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BitTorrent, Inc. Acquires uTorrent
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.'"
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.
uTorrent. My favourite bittorrent client.
Now THAT programmer is someone who cares about quality.
Let's hope it's not the end of a perfectly fine BT client. Maybe I've lived long enough with the embrace, extend, extingush thing, but this doesn't feel that good :(
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.'
Oh god, leave it alone! uTorrent is perfect!
Bram and Ludde are answering questions on #utorrent-questions -- irc.p2p-network.net
Don Negro
Perl 6 will give you the big knob. -- Larry Wall
... 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.
I tried the HTML entity code, but it doesn't work either.
In soviet russia BitTorrentsU
uTorrent rocks and this may make downloading movies tougher since BitTorrent agreed to not allow downloading of copyrighted material. Looks like it goes downhill from here.
By default torrent includes a list of torrent search engines. It's as if the developers are encouraging piracy rather than hiding behind the pretense that people can use the software for legitimate stuff. I reckon most bittorrent users, like me, use the protocol and their favorite client way more often for pirating music, movies, and porn than for downloading legitimate stuff.
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
Most people that use uTorrent, use it based on the predicate that it allows for more privacy, now that the **AA's have a hand in their development(investor role)I see user's jumping ship almost instantly. Chances are their going spout off that same rigamarole that every other P2P company has after they've changed their business approach, "Downloading copyrighted material is illegal and we don't stand by those that misuse our software." etc, xyz. *Yet* they manufacture a very user friendly means of applying blocklists, as well as an outgoing encryption method, and how could I forget the very flexible interface for RATIO/DL/UL spoofing that's built in...and if the user(s) was DL'ing or seeding legitimate material why on earth would they need all these functionalities...
Frankly I'm a little disappointed, but not surprised.
the automatic updates in uTorrent. Not that I dont trust the nice people at BitTorrent Inc., of course, it's just that...yeah...sometimes off is better.
Reminds me of the time when Microsoft couldn't compete with another x86 assembler on the market. They bought it out, and rather than use it to replace the relatively awful MASM, killed it instead.
Will uTorrent face the same fate? Can we all make money by writing a better BT than BT and taking money for it afterwards now?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Anyone want to explain to me why uTorrent is considered better than Azureus? I have used both, and I much prefer Azureus.
If history repeats itself, why can't we study the future?
Ladies and gentleman, maybe it's time you start archiving all the current and future version of uTorrent incase they decide to implement "features" you don't want. Having a copy sit somewhere on CD isn't a bad idea anyway. I have personally tried uTorrent and don't like it, and went back to Azureus. Mainly because I have gotten too used to the interface, and it's open-source project so I know what I`m getting.
The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
No more updating uTorrent for me now. I'm staying with 1.6
I never liked either of them. uTorrent is Windows only and BitTorrent is somewhat lacking on the Mac. As much as I think Azureus is cool, I am starting to take a liking to Torrent Flux. Plus... I can run it on my hosting site.
Does this mean there may be a Unix/Linux uTorrent client in the future?
http://digg.com/tech_news/BitTorrent_merges_with_u Torrent
Some answers from #uTorrent-questions:
-will uTorrent be ported to Linux?
probably
-how many lines of code is it comprised of?
~50-60K
-will encryption be removed?
no (answered by Bram)
-features most important to you (directed @ Bram)
low memory footprint, code size, cpu usage
-is there any thoughts to an osx client?
(Bram) we plan to produce an up to date osx client, but that's significant porting work
-are there any features that will be removed from uTorrent?
(Bram) we're leaving the uTorrent client mostly alone for now, on the grounds that people like it (further defined 'mostly' as in, not much of anything substantive will change)
-will uTorrent be replacing the original python client?
(Bram) we aren't announcing integration plan details right now
-Bram, are you talking with asus and other router makers for putting uTorent in there?
(Bram) we're talking to lots of people
-will uTorrent ever be open-sourced?
(Bram) not in the forseeable future, but we'll continue to maintain an open source reference implementation
-Bram, you said before that you're not a big fan of protocol header encryption... do you still stand behind this?
(Bram) it isn't much harder for an isp to recognize encrypted headers than unencrypted headers.
-will content be monitored?
(Bram) absolutly not
-does the uTorrent codebase compile on linux today (in your labs?)
(ludde) No
-ludde can't develop anything new for uTorrent?
(ludde) bittorrent inc will do the majority of the development work
-what IDE was uTorrent developed on?
(ludde) Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 with a few routines written in visual cobol. uTorrent was written in C++ with some tiny chunks of assembly
-will uTorrent continue to be free?
(Bram) utorrent will continue to be available and continue to be free (as in, no cost, not open source)
-Utorrent uses a lot of Windows API's right? Won't that be a problem when porting to *nux/OSX
(ludde) Yes, the UI is tightly bound to Windows APis, however, the core backend is easier to port.
