For Firon - uTorrent is a joke now

[Ryuudou]

I want you to know you're going to hell for ruining such a great program. For years now I've silently watched the program descend into this utter mess; the state is currently so bad that the tech savvy community shuns the program en masse (for example the torrentfreak.com community).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_creep

You, Firon, being a senior programmer know *exactly* what you're doing, and why it's bad practice. That's probably the worst part, aside from the sole reality that uTorrent is a complete bloated mess now. It's a torrent client, not an all-purpose utility kit, and NO ONE SHOULD BE PAYING for any version of it. This current uTorrent is garbage, and isn't even worth HDD space. This is why me and many others (take a look) stopped upgrading after 2.2 which is the last semi-decent (semi because it was already on a decline then) before the MONSTROSITY that is uTorrent 3. Garbage. You should honestly be ashamed of yourself. Take a hint from Foobar2k and mIRC; because the uTorrent we all knew used to be in that tier of excellence, but is now in Kazaa/Windows ME/shit/laughable software tier.

Of course you know all of this just as well as me (but choose to ruin things out of cooperate interest and financial greed), so I want you to know you won't live this way without a guilty conscience.

[Doctor Nick]

At least the Web UI still looks like μTorrent.

[nickeaston]

As a refugee from Azureus about 3 years ago, I found uTorrent quite refreshing in contrast and simplicity. What app are you suggesting to replace uT?

One uT annoyance, the incomplete/bencode issue, has virtually disappeared in past months for some unknown but welcome reason...

[CeeBeePee]

Sadly, I have to add my voice to this posting. I simply loathe the new uTorrent interface. It is totally horrendous. Once upon a time uTorrent used to have a brilliant, simple, spreadsheet style interface that you could manipulate at will to show exactly what you wanted. You could, for example see at a glance exactly what was downloading and what was stalled, which was fastest, which you had been seeding the longest etc etc. Now, instead, we have this completely kludgy semigraphical interface (Ugh!) that can't even manage to display complete sentences and which renders all this useful information unobtainable. Right now I can see a partial message that says "Possibly insufficient ....". I have no idea what is "insufficient" or what to do about it and I have to scroll through a long list of useless folder icons to see what was once displayed all on a single screen! Gimme a break from wannabe programming "improvements" please....

On my machine I can't see any toolbar. Apparently this doesn't work on Windows 2000 machines any longer (which is a shame given that Windows 2000 is now free software and is still in use on millions of machines right around the world and particularly in developing countries where it is growing steadily).

Similarly I have had no success whatsoever with using "Magnet" links. I tried one from TPB and it seemed to be automatically added to uTorrent because the number of files being downloaded increased by one .... but there was no reference to this download anywhere until I stopped and restarted uTorrent when it magically appeared in the file list but not the download list. Even when these magnet links do show up the seem to sit there doing nothing forever and yet, when I download the matching torrent file downloading starts immediately ... so it is not because of a dearth of seeders or peers.

Magnet links from Torrindex also don't show up in uTorrent at all, anywhere ... even after a reboot although the "downloading" index is incremented with each new Magnet File selected which means that uTorrent is, theoretically, doing something with these magnet links.

Can we do away with all these useless "visual" improvements please and get back to something that actually works and that is fast, simple and easy to use - like uTorrent was before the lunatics took over.

[jbebad]

Insead of whinning all the time over the features of FREE product, either develop your own or move to a client you like. If you "loved" the old client, you should have kept a copy of it and never upgraded. There will NEVER be an occasion where an entire group will 100% agree on the features of a software program. Any organization that develops software continuilly trys to improve the product and add new features that will benefit the most people. uTorrent is no different. They have a high percentage of the user community and are trying their best to provide the best product available - based on the number of users - they are succeding. As with all software development - nothing is perfect. But ranting just for the sake of ranting solves nothing and offers nothing to the uTorrent staff to help them improve the product. If you want features - post your request. If you do not want the new features - don't upgrade. If you want to leave uTorrent - don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.

[CeeBeePee]

jbebad your take it or leave it response was predictable and is frankly too simplistic and a little self-serving and fails to address the very real issues that I raised.

