Better bittorrent client for OSX?

[Thorz]

First post. First let me thank you all for this great community!

I have a Macbook and Tiger is my first cntact with the Mac world. I am happy until now with the overall experience but there is something really bugging me: Bittorrent.

On Windows XP I use Utorrent. After 4 years of experience with many BT clients I am convinced that utorrent is the king of the Windows BT world. It offers all the useful features of Azureus and Bitcomet in a very small footprint, doesn't eat the monstrous amounts of memory that Azureus needs, supports DHT and it is constantly updated.

Since I decided to immerse me on OSX waters I have been looking for a descent bittorrent client but everything that I have found doesn't come even close to utorrent.

The oficial client is not an option. I have tried Bits on Wheels and it looks really nice but the development appears to be halted after what I have been reading on the forums and it lacks a lot of functionality.

These are the must have features that I am looking for:

- Multiple torrents management on the same window.
- DHT (distributed hash tracking) support for trackerless operation, this really means the difference between an average download speed and a lighting fast download, even with torrents with very few seeders.
- General Health status report, not only per torrent.
- Must allow selection of specific files to download inside the torrent.
- Granular control of both upload and download speeds (global and per torrent)
- Small footprint and memory use.
- Stable

If someone here knows about an application that covers these needs I will be very grateful to read a post about it. I have not tried Azureus on OSX due to the experience that i have from the PC world with it, it is just to bloated and eats too much memory.

I have read that it's possible to run Utorrent on OSX using things like Wine and Cedega, but I am still hoping to find a native app for OSX.

Thanks a lot!

[Simon Ocean]

Try Azureus.


http://www.getazureus.com/

[Photek]

If you have an Intel Mac....you can run UTorrent through 'CrossOver', CrossOver lets you run some Windows apps without Windows. Check it out..... http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=2226

Might be worth getting to know www.macupdate.com, do a search for 'torrent' see what it gives you.... Xtorrent is very good!

[Jay Carr]

I have another vote for Azureus right here. Me and a friend of mine use it all the time, allows you to pull individual files out and everything.

A really fun one (for the true geek if you will), is Bits on Wheels. It's nothing too special, except it has a 3D visualization of where the bits are coming from... It's pretty fun.

[edalzell]

I find Azureus really ugly and ungainly. I recommend Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/). David Wanatabe has a BT client coming out, Xtorrent (http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/), and his stuff is usually very nicely done.

[Simon Ocean]

Good call Edalzell, XTorrent is looking very, very nice. Looks a lot like Unison (panic.com)

I especially like the way you can search for files and download without having to download the .torrent file from a dodgy website first!


But after all I've said, I still prefer to download from the Usenet.

Usenet Pros: Faster downloads, not reliant of seeders, Post request (ask for a file/movie/mp3 etc and somebody will post within a couple of days)
Usenet Cons: Costs money for a decent News Server connection with a good retention rate.

[dduggan]

This is a little off topic, I just wanted to thank Photek for his reference to CrossOver.

I had a look at it when I read about it and I found it really useful. I can now run my Windows apps on my MacBook without the need to waste a large amount of HD space for a Windows partition.

Nice one! :D

[NewPerfection]

After reading this thread I went and got XTorrent, and I have to say I'm very impressed. Integrated search, just like a p2p program. Fast downloads. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the way Azureus is set up, but I get faster downloads with XTorrent. And just a nice interface overall.

[Thorz]

Thank you everybody for your suggestions.
I will try Xtorrent and Crossover. I know Az can do all I asked (except for the DHT because it uses a non standard method that is only compatible with Azureus (have they fixed this?). The only big drawback of Az is that it is a resource hug compared with the tiny utorrent.

[meichow]

I've been using Xtorrent which looks pretty and just works.

[joechimy]

my first post...

I'm new to Mac (just got my MacBook c2d a week ago).

Never used BitTorrent (was always partial to MIRC on the PC) but now I'd like to give it a shot.

Are there any good tutorials or forums for torrent info (possible specific to Mac)?

I know I'm a bit off topic (sorry :o )

[ThreeDee]

Using BitTorrent is very easy. You download a .torrent file, which opens the BT program. The program connects to a bunch of different computers (called 'Seeders') at once to download faster. More seeders=faster download. After you downloaded the file, you become a seeder to help other people download faster. It's generally good to have a seeder ratio of about 2.00.

A 'dead' torrent is one with little or no seeders.