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I feel the same way... uTorrent is perfect on Windows, a good alternative on OSX is Transmission. I used to use Azureus and since it got bundled with that crap beta thing they did it sucks. Then I switched to XTorrent, which in idea it sounds good, but it sucks as well. Later on I got so frustrated I tried other torrent apps for Mac like:

Tomato Torrent is a very plain alternative, seriously lacking in eye-candy and begging for a new icon (and maybe a new name too). It's based on the official BitTorrent client. I think it desrves a mention because I know a few people who swear by it. It comes with an AppleScript file that you can place in folders you want to download to. When you want to download a torrent to a specific folder, you just drag the .torrent file onto the piece of AppleScript to initiate the transfer. One pro is that it's an extremely light client that hogs very little RAM. It's the closet thing to uTorrent on the Mac.

Bits on Wheels is a slightly out-dated (last updated Sep. '05), yet popular Mac BitTorrent client. It claims to be "the first 100% native BitTorrent client for the Macintosh" as it is written in Objective-C and Cocoa. Bits on Wheels is freeware but not Open Source. One of its main features is a visual 3D Swarm with which you can observe what's actually going on under the hood, how many seeders and leechers you're connected to and the bits transferring between everyone. Bits on Wheels is very OSeXy (heh!), it's how I'd imagine the default OS X BitTorrent downloader to look if there was one. bits on wheels sawrmIf not to use the first native OS X B.T. client, I'd download it just to fly around in 3D chasing bits.

And lets not forget the grandaddy of them all, Bram Cohen's self-titled BitTorrent application. It's gotten kind of confusing since he named the protocol, his company and his application all BitTorrent. BitTorrent OSX is a very (and I mean very) basic application. It's as feature-full as Safari's download box and that's not saying much. Now some people wouldn't mind something like that, but if you're looking for simplicity Transmission is a much better choice. BitTorrent OSX also takes an age to start up on my MacBook Pro.

Transmission is my current Mac B.T. client of choice. TransmissionIt's an Open Source project, maintained by the developer of the popular Mac DVD ripping application, HandBrake. Transmission does its job well. A neat feature it offers is the ability to view download and upload rates in the dock, so I don't even have to open up the program to check how my downloads are going. Another great thing Transmission does is copy the .torrent file to its support folder, then trash the original file from my desktop thereby leaving no mess of files behind for me to clean up. Now just like everything Transmission has its flaws, the biggest of which is that Demonoid, a leading BitTorrent directory has banned it on ocassion! They say it doesn't adhere to set standards.

For the different torrent apps I mentioned here you can go to:

Bit Torrent OSX: http://www.bittorrent.com/
Transmission: http://transmission.m0k.org/
Tomato Torrent: http://sarwat.net/BitTorrent/
Bit On Wheels: http://www.bitsonwheels.com/

Hope that helps!

Kil

I use Bits On Wheels. It's closed source and doesn't have all the niftiest features, but it works quite well for me.

Transmission is a bare-bones, ground-up rewrite in C and has really impressive performance. I use this as my default.

Personally, I go for BitsOnWheels. It has a nice informative interface with a really funky 3D view of your torrent download, and it rarely gives me any problems. The only thing I have noticed about it is that it seems to develop a memory leak when downloading a torrent with lots of (as in thousands of) peers (say a Slashdotted torrent). Other than that it works well and looks kind of cool.

Personally, I have had almost no success with the latests releases of the official BitTorrent Client. It always starts the download and seems fine for a few seconds and then just stops receiving any data...

I've used BitTorrent's official client and Azureus and found the former too basic and the latter too demanding on memory. I've been using Bits On Wheels (http://www.bitsonwheels.com/) for about 6 months and I love it. There is a 3D function so you can see an interesting rendition of the torrent swarm. I don't know if this exists in other apps but it should, it's a nice feature.

This evidence of intent to profit from infringement seems to be what lost the case for them.

While I'm no fan of adware, how is its use related to intent?

What about software that like BitTorrent has infringing and non-infringing uses, and is not promoted for its infringing uses, but is commercial and makes more money with more users and more users are attracted my more content (network effect).

Imagine an ad-supported version of Bits on Wheels or Transmit.

The opinion in some places is well-focussed on intent, but in others it drifts down a slippery slope to including any for-profit copy-enabling code.

There's also native (Cocoa) client called Bits on Wheels which is a very decent and functional client, with a fun little "3D Swarm" to show your transfers in an animated graphical format in real time (both sending and recieving). Sure, that's pretty useless - but when you're waiting for that important file, it keeps you occupied watching the little blocks of data whizzing around. :D

You mean the guy who wrote Bits on Wheels (Mac OS X)?

Might want to try Bits on wheels