The point that I was trying to make, and which you obviously missed, is that change for change sake is not good policy. In fact changes for change sake is almost always detrimental as can be seen with the interface changes to recent version of uTorrent.

Sure, there have been many improvements with uTorrent that I love, the facility to implement UDP trackers being one that quickly springs to mind. However changes to the uTorrent interface benefit nobody and it is hard to fathom why such changes were even contemplated let alone implemented.

The spreadsheet style interface was universally loved by all users and it worked flawlessly and quickly. In fact, this interface was so good that it was copied by almost every other bit torrent client out there. So if it worked, and if everybody liked it then why change it? Did we gain anything from this "update"? Clearly the answer to that is a resounding "no". In fact this new interface provides significantly less information and is less user friendly and more wasteful of resources that ever before. So I ask again .... why implement changes if it offers no benefits and, in fact, actually makes things worse?

These changes are bad, not only for uTorrent users but for the bit-torrent community in general. Let me explain: As a member of the bit-torrent community I try and behave like a "good citizen". In practical terms this means that I always keep completed torrents online until I have served back at least as much as I downloaded. Occasionally where a 1:1 or better ratio proves impossible .... i try to keep a torrent active for as many months as possible to give other users a change to share my files. With older versions of uTorrent it was easy to see which files had the highest ratio and which could be removed. It was easy to see which files had been online for the longest time. With the latest interface on uTorrent is no longer possible and because this information is no longer available it tends to make users more casual about their responsibilities as good bit-torrent citizens and that hurts us all.

Frankly your bleating about the poor old programmers who develop uTorrent for free cuts no ice with me. Bad software is bad software no matter who writes it and regardless of the price. I am sure that the people who really want uTorrent to succeed would prefer to see honest and constructive criticism from their users rather than a raft of sycophantic praises.

Sure it would be easy to switch to another BT Client .... but I have been using uTorrent almost since it started and I would prefer to see the product I love getting better with each passing development rather than getting worse. Software developers who don't take user feedback seriously also risk losing most of their clients as happened with Symantec when it kept "improving" Norton Anti-Virus to a point where it became almost unusable and more than 75% of its user base deserted to other anti-virus products.

[jbebad]

Most of what you said boils down to this. You do not like changes in the application and feel there is no value to the changes unless it is something you approve of. As far as ratios go you can see the ratio by just displaying the column. It is not hard and takes very little effort.

Constructive criticism is always welcome by any software developer - the pointing out of bugs and the request for future enhancements. It helps them improve the product.

I do not have the stats of the request for features, but enhancements are not done on a whim. Time and resources are too precious to waste. If you do not agree with the direction the software is taking, then you have three choices. 1. Get a job at uTorrent, become the product manger. then change the direction toward what you feel it should be - I assure you there are people out there will be saying the same thing you are saying about what you are doing (or will do) to uTorrent. 2. Go to another torrent client. Find one that makes you happy and who refuses to change unless you approve. Lots of luck on that. 3. Come up with a better approach to sway the uTorrent team to go in the direction you want it to go; persuade rather than bully, intimidate or threaten.

if uTorrent was as bad as you and others have made it out to be, they would never have the user base they do. There may be some people who will prefer a different client, but there are more that join and "love" the features that are being added. And based on the number of current users - I doubt threats from a few malcontents to go to another product will change a software product teams direction - you can never make everyone happy.

But saying the program is becoming c--p,., the UI is a piece of s--t, ... etc. is over the line. Threats of "I'll find another torrent client" serve no useful purpose and are not needed. People that have to resort to threats should just leave. (Note: My point is not so much about the "Poor Programmers", but rather being civil and not acting like a little kid saying "if you do not do - what I want the way I want - I'll take my toys and go home". As far as I am concerned they do not have to say anything - just go.)

[Sophist]

Whilst I don't have quite the emotional feeling that the OP has, I do agree that uTorrent is becoming bloated.

I would refer everyone to the top of this web page where it clearly states:

a (very) tiny BitTorrent client

I think that most people will agree that uTorrent has moved away from this ideal even if we disagree about how much it has moved, how useful the changes are, whether it is right for the author to focus on money making features etc.

There is (as always) a lot to be said for "keeping it simple".