Opera Embedding BitTorrent Client

Opera Watch writes "The next version of Opera, 8.02, will have an embedded BitTorrent client. Opera has released today a Technical Preview of this new version on its FTP directory, though they have made no official announcement as of yet."

Comments

torrent

[supe]

So where's the torrent for Opera 8.02?

Re:torrent

[LittLe3Lue]

your claim is just stupid.

consider this.
the average torrent (i assume a movie or something) is being initially uploaded by one seed with, being generous, a max of 80 kBps. The person still manages to send all that information to everyone rather quickly (given a slower start to send 1-2 full copies out into the swarm).

Microsoft Pipes have like, what, 1000000 times the bandwidth? So yes, you usually download as fast as your connection can handle. So yes, you WILL download faster than a popular torrent at the beginning of it distribution cycle.. if the person hosting originally had a small pipe.

If Microsoft used torrents, their overall bandwidth would increase - they just dont need to.

But let dream of the day that every single dedicated 'fat pipe', 'home user', and business used torrents instead of http / ftp / other p2p:
we would see a HUGE increase in bandwidth across the internet.

The reason you beleive torrents are slower has nothing to do with the protocol, but rather the people who use it.

The only issue I have is that torrents die after some time, because people do not seed to 1:1, or people loose interest files that arent 'fresh'.

If Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera embeded bittorrent, forced 1:1 seed ratios, and seeded every file in your download folder out to whoever needed it most.. well..

wouldnt that be peachy? :)

Prediction...

[niteskunk]

I predict a swarm of FireFox BT plug-ins within the next two weeks.

Re:Prediction...

[masterren]

MozTorrent seems to be in the works already.

http://moztorrent.mozdev.org/

And Mozilla is on it's way...

[MTO_B.]

Thanks to google's summer code we can hope to have a functional BitTorrent client built with XUL/XPCOM.

Included in Firefox? :-)

Check the Mozilla development projects that have been accepted for Google's Summer of Code program:
http://summer.mozdev.org/projects.html


And the MozillaZine news about it here:
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=6 874

Just more proof...

[Kjella]

...that bittorrent the technology is not going away. In fact, it is a vastly superior method that should replace HTTP/FTP for most file downloads. There should be no more need to find mirrors, simply run it and let the program decide which sources are the faster. An integrated client will introduce a lot more people to it. Now, if they get consistantly better download performance perhaps you'll even see popular demand :)

Kjella

Re:Apache

[sfcat]

Now we just need apache with an embedded torrent generation/serving (or at least just serving; it'd be simpler to configure, that's for sure) for bulk static content. :)

Actually I had this same good idea a couple of years ago. It could effectly wipe out the slashdot effect. What if, each time server load went over a preset amount, it served a torrrent containing the HTML and image files instead of the HTML file itself. When the browser sees the torrent with special HTTP headers, it automagically unpacks the torrent after completing the download and displays the HTML locally. An apache plugin for this was started and never completed. The problem was getting the browser/torrent client to do the right thing once it got the HTML so the fact that you downloaded a torrent instead of the HTML directly was transparent to the user. Once torrent clients are embedded into the browser, competition will force the other browsers to include this feature. Then no more slashdot effect, yea!!!

Re:Apache

[csnydermvpsoft]

A lot of the time the Slashdot effect isn't due to bandwidth being exceeded, but rather due to the database server being overloaded on database-driven sites. These sites couldn't be served this way anyways, as they have dynamic content that could be different for different users.

Re:Legal problems?

[ari_j]

The precedent recently set is that you cannot distribute a tool with the intent that it be used to infringe copyrights. Grokster distributed software and said "Go illegally download songs to which you have no license!" Opera is saying "Go and download really big files!" Including Bittorrent is no different than including HTTP in their web browser, since either can be used for both lawful and unlawful purposes. What would make Opera a target is if their new release were advertised (at all! ... hahaha, I kill me) with the tagline "Opera 8.5 with Bittorrent: the world of pre-release movies is at your fingertips."

Re:Another prediction

[ArsonSmith]

Netadmin: We've been Operadotted!!!

Pointy haired: What's that mean?

Netadmin: Two Opera users hit our web server within the same hour.

Pointy haired: What's Opera? Is that a new virus?

Where is the "bloat"?

[hkmwbz]

"For a community that's so against IE's "bloat" it's amazing how many people welcome with open arms more *unnecessary* bloat."

Bloat? Opera with BitTorrent is a smaller download than Firefox, and BT downloads in Opera work exactly like HTTP or FTP downloads (there is no UI clutter).

Where is the bloat?

"Either you're with bloat in the browser world or you aren't. Which is it?"

I'm for making it easier and more convenient to do stuff online. I hope Firefox gets a built in BT client too.