File Sharing: Decentralizing, Open-Source Fasttrack

Eloquence writes: "I've written a comparison of current file sharing software; what's interesting is that the original centralized indexing concepts are losing ground because of filters, and most relevant file sharing systems by now use at least a server-network, or a completely decentralized architecture. Unfortunately, most networks are proprietary, but at least there is now an open-source client to access the most popular network, Fasttrack's Kazaa/Morpheus, which was originally only accessible under Windows (around 500,000 users online at any time)."

swap nut

[heliocentric]

You forgot about looking into Swap Nut [swapnut.com]. I poked at it a few times while in windows and, although I have only ever used napster for file sharing, I liked its ease of use, and the multiple file searches at the same time. It also had other things I liked, like suspecting IPs in the 192.168.x.x range probably wouldn't get me the files I wanted.

Oh, and I was sorta put off when a friend first recomended it by name only... Then I read on their site the idea is By "Going Nuts," users can search for and find almost any type of digital file (audio, video, photos etc.) through a secure [they said secure, not me, I think putting your IP all over creation isn't secure, but I digress] peer-to-peer network.

AudioGalaxy

[epsalon]

AudioGalaxy for Linux does not force you to install any spyware (I don't think there is something like that for Linux), and it's a really great MP3 sharing network.
All hail AudioGalaxy [audiogalaxy.com]!

Re:Lots left out

[Artichoke]

Lopster falls outside of the review's "must have a Win32 port" remit.

But, yes Lopster is the best Linux OpenNap client.

Re:AudioGalaxy

[h0rus]

The Windows version AG(audiogalaxy)satellite lets you opt out of the spyware. You can verify it by using ad-aware(http://www.lavasoftusa.com/).

It still installs spyware

[Anonymous Coward]

I installed AudioGalaxy and it did ask me if I wanted their spyware crap installed on my machine. I said no on both counts (one was for Gator and I can't recall what the other one was).

The next time I rebooted my computer I see the familiar "Please wait while Windows completes installing your software" while still in DOS. Sure enough, both pieces of spyware were installed. Thankfully I have Ad-Aware installed.