uTorrent and BitTorrent join forces

[GHDpro]

Hmm....

+++++

This is Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, and Ludvig (Ludde) Strigeus, the writer of µTorrent.

Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and µTorrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired µTorrent as it recognized the merits of µTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together µTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.

What does this mean for the µTorrent community? Not much, at least not at first. The intention is to maintain the website as it is, and keep the forums and community active. Moving forward behind the scenes, we will continue to develop µTorrent and will be using the codebase in other applications, especially ones where a fast, lightweight implementation is more suitable, such as embedded systems on TVs, cell phones, and other non-PC platforms.

The existent µTorrent and BitTorrent communities are immensely valuable to us, which is why we are announcing this here first to make sure you're all the first to know about the news. The plan is to continue to foster the health and growth of the community that has been critical to the success of µTorrent. Thank you in advance for your support.

Bram and Ludde

+++++

both Bram and Ludde are available now on IRC #utorrent and will be answering questions for the next few hours.

A new forum has been created - uTorrent/BitTorrent - please use this new forum for all topics related to the uTorrent acquisition

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=17279

(PS. the reason I'm posting this here instead of the BitTorrent subforum is because I think the BitTorrent subforum should be closed and it's discussions moved elsewhere, considering it's one of the least popular sections of the AnimeSuki forum)

[felix]

Thank god I always save diffrent versions of a programs just in case shit happens..

I say it's a BAD idea.. uTorrent is great as is, I personally don't want to hear anything about BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols, just sounds like it's going to get slower.. the only thing good about bittorrent is that it's cross platform.. mm~

Maybe, since opera integrates bittorrent in they're current this merge will mean uTorrent will be integrated in future versions.. that wouldn't be so bad.. but that's if they make utorrent cross-platform.. otherwise I doubt that would happen.

Hmm.. next thing you know they gon'a change the name to HogTorrent.. (if I'm not mistaken the "u" in uTorrent is the letter wich stands for the prefix "micro-")
----
Off-Topic.. Bittorrent-Forum..

@ GHDpro
Heh.. well no one gives a damn about bittorrent, no one ever did, it's all about download speed and fansubs.. so all the intresting discussions are always in the Fansub Groups forum..
I don't really understand why you don't merge BitTorrent with Tech Support.. no one would mind.. I personally would really love to see a smaller gap between Series discussion and General Char.. but then again I would like that all off the tech stuff be merged in one forum.. it's really annoying opening a forum just to see 3-4 threads (I have Default-Age-Cut-Off set to 2 weeks..) and there's not much emphasis on Tech anyway..

[killmoms]

How about a fucking Mac OS X port of µTorent before we start worrying about fucking cell phones?

Cockmonkies.

[felix]

You know I really have to wonder what the heck are they babling about cell phones..

And looks like people at uTorrent forums are switching to BitComet..
I personally feel like switching to Azureus right now.. just because uTorrent is now affiliated with the arse of BitTorrent.inc but BitComet sounds good too..

[felix]

Teh Brand ne Fu.k FAQ

Q: Why did BitTorrent acquire uTorrent?

A: BitTorrent recognized the value of uTorrent’s lightweight and efficient user interface and its growing consumer adoption. Bringing together BitTorrent expertise with uTorrent’s elegance creates a significant benefit for the BitTorrent community in what will be the best BitTorrent client hands-down.

Q. What does BitTorrent and uTorrent have in common?

A: Both the BitTorrent mainline client and the uTorrent client are compatible with the open source BitTorrent protocol. They have been tested and proven by the community as effective and safe implementations of BitTorrent.

Q: What are the terms of the acquisition?

A: We are not disclosing details of the transaction.

Q: How does uTorrent’s platform fit with BitTorrent’s company strategy and roadmap?

A: It supports our goal for improving the user experience. The developer of uTorrent put a significant amount of time and know-how into optimizing the client for user experience and we think he did a great job.

Q: How will uTorrent’s technology be integrated with the current BitTorrent client?

A: Although uTorrent is lightweight, it is missing the patented innovations BitTorrent has made at the protocol level. It is also lacking an implementation for Mac and Linux. We will improve uTorrent in these arenas.

Q: What will happen to uTorrent’s employees? Will Ludwig Strigeus become a part of the BitTorrent team?

A: Ludvig Strigeus will serve as a technical consultant.

Q: Will the uTorrent brand remain or be made obsolete?

A: uTorrent and its Website will continue to be available.

Q: How will this impact the BitTorrent open source development community as a whole?

A: There will be no impact to the BitTorrent open source development community. We are committed to maintaining the preeminent reference implementation of BitTorrent under an open source license.

Q: Will the uTorrent code base be released into the open source?

A: The uTorrent code base will remain closed source.

Q: Will BitTorrent start to charge money for uTorrent?

A: uTorrent will continue to be available and continue to be free (as in, no cost, not open source)

Q: Will any DRM related technology be implemented in the uTorrent or mainline BitTorrent clients?

A: DRM is function by content and media players, and doesn't involve content distribution tools directly.

Azureus here I come..

[killmoms]

I don't see why people are bitching about this. It doesn't seem like they're going to ZOMG BLOAT the client, just add support for BitTorrent protocol features that µTorrent doesn't support, and deliver an OS X and Linux port. Sounds like all good things to me.

I'm going to assume you retards are switching away out of some bizarre, unfounded sense of betrayal that comes from being beaten as children.

