Following WhatWindowsUsersWant, this document attempts to look at the options for P2P file sharing on Ubuntu. With over 377 million downloads on downloads.com, this is a key reason for many people to use the internet and choose an operating system. Good P2P support should be a cornerstone of Ubuntu. Also see P2PHowTo for installation instructions.

Key Protocols and Clients (Windows and Linux)

BitTorrent

BitTorrent is one of the most popular and well-known protocols at the moment:

• Decentralized network - instead of having one single person uploading to another person, all involved computers share with each other - even if they haven't fully completed the download yet.
• Generally very fast transfer rates (but it still depends on the number of people downloading/uploading as well as their connection speed)

• No integrated search function. In order to download, users must first download a "torrent" (file ending in .torrent) from the Internet, and then open it with a BitTorrent Client. E.g. Ubuntu can be downloaded using BitTorrent (by downloading the corresponding .torrent-file and then opening it with a BitTorrent Client.

• Already implemented in Ubuntu - Ubuntu is shipped with the GNOME BitTorrent, and has several other clients in the official repositories.

Clients

Among the most used BitTorrent clients are Azureus, KTorrent (the KDE equivalent of GNOME BitTorrent), MLDonkey and BitTornado. Of these, Azureus is often considered the most beginner-friendly and flexible client. For more info about how to install and configure Azureus, see AzureusHowTo.

DirectConnect

DirectConnect is another example of a well-known file-sharing protocol. Among the supported clients are:

• valknut (KDE-native client)
• dc_gui2 (available from universe)
• MLDonkey (not fully supported - available from universe)

EDonkey 2000

The EDonkey network (abbr. ed2k) is a decentralized, server-based network mainly used to share audio, video and software. Ubuntu supports several ed2k clients, among them MLDonkey, aMule and xMule.

• Both aMule and MLDonkey can be found in the Universe repository.

FastTrack

FastTrack was perhaps one of the first networks to become 'famous' because of the success of one it its clients: Kazaa. While FastTrack was one of the first large networks, today it consists mostly of corrupted files, virii and malware, and therefor it is not recommended to use it for anything - unless you want to test the security of Ubuntu Still, should anyone consider using FastTrack, Ubuntu supports a couple of clients:

• apollon (multi-protocol client)

• MLDonkey

• giFT also has a FastTrack plugin available

OpenFT

OpenFT is a file-sharing protocol developed by the guys over at the giFT project. giFT is the major client on this network.

Freenet

Freenet is a protocol which differs from most other protocols in the sense that it has focus on anonymity rather than efficiency.

• Absolute anonymity ensuring that nobody is able to track what a given user is sharing or downloading
• VERY slow connections because data is routed back and forth between several computers to ensure anonymity
• Not very many users (est. ~5000)
• Still in early stages of development (0.7)

Gnutella

gtk-gnutella in the repositories is very old, requires updating and may not work. PhilWyett (2008-07-08).

Gnutella is seen by many as the successor to FastTrack. Its userbase is larger than 1.2 million users.

• Easy to use

• Mostly used to download audio, video, small software and other small (< 1 GB) files

• Supported clients include gtk-gnutella (included in universe), LimeWire, FrostWire, MLDonkey, apollon and gnewtellium.

Gnutella2

Gnutella2 is a protocol developed by the Shareaza Project - the only Linux client known to support it is MLDonkey (included in universe).

Table of comparison