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Locutus Preview Released
An anonymous reader writes "FreeNet's Ian Clarke has released the preview version of his latest P2P endeavor Locutus. Aimed at the corporate world, Locutus adds encryption to the mix - new for a P2P client - to secure files traded across the network as well as the ability to scan within text files to improve search results. Locutus Lite is the free version for those who are more concerned with trading movies and tunes. Locutus Enterprise is the pay version that Clarke hopes to lure corporations to shell out money for (for secure trading of research and other documents). Those interested in trying the preview can download it here."
it's called e-mail with PGP.
Seriously, why would anyone buy another application when they already have http and ftp sites, e-mail, etc? Most "research" isn't widely in demand enough to warrant the distribution model of p2p.
....so in essence the good part is, this is an easy to set up secure WAN with restricted users and groups.
The bad part could be you have to be "microsoft dot netted".
hmmmmm
Just like the ~20 megabytes you need if you download a Java application. Its called a runtime environment. It consists of the virtual machine that runs .NET code, plus all the APIs/libraries that go along with such. It is a one time download and then you can run any .NET application. Future versions of Windows will have the .NET framework pre-installed.
All in all you're making a whole lot of noise for nothing. This is absolutely no different than the "bloat" one has to endure to download Perl if one wants to run Perl scripts, Python for Python scripts, or the Java Runtime Environment for Java programs. As with all of those situations it either a one time download, or no worries at all if it is preinstalled in the OS (which will be the case for .NET moving forward). The only difference is this is Microsoft, so you're quick to bash them because you're an ignorant asshole.
Uh, it's a ONE TIME DOWNLOAD! Once you download the .NET framework once, you can run any .NET application. If they install it by default, you complain about bloat. If they give it as a separate download, you whine about big downloads. You have to do the same thing if you're going to run a Java app. You have to do a big 15MB JVM download to run a 200k Java app. Same idea...
-Shippy
Running "secure" proprietary software on a windows box. Where have I heard that before. No man. Put the pipe down and walk away.
These people don't seem to learn.
Well, there's always another level to a complete appraisal. Many people object to .Net because promulgating it furthers goals of Microsoft's which they object to. That's a perfectly reasonably objection, and by that yardstick your observation that it works well for some purposes is largely irrelevant.
Don't assume that mere dogma underlies every opinion opposed to yours.
This is the market Locutus is going after.
What use is it when it doesnt run on anything but windows? Many scientists run linux and other stuff nowadays so its pretty insane doing a client that doesnt run on anything but windows.
.net is an effort at keeping that barrier onto the future. I say good luck to Miguel when MS dicides it has enough desciples to boot on .net.
I detest using anything that isnt cross platform friendly. When the next OS comes i dont want to stand there with my corporate pants down.
Why is it so hard making applications truly cross plattform? Technology?
You already know the answer, the removal of the applications barrier is the biggest threat to Microsoft today.
HTTP/1.1 400
Please remember that this is a prototype. We are working hard to address issues like this.
I can't see any compelling reason why a business would take this up. As others have pointed out, http, ftp, PGP and email pretty much cover what this service provides (from a business perspective), so what's the point of the Enterprise Edition (pretty sure that was the name of it, should've left the page open...).
Alternately, is there some compelling LEGAL reason why they'd offer a "business version" when their product doesn't look that different from - how to put this? - "legally questionable" products such as Kazaa? Given the recent Sharman ruling, is offering a "business version" of Locutus expected to cover their arses from a legal perspective? If so, how?
Mod parent down.
My take on Locutus:
Maybe some of their algorithmic innovations are valuable, but as for the whole model, I really don't see a necessity for it. Encrypted P2P might be nice, I suppose. But it seems like secure web servers have been providing the same functionality for years.
Chemfinder has a nice model they've been using for sharing of research. Most of the information there, from my understanding, is submitted and reviewed for entry into the database. Complete with subscription options.
On another note...
A couple things I like about Slashdot: a) Users generally engage in intelligent discussion without calling the content of the entire site "so fucking retarded."
b) The editing is actually quite good. Much better than kuro5hin.org, from what I can tell at least. You can actually find interesting, well written articles, as well as read responses from a wide variety of professional, political, and social cross-sections.
c) Slashdot is a user moderated news site. As it is well recognized that nobody really wants to hear about Pepsi's new flavor when reading about Oracle security problems, comments focusing on Pepsi's new flavor under articles concerning Oracle security problems are modded down. Likewise, articles for the sole purpose of bitching and moaning about unrelated topics are also modded down when they are included under articles concerning Oracle security problems. Following that logic, the parent and this reply should be modded down. So somebody fucking do it.
It's not your computer, it's your company's computer, and if your company wants to make use of the computer it bought for your use in order to spread the resource usage across the company and avoid having to buy another huge server (or several servers) to serve files around to all the branches of your company in the world, then it's damn right to do so.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Joy oh joy..
Under the new "PATRIOT II" legislation, using encryption while comitting a crime will result in a prison sentence of 5 to 10 years. They don't mention if it has to be a 'serious' crime, so I guess copyright violation qualifies.
This could get interesting.
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