μTorrent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| µTorrent | |
|---|---|
 |
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 µTorrent 1.7.7 in Windows Vista |
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| Developed by | BitTorrent, Inc. |
| Latest release | 1.7.7 / 25 January 2008 |
| Preview release | 1.8.0.10770 / 9 June 2008 |
| Written in | C++ |
| OS | Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | Multilingual (38 languages) |
| Genre | BitTorrent client |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | www.utorrent.com |
µTorrent (also microTorrent or uTorrent) is a freeware, closed source, BitTorrent client for Microsoft Windows written in C++[1] and localized for many different languages. It is designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Azureus or BitComet.
The program has received consistently good reviews for its feature set, performance, stability, and support for older hardware and versions of Windows. It has been in active development since its first release in 2005. Its name is commonly abbreviated "µT" or "uT".
On December 7, 2006, µTorrent developer Ludvig Strigeus and BitTorrent, Inc. CEO Bram Cohen announced that BitTorrent, Inc. had acquired µTorrent.[2] BitTorrent, Inc. has employed the code as the basis of version 6.0 of the BitTorrent client which makes it a re-branded version of µTorrent.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early development
Out of general discontent with bloatware, Serge Paquet suggested to Ludvig Strigeus that he make a small and efficient BitTorrent client. Strigeus began to conceptualize the plans for the program's development, which, at the time, did not include making the client feature-rich. After initially working on it for about a month during the autumn of 2004 (the first build is dated October 17, 2004), mostly during his free time before or after work, Strigeus ceased coding µTorrent for a year. He resumed work on September 15, 2005, and three days later, the first public release (version 1.1 beta) was made available as freeware, and began generating feedback.
[edit] Pronunciation
The author of µTorrent wrote in 2005, "I usually say 'you torrent' because it looks like a u", and offered "microtorrent" and "mytorrent" as candidate pronunciations.[3] The symbol μ, which is actually the small Greek letter Mu, stands for the SI prefix "micro" meaning one one-millionth and refers to the program's small footprint.
[edit] PeerFactor SARL
On March 4, 2006, PeerFactor SARL[4] announced the signing of a six-month contract with Strigeus for the development of "new content distribution applications on the Web."[5] PeerFactor SARL is a relatively new company formed by former employees of PeerFactor, which was a subsidiary of the French anti-piracy organization Retspan.
Ludde stated that his coding for PeerFactor SARL was to use his expertise at optimization of the BitTorrent protocol to create a .dll which PeerFactor SARL intended to use as part of a distribution platform for files in a corporate setting.[6] At the time there was some speculation that μTorrent may have been modified to spy on users on Peerfactor's behalf [7] [8], however to date (even following μTorrent's acquisition by BitTorrent, Inc.) no evidence has been produced to support these allegations.
[edit] Ownership change
On December 7, 2006, µTorrent was purchased by BitTorrent, Inc., as it was announced on their official forum.[2] µTorrent will continue to have its own website and community for now, and the µTorrent code base will remain closed source. Ludvig Strigeus, the writer of µTorrent, will serve as a technical consultant, but BitTorrent, Inc. will do the majority of the development work.[9]
On September 18, 2007, BitTorrent 6.0 was released, which is a re-branded version of µTorrent. As a result, BitTorrent 6 is closed-source (unlike BitTorrent 5.x and before, which were open source software); and is currently only available for Windows.
[edit] Contributors
Original development was performed by Ludvig Strigeus ("ludde", from Sweden), the creator of µTorrent. Serge Paquet ("vurlix", from Canada) acted as release coordinator, and had intended to work on Linux and Mac OS X ports. He maintained the µTorrent website and forum up until the end of 2005, but is no longer affiliated with µTorrent.
Development after the purchase by BitTorrent is performed by developers Greg Hazel ("alus"), Arvid Norberg ("arvid", author of libtorrent), Jan Brittenson ("CodeRed"), Richard Choi ("rchoi") and Ryan Norton ("RyanNorton") at BitTorrent Inc. Strigeus remains as a technical consultant.
Other tasks continue to be performed by ongoing contributors. Giancarlo Martínez ("Firon", from Puerto Rico) maintains the µTorrent forums and FAQ. Timothy Su ("ignorantcow", from Malaysia) is the current website designer. Carsten Niebuhr ("Directrix", from Germany) developed and maintains the µTorrent Web User Interface.
