Software Update: BitTorrent 4.0.0

On the home page of the program BitTorrent see we that Bram Cohen has released a new stable version of the software. The update has been given version number 4.0.0 and can be downloaded for Windows and Linux† It is also possible to the source code to create your own torrent program. The unique thing about BitTorrent is the way in which files are shared: the technique used makes it possible to divide large files into small pieces that are then shared with other users. This means that, for example, a film does not have to be complete before it can be read by another of you. Version 4.0.0 has the following changes from the previous stable release:

Changes since the last stable release:

• All new queue-based user interface
• Many options are now modifiable from the interface, including upload rate
• Lots of other interface improvements
• Extra stats are visible, for those who like it
• Remembers what it was doing across restarts
• New .torrent maker “btmaketorrentgui” replaces “btcompletedir”
• Better performance, as always
• License has changed to the BitTorrent Open Source License
• Torrent fields are correctly created and interpreted as utf8
• Too many little things to list

A few technical notes, for those interested:

• Single port: launchmany can seed and client can download many files from a single port and thread
• Interface now uses GTK instead of wxWidgets
• BitTorrent packets are marked as bulk data to make traffic shaping easier

[break]BitTorrent is released under the BitTorrent Open Source License†