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BitTorrent, Inc. Acquires uTorrent

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-torrenting-faster-than-ever dept.

ColinPL writes "BitTorrent, Inc. has taken the next step — the acquisition of uTorrent. In a joint announcement made today, the two firms have publicly solidified the merger. 'Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent AB have decided to join forces ... BitTorrent has acquired uTorrent as it recognized the merits of uTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together uTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.'"

7 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. This could turn bad... by badenglishihave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With Cohen walking hand in hand with the MPAA nowadays, how will this affect the privacy of current Torrent users such as myself? I have to admit I'm a bit worried. It doesn't come as a big surprise though. Torrent's excellent code and features make for one of the best clients available right now.

    1. Re:This could turn bad... by billcopc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not so long ago there were accusations that uTorrent was tracking searches, because it was presenting context-sensitive advertising. These allegations were firmly denied by the author, but it caused many people to think twice about this "miraculous" client. I'll be quite honest with everyone, I tried uTorrent and it didn't rub me the right way, but I'm fussy. I've been with BitComet for a while, I suffered through the tracker bans, and quite frankly if tracker operators think it wise to exclude people based on their software preference, it's really their loss because I can go elsewhere.

      The same applies to this Bittorrent/uTorrent merger. So what if Mr Cohen takes Bittorrent in a direction we don't like ? Are we forced to follow ? Heck no. On the odd chance that this group actually creates something better, we're free to embrace their brainchild, or pass on it and look for the next cool thing.

      What really grinds my gears though, is all the hubbub with the bittorrent "phenomenon". Seriously, what Mr Cohen has created is hardly any different from Kazaa or Napster, except for its so-called democracy. he's given everyone the freedom to easily spring up a tracker, which is really just an index server. So now instead of having one central hub that can be taken down, we have tens of thousands of puny little trackers that would require individual lawsuits to even try to take down, and no corporate entity behind them to pay "damages" to the litigators. Congrats! Give him a pat on the back for pulling off one of the first solid implementations of the painfully obvious evolution of decentralized file sharing. He didn't cure cancer, he didn't create peace in the middle east, he just took everyone's ideas and made them reality. Now move along, nothing more to see.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    2. Re:This could turn bad... by julesh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If BitTorrent is just a more-decentralized version of Kazaa or Napster, how come I get substantially faster transfer rates with BT than I ever did with either of those applications?

      Face it, the reason BT is so popular is because it is incredibly well engineered. The use of torrent files rather than simple searches with small hash sets (necessary in order to allow search results to be transferred effectively) allows small partial blocks to be shared more effectively and robustly than any other P2P file transfer system has ever allowed. Decoupling search from file transfer has allowed different people to concentrate on different aspects of the problem and evolve their systems with no interdependency on network updates. The use of a centralised tracker rather than the currently-in-vogue decentralised alternatives (DHT, network search) to find sources results in substantially better transfer rates, with only a small reliability sacrifice. And with a DHT as a fallback, not even that.

      Yes, none of these ideas were originally Cohen's. But as the first to combine them in a single application, I have nothing but respect for his work.

  2. With you kind permission ... by kryten_nl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... I'd like to turn this into an "Ask Slasdot". Which client should I use, are there any good GPL clients or promissiong projects?

    --
    For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
    1. Re:With you kind permission ... by fluffywuffy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      http://www.binarynotions.com/halite.php

      Open source, very small (473 kb), looks promising.

  3. Why is anyone surprised? by Knowbuddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Disclaimer: I'm the guy that wrote TorrentSpy (the application, not the web site) and have contributed a small amount of code to the Python/core BT client and tracker. I haven't written any code for BT in a while, nor have I chatted with Bram in literally years, but ...

    From what I remember, Bram always viewed the Python/core as a sort of "reference implementation" -- it was never his goal to make the Python client or tracker the end-all be-all.

    Why is it then surprising that he'd want to bring on a client that doesn't have to be Open Source, and thus doesn't have to be clean and perfect, but is still sexy as hell? He still keeps his reference implementation that supports the features and is easy to reimplement a dozen times in two dozen languages ... but he also gets something he can brandish at anyone who wants to throw money at BT.

    Remember that his goal since incorporating has been to legitimize and broaden the adoption of BT. A sexy client is a huge step towards that goal. It's not like Sony or the MPAA or whomever is going to distribute a customized version of Azureus any time soon -- it's a beast! But a custom version of uTorrent? A 1MB executable that you could throw on a CD that requires zero install? YTF not? Remember also that Strigeus has been working towards licensing out the core engine for uTorrent.

    Plate. Shrimp. Plate of Shrimp.

    Some of you are excessively paranoid. You know that, right?

    (Yes, yes, I know: "Welcome to Slashdot".)

  4. Explanation request by rg3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reading some of the comments in here and from people chatting in the IRC channels linked from a previous comment, I see many people are worried about this. In one corner we have Bram Cohen, a man which designed the bittorrent protocol and provided an open source, multiplatform, reference implementation of it. He also has a website that linked to illegal content, apparently, and made a deal with the MPAA so it would comply with the law (DMCA). Else, he could have been sued and lose a lot of money, I understand. On the opposite corner we have the utorrent author, someone who is apparently a good programmer that provided a free, non open source client, which is tiny, featureful and runs very well under its platform, which is Windows.

    Now, when I read people saying they don't trust (sic) Bram Cohen and that they will no longer update utorrent, or that this will be a bad thing, I don't really understand why they are worried. Is it for technical reasons? Do you fear utorrent will stop being tiny _if_ it's made multiplatform? What motivates that fear? Something from the past that I missed? Or is it because of the deal between Cohen and the MPAA? If so, why do you consider it bad? Do you fear the bittorrent protocol and official implementation will suffer because of that deal and that same situation will extend to utorrent? Honest questions, really. Please, englighten me.