[edit] Features
Features present in µTorrent include:
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[edit] Size
| Version | Build | Release Date | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | 77 kB | ||
| 1.1.7 | 293 | 2005-10-22 | 98 kB |
| 1.2.2 | 345 | 2005-11-25 | 107 kB |
| 1.3.0 | 364 | 2005-12-10 | 115 kB |
| 1.4.0 | 402 | 2006-01-11 | 130 kB |
| 1.5.0 | 437 | 2006-03-08 | 155 kB |
| 1.6.1 | 490 | 2007-02-15 | 173 kB |
| 1.7.7 | 8179 | 2008-01-25 | 214 kB |
µTorrent is shipped as a single stand-alone compressed executable file, and does not require installation, though an installer is available for trivial installation. Recent versions have included the ability to install themselves on first run. Small executable size is achieved by avoiding the use of many libraries, notably the C++ standard library and stream facilities, and creating substitutes written specifically for the program. The executable is then compressed to roughly half of its compiled and linked size using UPX.
[edit] Easter eggs
Despite its small size, two Easter eggs are included in the Help:About screen. Clicking the µTorrent logo plays a sound like Deep Note.[14] Typing "t" starts a game of Tetris. Typing "p" pauses the game and fills the game area with colorful patterns[15]
There was also a Christmas Easter Egg in version 1.3 which would display an animated Santa if the application was launched on Christmas day.
[edit] Advertisements
In early versions, Strigeus had built in a web redirection via http://nanotorrent.com/ for search queries entered through the search bar that displayed advertisements in a frame on the web browser. Some users thought this suspicious because tracking could be implemented by recording the IP addresses of those downloading/receiving the advertisements, and the search functionality could easily be used to track user queries through whichever web-interface the client is going through to execute the search. After a short trial period, the advertising was disabled, mitigating possible concerns. Here is a quotation from the official forum administrator "Firon":
| “ | There's no data collected, it's just used to display ads for certain keywords ...
It was used as a domain instead of being integrated into the client so the ad thing could be turned off later easily if the response to it was negative. Also, it may be used in the future to provide a "search all sites" feature.[16] |
” |
A later version of the software has, instead of ads, a "search all sites" feature, which is a keyword-based search bar that delivers listings of torrent files at different trackers. A frame at the top displays advertisements (server-side) in the browser when the search function is used. In version 1.5, no ads are present in the program itself.
As of build 463, a redirect bypass feature became available in the Advanced options.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ FAQ Page: How can µTorrent be so small and so fast? on http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php, the µTorrent FAQ page; accessed July 13, 2007.
- ^ a b µTorrent and BitTorrent Join Forces. µTorrent.com forums (2006-12-07). Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
- ^ Post by Ludvig "ludde" Strigeus in thread "µTorrent Namesake" on forum.utorrent.com, the official µTorrent forums; accessed April 18, 2006.
- ^ PeerFactor SARL's website.
- ^ "uTorrent Sign Six Month PeerFactor Agreement" by Michael Ingram, published by Slyck News March 4, 2006.
- ^ "uTorrent, PeerFactor SARL deal" by Alex H., published on P2Pnet on March 13, 2006; accessed April 18, 2006. The article recounts a December 2005 interview with Strigeus about the ramifications of the PeerFactor deal.
- ^ P2PNet - Bizarre uTorrent, PeerFactor deal
- ^ Slyck News - uTorrent sign six month PeerFactor agreement
- ^ BitTorrent Inc Buys uTorrent. Torrentfreak.com. December 07, 2006.
- ^ µTorrent - The lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client - FAQ
- ^ Forum thread "Translation status" on forum.utorrent.com; accessed April 20, 2006.
- ^ Forum threads under "User Interface Design" on forum.utorrent.com; accessed April 24, 2006
- ^ µTorrent FAQ - Answer about Embedded Tracker
- ^ Tetris in μTorrent - http://www.eeggs.com/items/47291.html
- ^ Tetris in μTorrent - http://www.eeggs.com/items/47291.html
- ^ Post by administrator "Firon" in thread "The search bypass nanotorrent.com". forum.utorrent.com.
[edit] External links
Articles
- p2pnet uTorrent interview by Alex H
- p2pnet uTorrent interview 2 by Alex H
- uTorrent Sign Six Month PeerFactor Agreement by Michael Ingram
Reviews
- Can great software live in 130 kilobytes? by George Ou
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