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Azureus is one of the defining clients in the world of BitTorrent. It has a formidable armada of power-packed features, transforming Azureus into much more than just a mere download-client software. With features like podcast streaming and download, torrent importing and high-definition (HD) video searches, there is no wonder why so many people are choosing this over the myriad of other clients.

The most distinctive feature of Azureus is the ability to install plug-ins. Popular ones like SpeedScheduler and RSS Feed Scanner provide users with the ability to customize their Azureus clients and to tweak the various features to their liking. The SpeedScheduler helps the user to manage and track upload and download speeds over a time period, keeping them to the schedule laid down. There is even a plug-in which commands the software to send an email to the user once a download completes. This is a very handy tool of notification for the user to track download progress when he/she is out at work, for example. The possibilities are numerous - adjusting your disk cache, cap download and upload speeds, even setting parameters for seeding downloaded files.

At this moment it is called Azureus Vuze, which is a fusion between the standard Azureus client and Vuze. Vuze is a platform for searching and sharing HD-quality video clips using BitTorrent. So basically Azureus Vuze is an improved version of the original client with a dedicated service for sourcing video content. This seems like an innovation add-on to Azureus. For the avid video downloaders, this would be a welcome addition, however, for the ordinary masses this would be a rather redundant feature. Most content featured on Vuze are actually ‘indie’ content and are not wildly popular. Having said that, Azureus Vuze still remains ideal for sourcing for mainstream video content, music and computer games. With its sleek and classy user interface, it is not difficult to master.

From the point-of-view of hardcore BitTorrent users, this would seem like a godsend. Every single BitTorrent need satisfied in one complete package, be it HD-videos, music, e-books and others. Moreover, Azureus trumps other clients as it gives users so much more control over how torrents are to be handled. However, I am hardly considered ‘hardcore’. My BitTorrent activities are more fundamental - importing torrents and downloading music, videos, games and so on. I would rather something less fanciful and more basic. For Azureus, I ended up only making use of it solely as a download client. The search on Azureus Vuze itself seemed superfluous to me, as I relied on good old Google to find my torrents before importing them into the clients for download.

One big rant that I have regarding Azureus is that it eats up significant computer resources. Due to its numerous functions and features, it takes a substantial period to load up and slows down other computer processes. For a program that I only use for BitTorrent downloads, I would very much prefer something that uses minimal process and can run invisibly in the background. Also, I found that my download speeds were slower with Azureus compared to uTorrent. This might be because I did not configure the controls on download speeds, but that was one big hassle to deal with.

Feature-packed or just plain cumbersome? As the saying goes, one man’s poison is another’s nourishment. Many may like it, but this client does not get my approval.

Azureus Vuze can be downloaded from here
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(5 votes, average: 3.6 out of 5)
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