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BitTorrent's Maelstrom browser enters open beta
- jszymborski 11y agoA totally neutral decentralize network run on closed software run by a corporation? Forgive me if I don't buy into it.
- ComputerGuru 11y agoAnd BitTorrent isn't the company it once was, developing software and protocols with a vision and for a purpose. Just look at what a pile of infested crap uTorrent has become.
- ruggeri 11y agoYes, I do not trust any BitTorrent software. I wasn't being careful at installation and was shocked to find uTorrent changed my default search engine and added a bunch of bookmarks. I wasn't even aware it was developed by BitTorrent. On the positive side: Transmission works great!
- ComputerGuru 11y agoIt wasn't. They bought it out several years ago. You can still find the last original version on the net somewhere - it's surprisingly good and has aged really well. In fact, I get better performance out of it than out of Deluge or Transmission. Edit: here you are. you can still run it without instaing even: http://www.filehorse.com/download-utorrent/7858/ http://www.filehorse.com/download-utorrent/7858/
- slacka 11y agoOf course Deluge, written in python can not compare to uTorrent's tightly optimized C++ code. Transmission is better, but its back-end (libTransmission) is not as well optimized as libtorrent-rasterbar. Any C++ client based on rasterbar such as qBittorrent should offer similar performance to uTorrent. If you don't require streaming, older uTorrect clients are still your best option. If you do, it IS possible to install the recent version of uTorrect without any external adware and to disable all of the banner ads.[1] [1] http://forum.utorrent.com/topic/81421-321-how-to-turn-off-ads-except-for-the-silly-upgrade-banner/page-3 http://forum.utorrent.com/topic/81421-321-how-to-turn-off-ad...
- adrusi 11y agoThe performance of bittorrent has almost nothing to do with the performance of the language the client is written in. Its not an io-bound task. Performance in bittorrent comes from selecting the right chunks at the right time from the right peers. I think utorrent uses its own algorithm whereas both deluge and transmission use libtorrent's built in algorithm (which is configurable, but only to an extent). Transmission and deluge often max out my bandwidth though, so its not like they're poor performers.
- slacka 11y agoDeluge and Transmission do NOT use the same libtorrent back-end. Also, you may be right about Deluge not being CPU bound on your i7 based desktop, but I can tell you from first hand experience that both Deluge and the Java based Vuze were maxing out my Atom based home server. Switching to the C++ based qBittorrent, resolved the issue.
- baldfat 11y agoaria2c on command line. Fastest download application ever for everything including bittorrent and including metalinks.
- jszymborski 11y agoI'd just be a little bit afraid of security issues no? There have been a couple of uTorrent vulnerabilities in the past. http://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=6117&product_id=0&version_id=0&page=1&hasexp=0&opdos=0&opec=0&opov=0&opcsrf=0&opgpriv=0&opsqli=0&opxss=0&opdirt=0&opmemc=0&ophttprs=0&opbyp=0&opfileinc=0&opginf=0&cvssscoremin=0&cvssscoremax=0&year=0&month=0&cweid=0&order=1&trc=9&sha=7820e6ca025f1883b7fbfe5f1a0e31a4a92cfb91 http://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=6...
- homulilly 11y agoHas BitTorrent the company ever not been shady? It seems like Bram Cohen made one cool open source project and then sold out as soon as he realized he could get rich off of it. Not that I wouldn't probably do the same but I'd probably draw the line at installing malware and lying to my users.
- baldfat 11y agoI have been using Bit Torrent Sync and I feel the same way. In action it works but in terms of philosophy it doesn't for me. Though the decentralized network could make all our concerns could totally be unfounded since if there was something not right we have the tools to find it through the bits it sends.
- killerpopiller 11y agowhat is with the wining that bittorrent isn't open source? most of the software you use isn't FOSS. they came up with great tech. Why is Sync such a let down? It works very well for me. Not knowing what a software might be doing is problematic but isn't it the standard?
- deno 11y ago> most of the software you use isn't FOSS. > Not knowing what a software might be doing is problematic but isn't it the standard? This sounds so bizarre after using Linux for so long. Most of the software I use is indeed FOSS. As far as BitTorrent Sync alternatives go check out Syncthing[https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/].
