, you maybe have never seen a DAT cassette or a minidisk) just plummeted.
That is, people lot the tradition to acquire a record or a movie for an industry fixed price (around 10 to 15 US$ per CD, 40 to 50 US$ per DVD at their peak), lost the interest in actually possessing the media containers and embarked in a gluttonous and massive way of media consumption by using the services streaming media providers.
For the average person, the choice of paying 15 US$ for a CD was way too much when compared to the 0 US$ of downloaded music, even if that was illegal, but many of them seem willing to pay 5 to 10 US$ for a monthly Spotify subscription that enables them to get access to 30 millions of songs.
Sound quality is average by audiophile standards, but there are millions out there who have never listened to their music through something better than their standard white Apple earbuds, and when compared with the old mp3’s from the Napster era, streaming audio is quite good.
Revenues of the record companie fell down and they just haven’t been able to figure out how to get back to their previous glory days.
Now back to the torrents: this technique survived because is a completely decentralized peer to peer network. That is, there are no main servers or nodes that can be be shutdown, the network exists as a massively distributed array of computers where every participant helps to the upload and download process.
In fact, it’s similar in concept to the method that SETI@Home employs to process massive amounts of data trying to find evidences of alien life and the one that The Human Genome Project used to map and comprehend the structure of human DNA.
One would think that software companies would hate torrent technology, but its a really effective way to implement a massive distribution of data. Many 100% legal Linux distributions and other GPL like software packages are distributed this way.
This method is employed because is fast, has scalability built in and requires minimum maintenance. And best of all, the more the participants, the faster the downloads.
Which is the matter that I wanted to write about.
When MS decided that they were going to offer Windows 10 upgrades for free, I thought about the cost of deploying server farms with the capacity to cope with the throughput of millions of users updating their PCs. According to some sources there may be about half a billion PCs running in the world, and Windows has a share of more than 80%. It’is a lot of data to transfer.
So what did MS in order to achieve this capacity?
They created the largest server farm in the world and the price they paid for having it at their disposal was minimum.
Because the server farm is composed by each PC that has already been upgraded to Windows 10. Really. If you have upgraded yourC with the default settings and it is connected to the Internet continuously (as many people do), it is working for MS by helping along all other upgraded PCs to deliver Windows 10 upgrades and updates to all the world.
MS has created the largest torrent network in the world. Windows 10 users are torrenting Windows all day long.
Of course this is covered by MS’s EULA, but who really reads EULAS?
They are not meant to be read at all, they are full of arcane legal jargon.
But I think that if somebody offers me a free product, there should be no hidden costs associated.
I don’t mind if my Windows PCs are torrenting Windows all night long, as long as this doesn’t have some wearing effect on their hard drives. But by doing that MS is using my hardware as their distribution method.
There is also the subject of data caps, thankfully my broadband supplier gives me a data cap limited at a very generous 250 Gb.
But if MS is using my PCs as distribution servers, I no longer have control of the amount of data assigned to my account and the situation would be awful if I lived in a place where the only broadband access to the Internet was by mobile networks.
Anyway, at least there is a way to avoid being assimilated: go to the start menu, then to configuration, then to Security and updates, then to Windows updates. finally click on Advanced options, click on How do I want receive updates and turn off the switch.
By the way, the distribution method employed by MS is called WUDO: Windows Update Delivery Optimization.
Like the military, MS always finds a cute acronym for controversial issues.
Mirko Torrez Contreras is a freelance Process Automation consultant who likes computers. He started this vice with a DIY 286 in the mid 80″s, and the consequences are still a matter of controversy in his family.
You can find his published posts here
Image from the http://www.tuwindowsmundo.com/ (a Windows focused website that works under the Creative Commons copyleft license)