Why did Google release their mapReduce algorithm/cluster setup?
geocar: Distributed systems are nothing new (AST's Amoeba goes through some of the mapreduce contortions), but there are very few programmers comfortable thinking that way- you may recall, even SONY had an awful lot of trouble recruiting talent.It's in Google's best interest to increase the market size of "parallel programmers"- to actually be able to pick from more programmers who can "think" in mapreduce, improves their hiring options.I doubt this fact escaped Google: mapreduce stands on shoulders of its own giants who faced this problem as well.