- StavrosK 11y agoDoes Syncthing work well?
- dewarrn1 11y agoI've been using it for about 6 months and I've been very satisfied.
- danieldk 11y agoIt has some serious limitations compared to Bittorrent Sync. E.g. BTSync can relies on a tracker to find peers and uses relay servers in case port forwarding cannot be set up. Syncthing does not have anything like that yet, meaning that it cannot traverse many firewalls that you don't have under control. E.g. at work, all incoming connections are blocked unless they are initiated from within. So, Syncthing wouldn't work. It's pretty much the same with many hotels, etc. So, if you are on the go, it may not be any good. Another problem that I have with Syncthing is usability. With BTSync I can be pretty sure that if I send a sharing link to family, that they will be able to install the software and use the link. Syncthing would be too difficult to set up for most family members or friends. So, if you are looking for syncing some machines on a network under your own control, Syncthing is great. If you are looking for a Dropbox replacement that works everywhere with good sharing capabilities, BTSync is clearly the winner of the two.
- joshstrange 11y agoAmen, I don't trust BitTorrent (the company) at all. Sync was a MASSIVE let down and it feels like they've backtracked on decentralization and are just trying to slap their name on a bunch of products that leverage bittorrent (the technology) in some way even when the products don't align with what, I feel like, the majority of BT users want (open/decentralized).
- lewisl9029 11y agoSilently bundling cryptomining software with uTorrent is what crossed the line for me (not that I had very high regard for the company in the first place). I've since then switched to open-source alternatives of their products and will not touch anything else they make from now on, and advise everyone I know to do the same (unless they eventually open-source their products, which I highly doubt would ever happen).
- ryanlol 11y agoWell, they weren't doing it "silently", users had to agree to install the miner.
- dmix 11y agoSyncthing is great though, which is an OSS clone of Sync. After I saw the awful security review for BT Sync, which is a massive closed-source C++ codebase, I switched to Syncthing which that is written in Go and posted on Github [0]. I find it has a better UI and it's more reliable than Sync in terms of connectivity/syncing speed. Maybe some people will be inspired by Maelsto, create a nice clone, and release it open-source. [0] https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing [1] http://2014.hackitoergosum.org/bittorrentsync-security-privacy-analysis-hackito-session-results/ http://2014.hackitoergosum.org/bittorrentsync-security-priva...
- danieldk 11y agoSyncthing is great though, which is an OSS clone of Sync. It doesn't offer anything near the features of Sync, requires that you have control over the firewall or the firewall is set up to use uPnP (which is not true for many networks I use on the go), is be difficult to install for friends or family I would want to share files with, and doesn't offer sharing invitation links. Syncthing is great for a subset of use cases of BTSync, it's mostly pre-1.4 BTSync (minus the trackers and relay servers to make it usable when you do not have control over the firewall.). After I saw the awful security review for BT Sync, Well, it was mostly the security review that was awful (did you read it, of course BTSync accesses the update server). iSec Partners also did a review of BT Sync and found it to be secure. Disclaimer: relatively happy user of Bittorrent Sync. Just not too happy with their monetization model, would have preferred purchasing the software, rather than a subscription model.
- hellbanner 11y agoWhat's your hardware setup & web browser setup?
- agumonkey 11y agoLet's release the FOSS kraken and see if they turn the inspiration into something we all would like to try.
- jszymborski 11y agoThat's what I like to hear :) This sort of thing reminds me of MaidSafe, but I haven't really seen any traction in the years it's been around...
- Torgo 11y agoI would really rather read technical details about how this works. I looked into the mutable torrent specification (that lets you make changes to a torrent) as a way to create a bittorrent "hosted" blog, but mutable torrents ultimately need a feed hosted by an http server, which destroys the decentralization. I am not on Windows, I cannot try this out if it's currently Windows-only.
- michaelmcmillan 11y agoForgive my ignorance, but could you not use the same concept as the blockchain?
- sktrdie 11y agoNot really. The blockchain is meant to work for transaction type of information, not documents. It also keeps all of the transactions ever made. This type of web would probably contain a lot more information than that. Therefore you wouldn't want every peer with a copy of the whole web.
