Re: And then there were two

[Sam Thomas <sthomas () lart net>]

On Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 05:16:13PM -0700, Sean Donelan wrote:
> If you accept the premise that "peer == equal" does that mean
> in the end there will be only two ISPs each with exactly 50%
> of the world's Internet because no one else will be an equal?
>
>
> I've never understood how the word "peer" mutated from its
> technical definition arising from its use in the BGP protocol
> to its use by marketing people.
>
> As far as I can tell, EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol) originally
> used the term "neighbor."  Berkeley used the berkelism "peer" in
> their software and RFC 911 documenting their experience, and the
> term stuck through EGP2, BGP1-4.
>
> If we still used the word "neighbor" would the phrase "Are you
> a neighbor?" have a different ring than "Are you a peer?"  You
> can have lots of neighbors, even if you think you are superior
> to all of them.

there's the Mr. Rogers aspect of asking "won't you be my neighbor?"
the current state of the internet does bear a striking resemblance
to make-believe land, so this may be quite appropriate.

:-D

-- 
Sam Thomas
Geek Mercenary