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BitComet – The last File-Sharing Hero?
May 1, 2006
Shareaza hasn’t released a new version since October of 2005. eMule had a token update in March, however the eDonkey variant has remained virtually unchanged for at least a year. FrostWire, a fork of the Gnutella client Limewire last updated in February. Ares has been idle since January, while BearShare remains in hibernation.This trademark slow pace of development has become an increasing standard in the file-sharing world, as many of the top applications progress at an excruciatingly slow pace. File-sharers have become accustomed to such slow development, as WinMX fans often waited years before seeing a subsequent version. Yet during file-sharing’s golden age, progress occurred with greater fever and new, independent networks arose frequently.
If we could transcend today’s file-sharing landscape to 2003, it would be virtually unrecognizable. In three years time, the P2P landscape has changed from being dominated by FastTrack to BitTorrent controlled. No longer is file-sharing preformed solely in a self-contained environment such as Kazaa or WinMX. When these applications were king, all the file-trader needed was to fire up their favorite application, and search for the file desired.
To a growing extent, this is no longer the case as using self contained P2P applications to find a desired file is becoming less of a viable option. Networks like FastTrack have become clogged with corrupt and polluted files, forcing the growth of verified hash link sites. Such hash sites provide the end user with verified links to various materials in the file-sharing world, near guaranteeing a successful match to the file desired. Although several half-hearted attempts to integrate this concept into FastTrack, it ultimately flourished on the more resourceful and advanced BitTorrent and eDonkey2000 networks. Verified sites eventually merged with indexing sites, which provide searchable gateways to the BitTorrent and eDonkey2000 networks.
New P2P network development – the actually community behind the applications – also appears to have stagnated. During the earlier days there never appeared to be a shortage of new P2P or file-sharing networks, as new communities appeared to spring up overnight. What we have today, Ares Galaxy, Gnutella, BitTorrent, FastTrack, eDonkey2000, DirectConnect, is essentially the same stockpile that existed three years ago. FileTopia provided some hope of breaking out of this mold with the purported release of 4.0; however no reportable progress can be documented since last year.
Another move witnessed by the file-sharing community is the transgression of file-sharing and P2P applications towards authorized distribution. Morpheus, Kazaa, eDonkey, even applications placed high on the ivory tower such as Azureus and µTorrent, have implemented some form of authorized distribution deal.
The pace of development has slowed, the number of new networks has diminished, and those actually still in development release upgrades at a considerably less frequent pace. The cause of this slowdown can be attributed to any number of reasons; perhaps most obvious has been the entertainment industry’s crackdown on commercial developers. This crackdown has a far less impact on open source developers, but the widespread and less organized nature of this type of software development leaves the file-sharing world with a considerably slower pace of development.
In fact, file-sharing technology has arguable retrograded. Usenet, one of the oldest Internet mediums (circa 1979 technology), has quickly become one of the top methods for obtaining material online – a concept almost unthinkable only a few years back. BitTorrent progress has limped along, but remains relatively unchanged since its release. The only significant advance to the file-sharing community since 2005 has been the implementation of the DHT (Distributed Hash Table) layer to BitTorrent, Ares Galaxy, and perhaps one day, LimeWire. Yet LimeWire, like its commercial brethren, has been quiet since the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) distributed cease and desist letters to at least a half dozen developers on September 13, 2005.
Although development and new releases may have slowed, the demand for entertainment remains at an all time high. This demand has been supplemented by iTunes to some minor extent; however few file-sharing applications bear any resemblance to the past. Has the file-sharing world simply become complacent in the existing stock of P2P/file-shairng software, networks and communities?
This may be true for a wide margin of P2P and file-sharing software, but there are exceptions. The exception happens to be one of the more controversial file-sharing applications; BitComet. A client residing on BitTorrent, BitComet has managed to defy conventional file-sharing wisdom by keeping up with a feverish level of development. In fact, developer RnySmile has released three updates to BitComet in April – a pace virtually unheard up in the current P2P era. In fact, no P2P or file-sharing application has a comparable release rate.
BitComet is certainly not the last file-sharing application standing. Azureus and µTorrent have kept up a respectable pace, and both have introduced novel concepts and contributions in the furtherance of file-sharing technology. So is BitComet the last man standing, the one file-sharing application left to hold the line, the last hero of the file-sharing world? There’s no easy answer to that question, as many individuals have helped shape the landscape of file-sharing. Many accredit Alberto Treves’ defiance as one of the greater acts of file-sharing heroism, while others feel FrostWire is P2P’s final frontier.
Perhaps the file-sharing world has simply consolidated under BitTorrent. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and right now there doesn’t appear to be a need for the next quantum leap in file-sharing.
The pace of development has slowed, the number of new networks has diminished, and those actually still in development release upgrades at a considerably less frequent pace. The cause of this slowdown can be attributed to any number of reasons; perhaps most obvious has been the entertainment industry’s crackdown on commercial developers. This crackdown has a far less impact on open source developers, but the widespread and less organized nature of this type of software development leaves the file-sharing world with a considerably slower pace of development.
In fact, file-sharing technology has arguable retrograded. Usenet, one of the oldest Internet mediums (circa 1979 technology), has quickly become one of the top methods for obtaining material online – a concept almost unthinkable only a few years back. BitTorrent progress has limped along, but remains relatively unchanged since its release. The only significant advance to the file-sharing community since 2005 has been the implementation of the DHT (Distributed Hash Table) layer to BitTorrent, Ares Galaxy, and perhaps one day, LimeWire. Yet LimeWire, like its commercial brethren, has been quiet since the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) distributed cease and desist letters to at least a half dozen developers on September 13, 2005.
Although development and new releases may have slowed, the demand for entertainment remains at an all time high. This demand has been supplemented by iTunes to some minor extent; however few file-sharing applications bear any resemblance to the past. Has the file-sharing world simply become complacent in the existing stock of P2P/file-shairng software, networks and communities?
This may be true for a wide margin of P2P and file-sharing software, but there are exceptions. The exception happens to be one of the more controversial file-sharing applications; BitComet. A client residing on BitTorrent, BitComet has managed to defy conventional file-sharing wisdom by keeping up with a feverish level of development. In fact, developer RnySmile has released three updates to BitComet in April – a pace virtually unheard up in the current P2P era. In fact, no P2P or file-sharing application has a comparable release rate.
BitComet is certainly not the last file-sharing application standing. Azureus and µTorrent have kept up a respectable pace, and both have introduced novel concepts and contributions in the furtherance of file-sharing technology. So is BitComet the last man standing, the one file-sharing application left to hold the line, the last hero of the file-sharing world? There’s no easy answer to that question, as many individuals have helped shape the landscape of file-sharing. Many accredit Alberto Treves’ defiance as one of the greater acts of file-sharing heroism, while others feel FrostWire is P2P’s final frontier.
Perhaps the file-sharing world has simply consolidated under BitTorrent. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and right now there doesn’t appear to be a need for the next quantum leap in file-sharing.
This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
BitTorrent :: BitTorrent Clients
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