BitTorrent (software)

The BitTorrent client, also known as BitTorrent Mainline users to better distinguish the protocol of the same name, is the reference implementation of a program for file sharing via the BitTorrent protocol.

Prior versions 6

The original reference client was written by Bram Cohen in 2001 in the programming language Python using wxWindows for GUI. Other developers were Ashwin Navin, Brian Taptich, David Chao and Brad Templeton.

He was released as free software in source code, which enables the programming of a variety of similar programs for the BitTorrent network. On these source codes to build many derivatives such as BitTornado, ABC and Tribler, G3 Torrent and Rufus or burst! on.

Younger versions have been translated into over 20 languages ​​, have a detailed display of active downloads and support encryption of connections. The number of simultaneous downloads is not limited.

History

On 2 July 2001 Cohen released the first public version of the software - suitable to promote the technology at the DEF CON. Versions up to 3.4.2 ( published on 4 April 2004) were published under the MIT license in the source code. The versions 4.x and 5.x were under the BitTorrent Open Source License, a modified version of the Jabber Open Source License, distributed, which does not license has been certified unlike their model of the OSI as open source, with the FSF, although they as incompatible with the GPL, but basically classifies as free license. Version 5.3 has been released under the GPL.

Since BitTorrent Inc. has bought uTorrent, the company has discontinued development in favor of uTorrent, whose source code is not publicly available ( closed source ).

Since version 6

Since version 6.0 it is in BitTorrent is a renamed version of uTorrent. For more on this see the article uTorrent client.