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Over the past few years, Bittorrent has gained much popularity among internet users. It is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol and many choose to use Bittorrent to download their software, be it programming software or music files. The main advantage of the Bittorrent protocol is that it distributes the load off the original host of the file, allowing recipients to transfer smaller portions of the file to newer recipients. This protocol requires the download of a ‘torrent’, which is then to be opened in a compatible ‘client’ program. As a result, many Bittorent client programs have emerged, riding on the wave of the Bittorent phenomenon. BitComet, Azureus and Bittorent Client are all names synonymous with peer-to-peer sharing. However, one client that has caught my eye is a late entrant into the Bittorent scene - µTorrent.

µTorrent (also microTorrent or uTorrent) is free software available for download straight off the internet. It is a Bittorent client program which is localized for numerous languages. The main distinction between µTorrent and other popular clients like Azureus is that it functions while making use of minimal computer resources. This means that even when running µTorrent to download files, your machine is not slowed significantly by the processes and you are still free to do other things while you download.

µTorrent also supports older versions of Windows, unlike other larger client programs. µTorrent’s features are also reputed to work with Linux and most Mac operating systems. This opens up a new dimension for µTorrent, appealing to audiences previously neglected. The tech-savvy would glad to know that µTorrent uses as little as 14MB of RAM under Windows 95 on an average processor.

Personally, I have been using Azureus client, before making the transition to µTorrent recently. It was simply a very refreshing and welcome change for me. Azureus is indeed feature-packed - it supports majority of all Bittorrent functions and has many useful features. However, I ended up only making use of the search and downloading functions. In retrospect, all the other add-ons were largely unnecessary, making it a very cumbersome program. µTorrent took a moment to fully initialize and load, already a huge change from Azureus’s slow loading. It is straightforward, displaying your downloads and uploads onscreen. The interface is idiot-proof and user-friendly. Basically, just add a torrent and let it download.

I found out that I managed to achieve much faster download speeds on µTorrent compared to Azureus, but I am not sure if this is related to the client, since download speed hinges directly more on the torrent than the client. All in all, a simple and hassle-free client that serves its functions effectively and efficiently. µTorrent gets my vote.

Click here to download µTorrent
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