Holy shit. Utorrent is still around??
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
This is a strong claim. Please elaborate.
I think the mining lasted for only a few weeks until they reverted this.
But IIRC the shady stuff started way before 2015 anyway (2010?), with their browser toolbar malware stuff, Conduit etc.
Crypto mining was only the icing on the cake and a small part of the enshittification.
My source: installed it 20ish years ago, worked great for a while. Reinstalled it a couple years later, it crammed down my throat adware, browser toolbars, crazy bullshit apps I didn’t want. That was on windows, but since that experience I wouldn’t even consider using it even if I went back to windows.
I’ve seen much more people using Transmission on Linux compared to other torrent software, is there a specific reason why Linux users gravitate towards it?
It’s very minimalistic and lightweight compared to QBitTorrent.
However, if you prefer extensibility or if you like the uTorrent UI, then QBitTorrent would be better.
It’s simple and bundled with some distros by default.
Bundling with distros explains a lot. I’ve been a Deluge user even before I moved to Linux but a new user’s much more likely to stick with the first torrent tool that works; which in this case is Transmission that comes by default.
Well packaged by the distros? Transmission works out if the box on my Debian systems.
We had stopped using qbittorrent on Linux because we couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop leaking our IPV6. At the time, it was a few versions behind the windows build too, so it seemed as if it was Windows first, this pushing is towards another client, which ended up being Transmission.
Not that it matters because you are using transmission now but if you are in preferences under advanced there is an option for network interface. If you choose your VPN connection there from the drop down the app won’t connect outside of using that interface. So if the VPN goes down or hasn’t been connected or what not… the app should just read it as no internet connection.
Does transmission have that feature? I still rock qbittorrent for that but I haven’t explored Transmission at all
Not sure I haven’t used transmission much. I’m lazy and used to use qbittorrent because of its search feature was handy. Skip going to a bunch of sites hunting for something and just search it directly from the app. We now have seerr setup, so I don’t use it as much but it’s been a solid setup over the years. Set the machine to split tunnel the VPN, run qbit through the VPN and then host jellyfin or what not on the same machine, so you can kick off a download in sequential order, have the download location set to your jellyfin library, so you just refresh the movies list, and start watching while it downloads. I’m so lazy I’d use rustdesk to remote to the laptop that hosted it so I didnt have to walk to the other room.
Basically spouse says “I heard such and such is good” and then id kick it off and in about 2 minutes we’d be watching it.
(In that setup you don’t need to expose jellyfin to the internet or have a domain, you can just download the jellyfin app on your Roku/android/w.e tv and set the server to http://the.local.ip.address:8096/ and your good to go
For me the same as for others: It was the first option when searching for “bittorrent”, it works, it is easy to use, it does not hog a huge amount of resources, it has good features.
Haven’t really bothered looking into other torrent software after originally starting using Transmission something like over a decade ago.
Lots of Linux users are focused on reducing resource usage, and Transmission is extremely lightweight compared to other torrent programs. It also comes bundled directly with some distros, so lots of Linux users don’t even need to install it manually.
Just remember that without a vpn, any torrent client is still basically broadcasting your ip and what you are downloading
Is there a sexual deviant in your house? Find out now!
You mean, like another one?
Yes, there is. I’m it.
Funny way to get to know your neighbors (cg-nat and all of that)
Yea babe, it’s called cgnat. That is why our neighbours filthy downloads look like it’s coming from our house.
Yeah, I ditched my first private tracker because they enforced use of uTorrent. Kickbacks I assume. I’ve heard they don’t anymore, but I still consider them compromised.
Could have been inertia. uTorrent used to be pretty good a long time ago.
I remember when I replaced Azureus with utorrent. It was amazing - azureus killed my computer and utorrent in its entirety was around 2MB and could handle all the torrents I threw at it. That and azureus/vuze started bundling adware!
I’d moved off to headless torrent clients by the time I read about utorrent bundling malware but I think it goes back to 2011.
Malware bundling was a risk of unofficial sources for the uTorrent installer - real malware-ification began around 2014-16.
Transmission gang checking in.
