Editing Gnutella2 (section)

== History ==

In November 2002, Michael Stokes announced the Gnutella2 protocol to the Gnutella Developers Forum. While some thought the goals stated for Gnutella2 are primarily to make a clean break with the gnutella 0.6 protocol and start over, so that some of gnutella's less clean parts would be done more elegantly and, in general, be impressive and desirable; other [[Software developer|developers]], primarily those of [[LimeWire]] and [[BearShare]], thought it to be a "cheap [[publicity stunt]]" and discounted technical merits. Some still refuse to refer to the network as "Gnutella2", and instead, refer to it as "Mike's Protocol" ("MP").<ref name="GDF Discussion on the Gnutella2 name">{{cite web| url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/11933| title=GDF Discussion on the Gnutella2 name| publisher=The Gnutella Developer Forum| access-date=2006-05-10| archive-date=2023-01-17| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117212150/https://www.yahoo.com/| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Gnutella2 protocol still uses the old "GNUTELLA CONNECT/0.6" handshake string for its connections<ref name="Gnutella2 Handshakes"/> as defined in the gnutella 0.6 specifications. This backwardly compatible handshake method was criticized by the Gnutella Developers Forum as an attempt to use the gnutella network for [[Bootstrapping (computing)|bootstrapping]] the new, unrelated network, while proponents of the network claimed that its intent was to remain [[backward compatibility|backwards-compatible]] with gnutella and to allow current gnutella clients to add Gnutella2 at their leisure.

With the developers entrenched in their positions, a [[flame war]] soon erupted, further cementing both sides' resolve.<ref name="Gnutella2 Flame War (1)">{{cite web| url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/13932| title=Part of the Gnutella/Gnutella2 Flame War (1)| publisher=The Gnutella Developer Forum| access-date=2006-08-06| archive-date=2009-02-12| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212190509/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/13932| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Gnutella2 Flame War (2)">{{cite web| url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/13942| title=Part of the Gnutella/Gnutella2 Flame War (2)| publisher=The Gnutella Developer Forum| access-date=2006-08-06| archive-date=2023-01-17| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117213154/https://www.yahoo.com/| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Gnutella2 Flame War (3)">{{cite web| url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/13946| title=Part of the Gnutella/Gnutella2 Flame War (3)| publisher=The Gnutella Developer Forum| access-date=2006-08-06| archive-date=2023-01-17| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117213154/https://www.yahoo.com/| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Gnutella2 Flame War (4)">{{cite web| url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/13950| title=Part of the Gnutella/Gnutella2 Flame War (4)| publisher=The Gnutella Developer Forum| access-date=2006-08-06| archive-date=2023-01-17| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117213154/https://www.yahoo.com/| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[Draft document|draft specifications]] were released on March 26, 2003, and more detailed [[Specification (technical standard)|specifications]] soon followed. G2 is not supported by many of the "old" gnutella network clients, however, many Gnutella2 clients still also connect to gnutella. Many Gnutella2 proponents claim that this is because of [[politics|political]] reasons, while gnutella supporters claim that the drastic changes don't have enough merit to outweigh the cost of deep rewrites.<ref name="Developer discussion on migration to Gnutella2">{{cite web| url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/message/11921| title=Developer discussion on migration to Gnutella2| publisher=The Gnutella Developer Forum| access-date=2006-05-10| archive-date=2023-01-17| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117213155/https://www.yahoo.com/| url-status=dead}}</ref>