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BitTorrent Launches Beta of Torrent-Based Browser Project Maelstrom

Posted by timothy on from the bits-and-pieces-from-all-over dept.

An anonymous reader writes BitTorrent today launched Project Maelstrom, the company's distributed browser, in beta. The company also released new tools on GitHub that let developers and publishers build content for the browser. Announced in December, Project Maelstrom, then just an invite-only alpha, was described as "the first torrent-based browser." The launch today is an open beta, meaning anyone can now try an early version of Maelstrom. You do, however, need a Windows computer. Windows users can download the beta now from here. Since the alpha, BitTorrent says it has improved stability, integrated support for automatic updates, and added DHT visualization for users when loading torrents.

35 comments

  1. Seriously thinking by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    if there is a way to build a Beowulf cluster this way.

  2. windows waaat? by tomxor · · Score: 2

    Was so looking forward to seeing this public beta, lame to be stuck on windows.

    1. Re:windows waaat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      They couldn't get the included NSA & RIAA spyware virus to run on Linux, so Windows only.

    2. Re:windows waaat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      illustrates the incredible failure of the browser as an application platform. Not only is is really inferior user-interface wise, but it's not even platform independent. WTF? Why are they doing this? Can't they just implement a decent application that is not browser-based?

    3. Re:windows waaat? by NotInHere · · Score: 2

      I was so looking forward they released this as open source. Now its just another piece of closed source non-improvable non-free pay-here software.

    4. Re:windows waaat? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Yup. No Linux version, I've been running nothing but a mix of Linux OSes on my myriad machines and I prefer it. If there's no Linux version there then there is no use for it here. I could boot to Windows but I see no reason to do so simply for a browser that probably spies on me, has few (if any) plug-ins meaning no ad blocker, and will likely eventually try to charge me money, I gave the site a good going-over and did discover an interesting slide show app and will look at that more later as it appears to be similar to to PowerPoint which may have some value at a later date.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    5. Re:windows waaat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just a chromium build that reads magent links, downloads torrents in streaming mode, and auto-opens index.html.

      You could probably replicate it in a few lines of bash.

    6. Re:windows waaat? by Mephistro · · Score: 1

      ... its just another piece of closed source...

      Chromium (on which Maelstrom is based) is open source. Regarding the "non-free pay-here" part... "citation needed".

    7. Re:windows waaat? by tomxor · · Score: 1

      its based on the chromium project it should have plugins... just annoying they go for windows first, it's chromium after all.

    8. Re:windows waaat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So decomplie it and roll your own Linux version. Honestly, Linux is no better nor worse than Windows, its just less visible, less idiot friendly and have less big bloated conglomerates interested in it. And just in case you are an apple fanboy desktop apple still has far far less market share than windows does.

    9. Re:windows waaat? by thunderclap · · Score: 1

      No its logical. Chromium has one one hundredth of a percent of market share and visibilty. If they were launching it for tablets and phones yes, I would agree. THEY ARE NOT. It was rolled out on the most visible, most popular, most used platform first. If you decide that isn't your rig then its your loss, But don't desparage them when they want the largest group of people looking at it.

    10. Re:windows waaat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah Where is the Linux version.....
      Linux is Free, Open Source and Better than Windows. Thats why everyone is using it!!!!!!!!!!!
      Oh wait..........

  3. Freenet by Mantrid42 · · Score: 2

    Isn't this basically what Freenet tried to do back in the day?

    1. Re:Freenet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not really, freenet has many features that this lacks, such as encryption and deniability.

      This has some features, such as being distributed and every download is bit perfect.

      This is primitive compared to things already available, really.

      See IPFS.io for something that builds off the ideas of git, bittorrent, freenet, camlistore for a more permanent solution. In fact, they call it The Permanent Web.
      https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs
      https://sourcegraph.com/blog/ipfs-the-permanent-web-by-juan-benet-talk
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa4pckodM9g

    2. Re:Freenet by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, because the concept behind freenet is that it's impossible to track from source to destination, and more popular content gains redundancy while unwanted content vanishes from the network -- and the entire thing is encrypted making it virtually impossible to track what anyone's looking at.

      This project, while using DHT, is otherwise completely orthagonal to Freenet -- it's all about using nearby/fast nodes to get you the content you're looking for as quickly as possible via a distributed mechanism. There's no privacy involved (you're broadcasting what you want to view to a huge number of nodes), and the distributor of content (and anyone else who wants to help) have control over seeding the content being viewed.

    3. Re:Freenet by Fwipp · · Score: 2

      I'm excited for when they'll be able to focus their efforts on the javascript implementation - imagine transparently serving all the heavy-weight media assets for your site in a p2p fashion, without the user having to do anything besides click "Play" on the video.

