The Linux Applications Alternative Series: Bittorrent

Published on January 11, 2009 in Software by Rami Taibah

It’s been a while since I updated this blog, and sorry, I know that a lot of people eagerly wait to see what I have to say (hehe :D ). First of all I wish you all a belated happy Christmas and New Years. Lately, I have been struggling with new things to blog about, I know that there are a lot of undiscovered territories, but I have been having some difficulty into venturing into them. Maybe because at the end am just a “noob” and don’t really understand a lot of technical things, despite me pretending to. If you have any ideas or articles you would like to see please contact me or tweet me.

Its a common misconception that Linux doesn’t have applications for day to day computing, nothing can be further from the truth. In fact I would wager that there is an alternative for any app/function out there. And since this blogs claims to “bring Linux to the masses” I thought it would be a good idea to write a series of blogs about the different apps available to Linux users in different categories.This article’s category will be: Bittorrent Clients:

1-Ktorrent

ktorrent-30_kde-4

Ktorrent is the default torrent client for the KDE desktop, but obviously can work on any other desktop like GNOME. It supports:

You can easily install it on a Debian system by invoking

sudo apt-get install ktorrent

2-qBittorrent

qBittorrent Developed by a university student (Christophe Dumez) from France, it aims to have a small foot-print, to be powerful, intuitive and visually attractive.

sudo apt-get install qbittorrent

3-Deluge

Deluge is intended to bring a native, full-featured client to GTK desktop environments such as GNOME and Xfce. An official Windows port is also available. Head to their download page to get the latest release.

4-rTorrent

rTorrent is a text-based  BitTorrent client “with a focus on high performance and good code” It is definitely not for the light of heart, but once you configure it properly and get a hang of it, it works just great! There is nothing a GUI based client can do that rTorrent can’t. Highly recommended for your geek cred ;)

Kmandla’s blog has a great guide for rTorrent, it basically put me on the right path for “leet” torrenting.

5-Transmission

transmission-ubuntu

Transmission uses a smaller amount of system resources than many other BitTorrent clients. The project aims to strike a balance between providing useful functionality without feature bloat. Keeping the interface simple and intuitive on all platforms is a key design goal. As of January 14th 2008, transmission has been adopted by the Ubuntu distro.

6-Vuze (Azureus)

vuze_2

Azureus is almost synonymous with Bittorrent. I personally know a lot of non-tech savvy people that think Azureus is just a program like Napster or Limewire. They use it as a separate entity, search for media there and download, if they can’t find it on Azureus they are dumbstruck! Totally oblivious to the technology, how it works, and the 1000′s of avenues they can explore. LOL

Personally, am not really a fan of Azureus, primarily because its such a resource hog. But also I dislike the newer interface, its too commercialized and cluttered. But don’t let me make your decision for you, the client itself is widely popular, you might like it :)

7-uTorrent (on wine)

Last and definitely not least, I have to mention uTorrent. This is a client that I dream to have natively on Linux, and to be honest its the best out there in my opinion. No wonder the Apple community rejoiced when a native uTorrent client was released for OS X.

Running uTorrent on wine is as easy as 1-2-3. Just download it, and run it through wine. If you have any problems just leave a comment :)

So there you have it, 7 clients for all your heart’s content. Now don’t do anything illegal with them ;) . What client do you use? Did I miss any? Do you recommend any more?

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About

Rami Taibah the founder of The Linuxologist and a self proclaimed geek and Linux aficionado. This fall, he will be pursuing an MIMS degree at UC Berkeley, California. You can follow him on Twitter @rtaibah.

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  • http://www.noahbeach.com nahs

    agreed with this, been using btpd for about a year now with no issues. runs 24/7 on my seed box.

  • Anon

    Pretty funny how the best client, uTorrent, is actually a Windows application. Why not just run it on the copy of Windows that came free with your machine?

    • notrealdan

      Windows isn't free in any sense of the word.

    • elcaset

      Unfortunately, when you buy a new computer with Windows on it, you are paying for that Windows OS.

      Windows isn't free as in price or freedom.

    • phil

      I buy PCs without windows. (latest: Acer Aspire One) and I thank God that we are able to do that today in our “free” countries

  • Anon

    Pretty funny how the best client, uTorrent, is actually a Windows application. Why not just run it on the copy of Windows that came free with your machine?

  • notrealdan

    Windows isn't free in any sense of the word.

  • http://linuxologist.com Rami Taibah

    Point taken LordNecros. Thank you very much for your constructive comment. In fact I will try to fit something in this blog. And will def. take this comment in future blogs of the series…

  • elcaset

    I like to use BitTyrant on GNU/Linux. It's like Azureus before the change to Vuze.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTyrant
    http://bittyrant.cs.washington.edu/

  • elcaset

    I like to use BitTyrant on GNU/Linux. It's like Azureus before the change to Vuze.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTyrant
    http://bittyrant.cs.washington.edu/

  • MrX
  • MrX
  • elcaset

    Unfortunately, when you buy a new computer with Windows on it, you are paying for that Windows OS.

    Windows isn't free as in price or freedom.

  • q
    • http://www.noahbeach.com nahs

      agreed with this, been using btpd for about a year now with no issues. runs 24/7 on my seed box.

  • q
  • Ryan

    I completely agree about utorrent. I use it heavily in linux with very limited issues in Wine. It is by far the best designed Torrent application out there.

