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[pre-1.1b] Evaluation of µTorrent


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I've been using Bittorrent since it's creation. I've downloaded terabytes of great stuff from this blessed P2P protocol, and I don't see any reason yet to stop. Having used many different clients over the years, I have evaluated µTorrent as follows:

Positives about µTorrent.

Processor Usage is excellent. On my system, it stays at 0 most times, jumping to 2 every 10sec or so. This is by all means, quite acceptable. When checking a large file, the processor usage climbs to 25% but that's quite understandable considering; BitPump maxes out processor usage when checking large files.

Memory Usage is excellent. When the window is showing, and actively transferring, it hovers around 2mb-3mb. Minimized + Transferring is under 2mb. Also quite acceptable.

Attractive Interface. When hunting for mini-BTclients, Interface it's usually the first thing that goes out the window for the sake of filesize / processing. This is not the case with µTorrent. All information that I routinely check is represented (file listing, pieces, tracker details) It's obvious that you borrowed many ideas from Azureus' format (tabs, among others) and that's not a bad thing at any rate.

Advanced Features. Features like: completed file moving, torrent archiving / moving, column customization are invaluable to professional torrent downloading and are welcome additions. Azureus is obviously another influence for these features -- BitComet doesn't even fully configure torrent moving as µTorrent does.

Negatives about µTorrent

Confusing Tracker Status. When checking the tracker status on a non-transferring torrent, the status is: updating... but doesn't report any information. I'm guessing the "updating..." status is just an alternative design-wise for having nothing listed.

Odd .torrent File Handling. When .torrents are added, µTorrent creates a .torrent.1 (.2,.3 if added muliple times) file in the same directory. I assume that is a back-up torrent file that µTorrent uses. When you select "Remove and > Delete .torrent" it doesn't. Nor does it remove the .1 on this command or on exit. Odd.

Odd File Deletion When "Remove and > Delete .torrent + data" it doesn't delete the torrent, or remove the torrent-defined directory that the incomplete file was stored (torrents that have directories in them, the files within the torrent-defined directory is deleted, but not the directory.)

No "Maximum Download Speed" setting. Self-explainatory.

ETA Oddities. The ETA column lists "inf" when the torrent detail panel states: 2d 14mins. Is there a ETA threshold that the column is based on?

Column Settings not saved correctly. It doesn't save correctly the positions that I set the columns... odd.

Right-Click Tray Icon functionality. Start / Stop All Transfers selected on the tray-icon... doesn't.

Suggested Improvements

Scrape Feature. Handy for know what files to download / seed and when. It's one of Azureus' most important features, and it's odd to me that so many other clients lack this feature.

Speed Scheduling The ability to slow or pause torrents based on the time of day or day of the week is critical for households with multiple networked computers using 1 internet connection. BitComet pretty much refuses to add this feature to it's client, and Azureus has a plugin that enables this. It would be quite a boon to µTorrent to have this feature in it's core.

More Column data. Columns like: Tracker Status, availablity should be able to viewed in columns on the torrent list.

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µTorrent has much potential; I can tell already from what I've seen or I wouldn't have bothered to evaluate it as extensively as I have. It is well on its way to becoming my BT Client of choice.

If you need any help with testing, etc, let me know -- I would be more than glad to help you.

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Thank you for your excellent evaluation. I will fix most (if not all) of your issues in uTorrent 1.1 which is scheduled to be released in a few days.

I've already implemented download limiting, both global and per torrent.

Calendar based upload/download rates doesn't seem terribly complicated, I'll see if I can add that too.

/Ludvig

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Love the client, But the only thing that would make me to even think about switching over from Rufus would be if the client had custom chokers like the G3 customizable, The LeoVX Anti-Leech etc.. I love these chokers and cant see myself without them, especially the anti-leech choker.

An RSS-Reader wouldn't be a bad idea either. I like having alot of controls over my settings but I can do with out. :D

http://rufus.sourceforge.net/index.php

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All of the issues mentioned herein should be resolved with the new beta client, now available in the download section. The changelog can be viewed under the relevant announcement.