[Loniat]

Another one bites the dust...

I am waiting for a good open source multi platform client (please please, no Java - yes you know I am talking to you blue frog).

[Lexander]

The current uTorrent gets me by just fine. I'll have to redownload it for safe-keepiong.

The opera client should be getting kewl soon enough :P

[felix]

@ Lexander - Yeah I think I'll stick with the beta a lil white.. :P

Originally Posted by senorjuarez

here's why we are so upset.

utorrent was bought up. this usually means bad things. look at what happened to partition magic, among many other great little programs, after it got snatched up by norton. it is twice the size, has a shittier interface, and has all sorts of new bells and whistles that dont work. its like looking into utorrent's future.

furthermore, utorrent got bought up by BT inc. BT inc just signed a deal with the WB that requires them to take active measures AGAINST illegal filesharing (and really, who uses utorrent for anything besides that? lets not kid ourselves).

THEREFORE: the client we all use to steal media is now, in effect, owned by GUESS WHO? THE PEOPLE WE STEAL SHIT FROM.

This was posted on the the uTorrent forum..
The first part is why me and others are upset (with very good example I might add)
And the second part is too damn funny

Besides this.. in the FAQ posted on the site (the one I posted above) it is mentioned that BitTorrent is going to improve uTorrent not only this but Ludde is gone.. so the person who made uTorrent what it is today is gone..

You know there are lotz and lotz of profesionals out there that made tons and tons of torrent clients.. like BitTorrent.. if it has so many usefull feature you need then why don't you use that?.. also just because he set the initial building blocks doesn't mean he's a ginius..
How should I put it.. just because he discovered 1+1=2 don mean he can improve on the thory of relativity..

All this is good and all maybe if I watch fansubs on my mobile phone.. lol.. but I don't so I don' care..
*BlackCatXIII wonders when they'll add Worner Bros Commercials to uTorrent*

Note to the Mods :
Create a "Good/Bad move" poll and place a rule "Only creative complaining allowed!"
If this continues like on the utorrent boards we're looking at pages upon pages of 1-liners..

[Ending]

Isn't Bram Cohen the bastard who is trying to sell out BT to the music industry and put it under friendly "anti-piracy" control?

Bad move from the authors of uTorrent. I'll be sticking to v1.5 or move back to ABC.

[felix]

Authors?!
From what I understand Ludwig Strigeus was the only one developing.. and that's why it was so good and clean..

And from the devolopers point of view it's a good move.. in a sence.. (hope he got some big 0s out of it)
You know I have to wonder.. did BitTorrent buy them out or did they he sell.. hmm..

[Epyon9283]

I'm thinking they're BSing about the linux and mac ports of utorrent. The mac port of bittorrent is a piece of garbage thats way behind version wise already. A year after Intel macs were introduced and quite a bit more than a year after they were announced and development tools were made available to create universal binaries, bittorrent just recently (AFAIK) got an intel beta OS X client. I hold no hope for a better alternative to azureus. This is especially sad since the 3.0 beta of azureus is awful.

[Sarugaki]

I like azureus but it's so freakin huge!!
Fortunately it is open source so if Azureus3 really does suck, hopefully there will be a fork of Azureus 2 by the community.

[41nano]

This a bad news...
I'll keep my actual utorrent

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

You know I really have to wonder what the heck are they babling about cell phones..

And looks like people at uTorrent forums are switching to BitComet..
I personally feel like switching to Azureus right now.. just because uTorrent is now affiliated with the arse of BitTorrent.inc but BitComet sounds good too..

Azureus is too comupter intensive for me that's why I chose Utorrent in the first place.

[KiNA]

Just keep the current exe -.- ...

Why the need to switch client and whatnot? Its not that the current 1 isnt working o_O

[Radiosity]

The only reason I'd switch client is if there was some new univeral feature added to torrents in general, in which case the current uTorrent wouldn't be updated and we'd have to either get the new uTorrent (not a chance) or find a new client.

[Arimfe]

This is bad. And I was considering trying out utorrent sometime in the near future too.

Originally Posted by Wordplay

Bad move from the authors of uTorrent. I'll be sticking to v1.5 or move back to ABC.

What are the reasons why you aren't using the latest build?(I'm just curious)
From the changelog, it seems that it was released a good while ago long before the acquisition.

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Just keep the current exe -.- ...

Why the need to switch client and whatnot? Its not that the current 1 isnt working o_O

My guess for why many people are migrating now is it's a combination of distrust and bad future prospects.
It's one thing to stick with utorrent for now since it's still good and dandy, but another thing is the future. For the camp that doesn't trust the new owners and stick to the current versions it means no more developing, bugfixes or enhancements, which is really bad, especially with the new Vista OS practically at the doorsteps now, bugs and weird things and maybe even incompatibility are highly probable.
In situations like this, those who can see the golden worth of active development has two choices, trust the new owners or search for other grassing spots.

[Shii]

I don't think they would suddenly start µTorrent worse than it currently is, but then again I have some faith in BitTorrent Inc. based on how they have done so far. The Warner Bros. deal might change everything.

[Bloodseeker]

Having 150-200 KB/s as the normal downloading speed has been great. I don't think that I ever saw Bittorrent go any faster than 100 KB/s. I really hope that this doesn't slow uTorrent down to 50KB/s on average like that shitty Bittorrent program and force me to look to other bittorrent clients for my downloads.