- Adlai 11y agoThe case where this is relevant is in decentralized source control. The only project I know of that set out to tackle this is dead in the water: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/612530753/gitchain/posts/994542 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/612530753/gitchain/post...
- Torgo 11y agoThat probably actually would be possible by emitting a negligible transaction from an address under one's control that has the SHA1 sum of the torrent encoded inside the OP_RETURN. This would be sufficient to construct a bittorrent magnet link to download the post/data/whatever. The bitcoin address itself would act as the feed. This doesn't rely solely on bittorrent, but nevertheless that does seem like a workable, decentralized solution for publishing a bittorrent feed. Bitcoin solves another problem, thanks! Another neat side-effect of using a bitcoin address like that is that people could make donations to you through it :-)
- pfraze 11y agoCopying my comment from the other thread today (which got lost): I gave the beta a shot. It's a chromium fork with added support for browsing to magnet links. Basically, it's making BT a Web protocol. Not a bad idea. Performance is inconsistent so far. Sometimes the downloads stall or fail for no apparent reason. Sometimes I can't find any seeders. Sometimes it works great. (Same old bit-torrent!)
- homulilly 11y agoCool idea but coming from the BitTorrent company? I'll pass. After what happened with the original BitTorrent Client and BitTorrent Sync I'd have to be an idiot to give them another chance.
- joshbuddy 11y agoCare to elaborate?
- homulilly 11y agoAfter they bought µTorrent they started bundling tons of adware, including, most recently, a bitcoin miner. Sync started out as a pretty cool decentralized self-hosted dropbox replacement that was incredibly easy to use. After promising the free version would never be limited they did a 180 and limited it to 10 shares when they launched a commercial version and ruined usability with a bunch of access controls and user accounts. Obviously they have to make money somehow and it's perfectly within their rights to do so but they've shown that their business model has been to offer a product for free and then, once they suck people in, break promises and use underhanded ways to monetize. Knowing maelstrom is likely to end up filled with ads or under an overpriced subscription model once it's done killed any interest I might have had in the product.
- danieldk 11y agoYou can still create 1.4-style folders with 2.0. The 10 folder limit sucks and they broke their promise with that. I think lot of people would've been happier if 2.0 shares were limited to 10, but an unlimited number of 1.4 shares was still possible.
- joshbuddy 11y agoThank you for the reply. Very useful to know. I never got to try out sync.
- malkia 11y agoCentralized decentralization
- sktrdie 11y agoAm I suppose to remember that long hash? I'd like if they provided us with some information how this works. Otherwise http://ipfs.io/ http://ipfs.io/ seems like a better approach that works in a way that I can actually understand.
- rich90usa 11y agoIt doesn't look like ipfs has human friendly named pointers yet either? At least that's what I gather from their documentation: http://ipfs.io/docs/commands/#ipfs-name http://ipfs.io/docs/commands/#ipfs-name In answer to your question: bookmarks have been a long standing solution to remembering names. I absolutely understand that it's not the most ideal solution - but hopefully acceptable for a beta. Unfortunately, the linked to TechCrunch article doesn't do much to explain how the browser works. One of the original-source blog posts does a (slightly) better job of explaining how things work - or at least points you in the direction: http://blog.bittorrent.com/2015/04/10/project-maelstrom-developer-tools/ http://blog.bittorrent.com/2015/04/10/project-maelstrom-deve... The hashes directly represent the infohash for the created torrent website.
- sktrdie 11y agoDo you guys plan to release a video about it works? For example, how do you deal with content changing? If my index.html file changes, do I need to distribute a new torrent? I mean, it's a cool idea and all, but why not release a thorough explanation perhaps in the form of a scientific publication?
- twoodfin 11y agoI continue to be surprised that the Web standards folk and browser vendors haven't (AFAIK) pursued a standard for content addressable resources backed by a common DHT. There's Magnet, but it doesn't have much traction outside of the usual P2P clients.
- shortcut 11y agoSimilar project, but OpenSource and works on any OS/Browser: https://github.com/HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet https://github.com/HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet (Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto + the BitTorrent network)