    Deluge is pretty good though. My main complaint about the rest of the torrent clients is the lack of sorting columns. Such as Added On and Completed On.

  • Ryan

    I completely agree about utorrent. I use it heavily in linux with very limited issues in Wine. It is by far the best designed Torrent application out there.

    Deluge is pretty good though. My main complaint about the rest of the torrent clients is the lack of sorting columns. Such as Added On and Completed On.

  • LordNecros

    “Its a common misconception that Linux doesn’t have applications for day to day computing..”
    Huh?
    No, no its not. That's an utterly ridiculous premise given that every modern distro -ships- with applications for day to day computing.
    To argue that people believe the apps aren't out there presumes that the majority of its users don't realize what applications are installed.

    While your effort to inform people of the specific torrent applications is laudable, in its intent, you fail to offer solid pros and cons for the clients. Certainly, people are quite capable of trying them out for themselves, and to some extent, I think doing so is a good thing. Who better to know what a person wants then they themselves?
    But you most short one-liner comments about each, without giving any real direction. The -strongest- impression of any the clients I got concerned rTorrent, and that was simply the understanding that rTorrent is terminal based, and that in the author's opinion, my use of terminal based applications will increase my mojo amongst fellow linux users.
    You could have pointed out that Deluge is essentially uTorrent, written for linux, but built on an independent codebase, uTorrent being closed. You could have explained the integrated media features of Vuze/Azureus, but instead you spoke of it as though to someone who was already in the know, and had no need of you telling them about it.

    So if you do find time to continue the series, please, try and justify the applications.

    • http://hehe2.net bianconeri4ever

      Point taken LordNecros. Thank you very much for your constructive comment. In fact I will try to fit something in this blog. And will def. take this comment in future blogs of the series…

  • LordNecros

    “Its a common misconception that Linux doesn’t have applications for day to day computing..”
    Huh?
    No, no its not. That's an utterly ridiculous premise given that every modern distro -ships- with applications for day to day computing.
    To argue that people believe the apps aren't out there presumes that the majority of its users don't realize what applications are installed.

    While your effort to inform people of the specific torrent applications is laudable, in its intent, you fail to offer solid pros and cons for the clients. Certainly, people are quite capable of trying them out for themselves, and to some extent, I think doing so is a good thing. Who better to know what a person wants then they themselves?
    But you most short one-liner comments about each, without giving any real direction. The -strongest- impression of any the clients I got concerned rTorrent, and that was simply the understanding that rTorrent is terminal based, and that in the author's opinion, my use of terminal based applications will increase my mojo amongst fellow linux users.
    You could have pointed out that Deluge is essentially uTorrent, written for linux, but built on an independent codebase, uTorrent being closed. You could have explained the integrated media features of Vuze/Azureus, but instead you spoke of it as though to someone who was already in the know, and had no need of you telling them about it.

    So if you do find time to continue the series, please, try and justify the applications.

  • richaoj
  • cdkrowley

    I like to use vuze with the new interface disabled.

  • cdkrowley

    I like to use vuze with the new interface disabled.

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  • http://www.mojauto.rs CarGuy

    I completely agree about utorrent

  • http://www.mojauto.rs CarGuy

    I completely agree about utorrent

  • http://www.noahbeach.com nahs

    agreed with this, been using btpd for about a year now with no issues. runs 24/7 on my seed box.

  • http://linuxologist.com Rami Taibah

    Point taken LordNecros. Thank you very much for your constructive comment. In fact I will try to fit something in this blog. And will def. take this comment in future blogs of the series…

  • http://dannybuntu.blogspot.com dannybuntu

    Well, you could count opera as a browser-bittorrent client. Also frostwire.

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  • phil

    I buy PCs without windows. (latest: Acer Aspire One) and I thank God that we are able to do that today in our “free” countries

  • http://ventrix.nsdc.gr Ventrix

    Check out torrentflux (http://www.torrentflux.com/).

    It is written in python, it is VERY light and fast, has a web interface where you can manage your torrents from anywhere.

    I'm using it for over one year without any problem.

    • Alex Polite

      Transmission comes with a built in web interface. To my experience it's uses less resources then torrentflux.

  • phil

    I buy PCs without windows. (latest: Acer Aspire One) and I thank God that we are able to do that today in our “free” countries

  • http://yousef.raffah.com Yousef Raffah | ???? ????

    Thanks for the reminder. I never gave rTorrent a try but your post here encouraged me. Running it now on my FreeBSD box ;)

  • Anonymous

    Forget all others! Deluge Rules!

  • Hannd

    Deluge for president!!

  • http://fumblelog.blogspot.com Sid

    +1 for rtorrent… i have a remote box for my torrents and the best way is to control it through ssh. Another way could be to use Azureus with an RSS feed(see “feed my torrents”).

    Utorrent rocks though…too bad no native client on linux

  • http://linuxologist.com Rami Taibah
  • http://linuxologist.com Rami Taibah
  • spitfire

    Deluge can be also ran on headless computer, controlled by GTK+ or WEB UI (!) from another computer.

  • Zeeded

    I love Transmission

  • giacomo

    I've been using azureus for as long as i've used bit torrent due to the fact that it has the safepeer plugin… well now with vuze it's built in. I would like to use a lower resource consuming client, and also one that gives me a false sense of security when im downloading copyrighted material.

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  • frank

    Vuze has turned into a steaming pile of turd. I'm surprised you even considered it. But isn't it great that we have more than one option.

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