      And if you're not excited at that level; imagine being able to run an imageboard and use only a fraction of the bandwidth you currently do.

      It's already pretty impressive, but the demos & writeup are certainly not user friendly at this point.

  4. Re:Oh yeah.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    bubble and the cult of code ready to burst?

  5. Windows only by Kevin+Fishburne · · Score: 1

    You do, however, need a Windows computer.

    I do? All this time I thought I was pretty happy with Mint 17.1 Cinnamon.

    --
    Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
    1. Re:Windows only by shigutso · · Score: 0

      Releasing such project for Windows only (and Mac later, with no sign of Linux support) is like selling a Ferrari to poor people.

    2. Re: Windows only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah these poor Linux gits.

    3. Re:Windows only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A retard is pretty happy watching the clothes driers at the laundry mat.

    4. Re:Windows only by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      What does that make the guy watching the retard, happily focusing on the retard, trying to determine if he is happy?

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    5. Re: Windows only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A Windows user.
      There, the circle has been completed.

    6. Re:Windows only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do, however, need a Windows computer.

      I do? All this time I thought I was pretty happy with Mint 17.1 Cinnamon.

      You will when 10 rolls out and all the Mainboard manufactures lock UEFI to windows only. So how many of you linux guys know what chips to buy and how to solder them in?

    7. Re: Windows only by Kevin+Fishburne · · Score: 1

      A Windows user. There, the circle has been completed.

      Rimshot. Is it just me, or does /. seem to have more trolls these days? I've been using the site for probably ten years now and it seems like this last year has had its fill of them.

      --
      Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
    8. Re: Windows only by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      There have always been a pretty steady stream of trolls (at least since around 1999 when I got here), but what has changed is the quality of the trolling. In general the mean skill level has plummeted so you tend to get a lot of really clueless people trolling a bunch of other really clueless people. The difference is that in the old days you could read a whole flame war and actually learn something, possibly even being amused in the process. That kind of high level knowledge exchange is not just less common, but almost non-existent on Slashdot circa 2105.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  6. terrible mal-investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    these clowns are creating content bundling tools and a browser instead of a cross-platform repo for a protocol converting caching http2torrent proxy with some browserifying smarts that can dynamically markov-chain/bundle/represent the content that's packed with a page to the swarm.

    i used to like bram when he made tech, now he peddles nonsense browsers. so sad. so anon.

  7. Re:Oh yeah.... by KGIII · · Score: 1

    It is probably less time to install, play with, discard or learn it, than one spends on /. daily or, most certainly, cumulatively.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  8. I remember suggesting this years ago.... by mark-t · · Score: 2
    .. almost as long ago as when biittorrent was invented, as a means to abate so-called

    flash crowds

    on the internet... more colloquially known in these parts as the slashdot effect... If everyone visiting a web page with a large quantity of multimedia content helped to distribute the data that would otherwise have to be supplied by the website, the web server would be generally able to tolerate larger numbers of people simultaneously accessing it.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  9. Beowolf cluster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yippppeeee!!!!!!

  10. Doesn't work in Wine (for me) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just to add something semi-constructive to all this bitching about Windows: Downloading the thing and trying to run it in Wine takes all of 12 seconds. Doesn't work for me, though: It fails with an unimplemented function error. (This is on whatever the current Linux Mint version is, on x86-64.)

  11. ZeroNet by nofish · · Score: 1

    Similar project, but OpenSource and works on any OS/Browser: https://github.com/HelloZeroNe... (Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network)

  12. Chromium by rn10950 · · Score: 1

    Must every new browser released be based on Chromium?

    1. Re:Chromium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People got fed up with Mozilla and descendants just trying to full-on BE Chromium. You get the same result... so it's like voting, really.
      The problem is that unlike Firefox, Google has some pretty stringent blocks on their app store. I don't buy into the ++version number == ++security myth today. New versions == killed features, uglier GUIs, forced plugin rejections and ssl cert behavior and nags, latest NSA backdoors, etc.
      I had thought extension compatibility pains on Firefox and derivatives were bad, but IIRC loading up 'less secure' old versions of the defunct Rockmelt, SRWare iron and Chromium (especially in stable but package-wise ancient Centos releases) results in browser warnings and/or broken redirects.

      Since the days of IE6, nothing ages worse than browsers. Speaking of that... Android 2.2 stock browser is throwing warnings for certs issued with a start date of 2015. I remember booting up an old PC and finding that 5 years is more or less enough to kill going on the web. Certs expired errors, broken CSS and now certs and CA's that are just too new... Though I'd never see that again.