(Bram) the utorrent UI is windows native, so porting that part to osx or linux is a significant amount of work (but planned to be done at some point)
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 ...
... but he also gets something he can brandish at anyone who wants to throw money at BT.
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
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".)
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.
A dream where people realise there's an enormous difference between u and ...
[Enter fun stuff here.]
Why is it that people involved in Internet piracy seem to mostly be half a step away from "No! You can't play in my club!"? Maybe we should start up nohomerstorrents.com. And I feel your pain about the clients - I've been forced to dedicate most of my server CPU and RAM to keeping azureus up because of their idiotic policies.
The only important question is: Will they release uTorrent code as Free Software?
uTorrent was written by one guy by the name of Ludvig Strigeus, not some random dudes. He's Swedish, I think. One of the sharper coders on the planet, I'd say. Anyway, he never wanted to release the source because ... he didn't want to release the source. No particular reason why he should have, really. This idea that every programmer that does something way cool somehow owes the community his source code is just silly. He gave away a hot product for free, that's good enough for me.
Not that I wouldn't mind taking a look at that codebase. You know, just for curiosity's sake.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
You can run "u"Torrent perfectly under Wine; even by just "wine uTorrent.exe", and nothing more. -"u"Torrent is free, -so is Wine-, so I don't see the problem at all..
A horse can't be sick, you know, even if he wants to.
I don't blame him for not releasing the source (it's his right), nor do I blame him for selling out (I would). It's still a shame, though, because I really liked uTorrent.
1. Make uTorrent as feature-rich as the official client
2. Add more partner-sponsored addons during installation that are checked by default
3. Profit!
(There is no "???" step since this model seems to actually work)
Fortunately, the original Bittorrent software is free software so you'll always have the freedom to make sure the software preserves your privacy (insofar as that can be done on a Bittorrent network). The same cannot be said for uTorrent which will remain proprietary.
Digital Citizen
Mommy mommy.. why did this have to happen?????! Couldn't the little fairy come down, give the utorrent guy lots of money and stop having utorrent bought out? And maybe give a select few a view of the source!
http://dilemma.gulecha.org - My philospohical short film.
prior to this uTorrent ate nanoTorrent which ate picoTorrent, only moments after femtoTorrent was devoured. we must stop this before there is just one giant torrent walking this earth, devouring everything in its path!
This idea that every programmer that does something way cool somehow owes the community his source code is just silly.
I can't speak for everybody, but I feel that this is a mis-characterization of those that prefer Free software. For me each software package is a value proposition. Well functioning software that runs quickly and has a small footprint has value to me. Software that gives me the 4 basic freedoms also has value to me. For me, the 4 freedoms usually carry more value than a small footprint.
So I don't think it's unreasonable for me to say, "Does it come with source code?" and to be disappointed if the answer is "No". I don't think it's unreasonable for me to explain to people why I value these freedoms more than specific features of a piece of software. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for what I value.
It's also not unreasonable for the author to say no. But it's unfortunate when that happens.
Just my two cents -- I hope that doesn't seem silly.
1. Open uTorrent
2. Click on Options
3. Click on Preferences
4. Untick "Check for updates automatically"
5. ???
6. Profit.
Qbittorrent is an excellent, GPL bittorrent client that is fast, and has a very small footprint. It's in development stages right now, and is only for Linux, but it works very well. .debs are available; you should try it out.
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
I'd love to see the source too, but I'd have to download a pirate copy of Visual Cobol first to view it with. VCobol!!! ye gads!
:) )
(on the other hand, if its as good as it is, despite using VCobol, he's an excellent programmer. Masochistic, but excellent
Bttorrent
Options > Preferences > Uncheck the first box.
Don't worry if you're a kleptomaniac, you can always take something for it.
So, which Bittorrent client is the best? Azureus is open source. Do you recommend it?
Ok, so is there a good FOSS torrent client yet? And by that I mean one that doesn't require me to install JRE, which I will always refuse to do.
All I use is FOSS, except for utorrent. The latest builds of Shareaza haven't really been working that well for me, so that one is out too....
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Well, I wasn't trying to characterize the entire community, just those that (from some of the comments I read) feel somehow entitled to a developer's source code.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Other than windows, I use exclusively FOSS software. And I shouldn't have to inform you about the importance of FOSS. There is plenty of information out there already showing how important it is now, and how much more important it will be in the future.
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Dollars to doughnuts the Cobol in uTorrent isn't pure: to do what he's doing in that amount of space there's going to be a Texas shitload of Win32 calls and probably some inline assembler. But still ... Cobol. Oh well. No accounting for taste.
But you know, once word of this gets out bank programmers are going to be insufferable.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.