Sounds great. New version works even better than before. I'm impressed. Now if only there were choker settings :lol:

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I only just discovered this client today, and I must agree with the previous posters that it is very impressive. I compare the use of resources to my previous client (Azureus) and it's like a weight lifted off my shoulders. ^_^

I'm definitely switching to this client now, and I hope that support for decentralized tracking will eventually be added. That is, if that can be done without eating up too much resources.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

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I agree with the original poster, this torrent client has so much potential.

I just hope that when it becomes more popular and you look towards making money from it you don't go in the adware/spyware direction...

Rather make it open source and get help managing this overwhelming feature request flood :)

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I agree with the original poster, this torrent client has so much potential.

I just hope that when it becomes more popular and you look towards making money from it you don't go in the adware/spyware direction...

Rather make it open source and get help managing this overwhelming feature request flood :)

Even though I'm a huge fan of Open Source Software, In the long run I can't see anything good coming out of releasing the source code to this client. It would be good for us users who could add features, but I can see the rip-off clients already. Especially since this one is unique in its filesize and efficiency.

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µTorrent will remain closed source as long as it can be supported by us. This may change if there comes a time where we can no longer develop or provide support for µTorrent. This decision helps make the software consistent and one-of-a-kind through its lifecycle.

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If Vurlix puts spyware in any software he makes, i will personally go to his house and kick the crap out of him for you all :)

But seriously, knowing him like I do I know very well that spyware/adware will never be placed in this software--ever. Nor will there be any stupidly annoying ad banners on the site, although I can agree with a couple of ad banners to help out.

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I agree with the original poster, this torrent client has so much potential.

I just hope that when it becomes more popular and you look towards making money from it you don't go in the adware/spyware direction...

Rather make it open source and get help managing this overwhelming feature request flood :)

Even though I'm a huge fan of Open Source Software, In the long run I can't see anything good coming out of releasing the source code to this client. It would be good for us users who could add features, but I can see the rip-off clients already. Especially since this one is unique in its filesize and efficiency.

Rip off clients? Wouldn't people either:

1) Contribute to the current utorrent project

2) Fork it

I would think ripping it off would be illegal.

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Funny the first thign i thought when i saw this client is man it looks like azureus hehe. I like the program seeing i have the ram and the harddrive space azureus works for me now i just need that dualcore processor this is something i will keep and eye on and that rufus project too :)

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µTorrent will remain closed source as long as it can be supported by us. This may change if there comes a time where we can no longer develop or provide support for µTorrent. This decision helps make the software consistent and one-of-a-kind through its lifecycle.

More like "This decision helps make the software proprietary and restricted trhough its lifecycle.

I'll keep Azureus. It actually runs on my computers.

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More like "This decision helps make the software proprietary and restricted trhough its lifecycle.

I'll keep Azureus. It actually runs on my computers.

I fail to see how a BitTorrent client that is following the BitTorrent standards can be considered proprietary?

That is like saying Winamp is a proprietary program... when that couldn't be further from the truth.

Closed source does not make proprietary, and frankly I see no reason for this to be open source. The current dev's have a handle on things.

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what about cross-platform porting?

i really like utorrent just from using it for about 1 day so far and i would love to see it offered for linux as well (and i guess mac is ok too), but i don't know if this will easily happen without making the source open to other developers - or do you guys have no desire to see it on other systems?

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Ah okay, I was just going by what someone else said to me.

[16:22:30] <&segosa> linux support is planned for utorrent in the not-so-near future

[16:22:40] <&scott> hot diggity damn

[16:22:43] <&segosa> mac os comes first

[16:22:48] <&scott> that's the best enws I've heard all day

[16:22:53] <&segosa> yep

[16:23:09] <&scott> mac os x and linux are very similar, so the porting from mac to nix will be sweet and quick

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