Well, the more I read about .NET the more it sounds like it's a tool used by programmers kind of like Java. So I've decided to take the plunge and installed it. So far my computer hasn't exploded so I think I'm going to be ok
I guess I'll see the full impact of .NET in the days to come. Basically, once you install it your computer can now interpret programs that are meant to be used with .NET. Kind of like needing to install Java to run Java applets. Aside from that my computer really isn't much different that I can tell, but I'm definitely not a fan of Microsoft so I'll be sure to let you guys know if there is a problem.
As for Flock itself, I think that this is the answer to the pains of using edonkey. The use of servers was its biggest flaw. Now that they have made it severless it runs more like FastTrack or Gnutella but with all the added benefits of the original edonkey. It's too early to tell but this may finally be something that can compete against the front runner FastTrack.
The reason I say this is because the biggest complaint about edonkey was it's slow and inconsistant speeds along with too much work by the users to keep the server lists updated (if a user can't just turn it on, search, and then download then it's not considered user friendly by most people). So far with Flock v0.22 speeds have been for the most part consistant and much faster then the original edonkey. It's also really easy to use. Just open the program do a search and download. Although, since there is only a small group of users currently willing to use the test version it's best to only download popular files. If you don't then you'll most likely be in que for awhile and you won't get that great of a speed because you'll only have one source.
Anyhow, if you are willing to install .NET then you definitely should try out Flock. It's still being tested so there are bugs but so far I'm impressed.