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Unless you've used BK you really have no idea just how much more powerful it is than everything else. And yes, the p2p model that BK seemingly employs is a big part of it, but only a part of it.
BK has beautiful diff and merge tools. It has incredible file history tools. But most importantly, it's best at doing it's job: accurate revision control while staying near completely out of your face. That's why we used it at SOMA, and that's why I really wish we used it at Alias. Of course, all this really just scratches the surface.
Try it. Check in code. Share it with others. Propogate changes between people. Imagine sharing a development branch served off your desktop without doing any setup other than typing "bkd". Imaging 10 people pushing and pulling code between themselves and the server. Now you understand BK. It's not that source is stored or even the toolset alone. It's the fact that umpteen developers can push and pull between themselves and/or the server and accurately propogate changes all around. Combine that with the tools Larry and crew have written, and now you'll understand why it's better.
And to be fair, I work in the field and I've used SourceSafe, CVS/RCS, BitKeeper, Perforce, ClearCase, arch, Subversion, Accurev, and others. BK is easily the best of them... by far!

--ck

Actually, their website claims 12MB/s. Nice. Sounds like they are based on WCDMA, but "enhanced for Internet performance". They have details on their radio protocol on their website. Apparently they have a trial running in the USA, in rural Oregon -- details here. I can't wait to see this stuff available for the general public!

Actually, their website claims 12MB/s. Nice. Sounds like they are based on WCDMA, but "enhanced for Internet performance". They have details on their radio protocol on their website. Apparently they have a trial running in the USA, in rural Oregon -- details here. I can't wait to see this stuff available for the general public!

DSL (and cable) suffer from the last-mile problem: getting that last bit of cable to your hourse is really, really expensive. Every service call they have to make (including turning the thing on in the first place) is a huge loss for them. Right now, smaller competitors are able to get in only because they can piggyback on the big carriers' infrastructure, but this has its own problems. For instance, Sympatico DSL here in Canada has chosen to use this awful PPP-over-Ethernet technology to share the lines. I'd prefer to use Sympatico over Rogers, cause I've mostly gotten better service, but the PPPoE is just too much hassle.

Without having to share the lines, the big companies will be able to give better service. I know Sympatico's losing business over the PPPoE thing. Of course, without competition, there's no incentive to actually improve. But without the option of using the big networks, smaller companies will have to start looking for other solutions - like wireless, for instance. No physical cable = no last mile problem = less overhead = better business for the little guy.

The current DSL situation is a bit of a mess, and not going to get better without a major shakeup. (I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people make out, but I may have just been lucky in my service on the whole.) Think of this as an opportunity...

The research appears to have missed one "last-mile" company: Soma Networks.

A much less costly alternative would be to install some type of wireless communications network.

Like this.

Here's a solution for you: do that last mile over a highspeed wireless link. Then, the CLEC's can circumvent the ILEC's for the last mile. Of course, they still need to interface into the existing PSTN to carry local calls. For a big enough CLEC, you can even be your own IXC in a multi-city deployment.

Sounds unrealistic, or likely to be limited to low bandwidth, low coverage, and low density? They claim to doing it over at SOMA. Take a peek.