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Re: BitTorrent




On Monday, Feb 14, 2005, at 21:35 US/Central, 
mike808@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
> BT is fundamentally no different than any of the P2P networks,
> but without the "network" part. Each tracker is an isolated P2P 'swarm'
> in and of itself.

 From what I understand, if you want to use Napster, Kazaa, etc. you 
have to register with those services.  That is, those companies provide 
the "trackers."  BT differs in that anyone can setup a tracker and 
anyone can create a .torrent.  But that's just my interpretation, and 
could be wrong.  I'm basing those comments on my experience trying to 
setup Kazaa.  Everything was going fine until it asked me to register, 
at which point I clicked cancel.

>> Agreed.  BT + broadband makes getting the software easier.  Not
>> everyone can host an ftp or http server.  But, every Joe or Jane can
>> participate in BT.
>
> As has every Joe or Jane participating in Kazaa and Gnutella and 
> bearshare and ... before BT.
> This is the same old P2P sharing technology. Albeit with one of the 
> best
> swarming and scaling algorithms around. But the whole thing centers 
> around the
> tracker. There are other P2P technologies around. BT just has a lot of 
> buzz right now is all.
> It probably won't be the silver bullet.

Agreed.  But the point I was making is that BT is very different than 
traditional ways of getting files, specifically, ftp, http.  Even as a 
P2P method, BT differs from others in the way it uses the tracker, 
which allows for swarming and efficient scaling, as you mentioned.  
True, not perfect, but definitely a big step in the "right" direction.

>> It's a bummer they don't include a BT client, even though TheOpenCd
>> itself is available via BT:
>
> Probably because the coolest BT client around is Azureus 
> (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/)
> and it's Java-based. And Java isn't FLOSS, although it is freeware, it 
> isn't
> freedomware.
>
> And frankly, Bram's clients user interfaces leave a lot to be desired.

True.  Despite Bram's client being just OK, I'd throw it on the CD.  
It's minimalist, but it works.  I'd also throw in Azureus, along with 
links to the Azureus page on getting Java.

One more thing for TheOpenCD: a web page with links to a bunch of FLOSS 
torrents.  Can one create a meta-torrent, that is a file that contains 
more than one torrent so that the BT client starts downloading all 
torrents and therefore all files at once?

But that's just my $0.02.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/downloads
Help others get OpenSource software.  Distribute FLOSS
for Windows, Linux, *BSD, and MacOS X with BitTorrent


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