This was followed up with KDX, an idiosyncratic, extremely curious program that even offered a native Linux binary (that still works!). The program was (closed-

This was followed up with KDX, an idiosyncratic, extremely curious program that even offered a native Linux binary (that still works!). The program was (closed-source) freeware, and without a viable business model behind it, the developers eventually moved on. But I think that dynamic supported a refreshing alternative experience that flew beneath the radar, took the path less traveled, and achieved closure: my memory of KDX is of a quietly efficient program that felt largely finished. My goodness literally nothing feels like that anymore. It's still offered for download by some of the few remaining Hotline/KDX-compatible file servers that are still floating around out there, like https://preterhuman.net/gethotlinekdx.php https://preterhuman.net/gethotlinekdx.php (scroll down to the KDX heading). I definitely recommend downloading it for the sole reason that, connected to a server, bunch of windows open (what do you expect, it came from Mac OS, of course it's a GUI program), transfers flying along... it'll be using 8MB of RAM. Yes, on Linux. Finished. Compact. Efficient. I wish I could pull out some references for similar programs like it, but I have none :( the closest I can come ideologically is LIST.COM for MS-DOS (!). Ha. But on the subject of file transfer itself, if anyone's curious, a very obscure alternative to Bittorrent and news servers besides Hotline/KDX is DC++. There are quite a few DC++ servers still out there, mostly in Russia (or at least there were when I last checked). I don't remember what client I used when I played with it a while ago, but I remember one of its features was that it would show the total amount of data available across all of the servers currently connected (the protocol works very similarly to Bittorrent but users send full directory trees to the "trackers"). Well, after connecting to every server I could find >:D my client started having serious swap issues so I had to give up, but for a little while there I think the statusbar was showing something like 4 PB+ available. Fun times.