WinMx 3.11 Beta 2 out..?
 

According to the flyer on my screen, 3.11 beta 2 is available..

What disturbs me is, for a second time The programmers seem to have altered the network configuration (or protocol) so that now running beta 2 with any copy of WinMx 3.xx means a serious case of NO INTERCONNECT, Ok I buy the fact that they are trying to optimise (tidy up) the protocol, but it would seem to take away one advantage of the many thousands of beta testers they have, that of compatibility.

the New WNP ntwork for beta 2 will be considerably smaller that the now established 3.1 network, this sure seems like a major glitch to me?

Of course there is the other aspect to consider, the one that goes, WHAT ARE THEY ADDING? What WE don't know about... another BDE in the making? I wonder.

They already know what beta version you are running as they are capable, and do, flash you when the next beta is available, all of which begins to smell a little sour..

Where is the profit in giving away software as complex as WinMx, there HAS to be a PAYBACK, I wonder in what form it will appear?

Yours, everso just a little suspicious... Snark..

TG, any comments?

:shk:

The developers of WinMX are Canadians. You can trust Canucks...they'd never do anything insidious.;)
This version is strictly for ppl who want to beta test, if you want files stick with the first 3.11. This reminds me of Mozilla which came out with a V1.1 which had no bug fixes for V1 but was there strictly to test new features.

yeah...
 

Decent bunch those Canadians, at least WHEN they win hockey
other times, who knows.... True Napho, never doubted them before, but you have to wonder...

Snark..:W:

I'm sticking with beta 1.

I'd like to comment. I believe the beta is being 'closed off' in this way in order to speed up the debugging process, much like with some of the previous versions (TG might be able to tell you more.) It makes sense to create a stable, independent foundation (which doesn't connect to unstable clients using previous versions) & then build on it later rather than go at it all at once and hope for the best. If you read the winmx beta details this is the impression I got at least.

I think your second point deserves more attention. Although I'm not using the beta myself; perhaps TG, JS & others could elaborate. WinMX doesn't seem to have a privacy statement (this is hardly dubious considering that Kazaa/Sharman/BDE have them) but, like Xolox & a few other clients, they explicitly state on their homepage that they don't incorporate spyware into their clients and never will. It's worth noting that some websites which promised never to use banners, subscription services or pop-ups did so under changing market conditions. Many of these clients, although they appear to be labours of love and passion, make use of closed-source networks & are closed source themselves. I think it remains to be seen whether these networks can sustain themselves on the current models. Remember that Apache & Linux are open-source projects that are even generating revenue, so it might be possible under that model. Ultimately though, WinMX is in control so it's best to be cautious! :dz:

Yeah, except the beady eyed ones. Beware of them.

WinMX has not had a reported case of any spyware ever since it came out. It'd be quite interesting to know how exactly the effort is supported, because I think WinMX for music (along with eDonkey for movies) is the shit, and it would seriously suck if they built in some sort of custom back door.

SA_Dave's comments pretty much sum up my own view of the situation. FrontCode keeps developing its serverless technology actively and that is a good thing for us users. Especially when the connection and transfer mechanisms themselves are being revamped, it makes sometimes technical sense to start a fresh experiment with no old buggy client versions in the network.

I tried to find some information on FrontCode's business plans regarding WinMX but nothing seems to be available - I wonder if they have found one yet (Napster never did). Anyway, developing serverless p2p software that can link millions of people together is a potentially valuable project in itself. There are probably several media giants that would love to own such cheap communication/networking technology giving them an immediate and exclusive access to a million-wide dedicated user community.

I am not particularly worried about WinMX becoming spyware-infested anytime soon (although even stranger things have happened in the p2p world). Maybe they do not need money that badly at this stage. As long as they are not attacked by the copyright nazis they may well be able to afford a small development team bringing the technology even further. They seem to operate on a low budget so there is no hurry to make it profitable. No money is burned for brand building (as Jack once said, their logo has 'designed by a relative' written all over it :BL: )Two or three paid programmers might be enough to do what they are doing and with the serverless technology there is no need for expensive infrastructure or bandwidth either.

- tg ;)

I'm still working fine on 2.6