I use qbittorrent, but I respect Transmission
I’ve been using oldversion.com to download the last version of uTorrent before it got enshitified.
Haven’t checked lately if the website itself is still reliable, but it used to be.
uTorrent has been malware for over 10 years. I would not recommend using such out of date software when good trusted modern open source software exists.
Is that a good way to run unpatched software?
Yes, it is. Use at your own caution lol
I didn’t think uTorrent was still around.
I think a lot of nontechnical people or computer newbies have an assumption in their head that if you want free shit, you’ll have to pay in other ways, like with advertising or tracking. It’s just the way of the world that nothing is free. There’s no free lunch. If a bittorrent client that you use to get free movies has ads, there must be no better options. We’re bombarded with this idea constantly. Television, radio, streaming, social media. You get it for free but pay with your attention to ads. We’ve all been this person at some point.
Then you discover that there are other options, that there are groups of passionate nerds dedicating half of their lives to making useful stuff, distributing it to the world, and expecting nothing in return. This can’t be real, right? What’s the catch? I thought making software was so hard and boring that nobody would do it in exchange for nothing. But it’s real. All this time you’ve been using crap software that nags you to try their other product, promotes products which have no earthly use, secretly captures information you expect to remain private, but there was this amazing thing outside the castle walls which does none of that. How did I not know about this before? Who are these altruistic people? I want to meet them.
Then you dig in more and find out about the free software movement. Some old hippie at MIT was mad he couldn’t get his printer working because the manufacturer refused to supply the source code. He saw software being closed up and becoming industrial rather than academic, transitioning to making a profit, and couldn’t bear it. Then we got linux, and all the systems around it, and all the distros, and there was once IBM who created the open PC standard, the copyleft/permissive division over licenses, and so on. Somewhere in the world, there is a 14-year-old learning about all this for the first time just as we did, and maybe it’s all a little different because of AI and smartphones and that Stallman is more well-known to be sort of a creep, but it’s still part of the history for how we got to where we are today.
First, I want to express my appreciation for the post. It’s well written and thought provoking. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
I was the person you described in the first paragraph until the last few years, starting with my first Linux distro. It was the doorway into a world of amazingly functional yet free software.
I’m still gratefully surprised on a regular basis at the sheer amount and scope of FOSS. I spent the evening rooting my LG TV, the one product I most grudgingly enjoyed (fuck LG’s surveillance) and not only was I able to disable said surveillance, but tweaking some settings and installing a few homebrewed applications has made my TV so much better. Even the Plex application, PlxNative, is leagues better than stock.
Now I look like some sort of tech wizard to my family, but all of this is truly due to the contributions of the very community you describe - I’m just a monkey that can read a guide and push buttons. The real fucking wizards here are those contributing to these projects.
After degoogling I noticed that FOSS usually comes with less convenience and maturity, so you choose either your data or you loose the bells and whistles.
Depends on where in the curve the enshittification of the competition has become. Windows 11 seems like convenience and maturity, until you realize that desktop Linux has been a far more functional product for years, and it doesn’t what you take, take, take from you every chance it can get.
Photoshop seems like convenience and maturity, until you realize you have options that don’t want to charge you hundreds of dollars a month.
Hell, after using both Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve, I just flat out prefer the latter. And the improvements Blackmagic has put out for the last few major releases prove that they will continue to improve their software. Granted, Resolve isn’t exactly FOSS, but it is free, and I can at least respect them way way more than Adobe’s shitty business models.
How y’all feel about Tixati? I like it and think it’s great
Proprietary software for torrents?
The fact that it’s proprietary is a deal breaker for me.
I know.
Barely using either anymore.
*arr stack all talks to RealDebridClient just as if it were qbitorrent and it proxies torrent through debrid provider.
Thats how prowlarr gets all my Linux distros.
docker+VPN+transmission ftw.
What about tixati ?
It’s good, but it’s aggressive ability to download sequentially has banned it from a lot of private trackers. On public trackers it’s great because you can start watching something within seconds of queuing it.
But if you use tixati, do seed more than usual since tixati strains network with its sequential downloading. Or better yet, use it only and only when you need to start watching something within seconds of queuing it.
