We thought it would be interesting to compare the users of different operating systems on their sharing behavior. Therefore we decided to take a closer look at the share ratios of Windows, Mac and Linux software on The Pirate Bay. The results are quite interesting and indicate that Windows users share twice as much as their Mac counterparts.

In order to calculate the share ratio we simply looked at all the seeders (completed downloads) and leechers (still downloading) on the torrents in the software category on The Pirate Bay. The share ratio is the number of seeders divided by the number of leechers. So, the higher the ratio, the more users share.

In the table below you can see that there are much more torrents for Windows software, 49345 compared to 2952 for Mac software and 1271 for Linux. Nevertheless, those downloading Windows software tend to share the files for longer, even compared to the Linux users.

Not listed in the table, but worthy of note, are the average number of downloaders per torrent. Mac software is in the lead here with 22 downloaders, followed by Windows with 9 and Linux with a measly average of 4 peers per torrent. Although we can conclude that those who download Windows software share more compared to others, the ratios for Mac and Linux software aren’t bad either. It can get a lot worse – Xbox 360 downloaders don’t even make a 0.3 share ratio.

Of course, the term ‘pirate’ obviously doesn’t apply to all downloaders either, especially not for the Linux group. It is interesting to see the huge differences in share ratios between the different categories though; perhaps Microsoft should consider building their next campaign around these stats. Sharing is caring, right?

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Aufero is everything you’d want in a media centre. Here’s a list of features.

It lets you:

• manage any existing media you have.
• create a “wish list” of videos you would like to watch, and then have those videos automatically downloaded once they become available.
• view trailers, reviews and previews, and download torrents related to them.
• manually download torrents you feed it.
• seamlessly playback videos in an array of formats on your Xbox 360 (not just WMVs).
• receive “subtle notifications” on your screen after something on your wish list has been found, downloaded, unpacked, indexed and moved into your library.
• receive e-mail notifications of relevant events when you’re not in front of your TV.
• Lastly, Aufero is simple to use and tries to increase the “wife appeal” by making it easy for less tech-savvy people to make use of.

Best of all, it sounds like the developer is planning to release Aufero under an open source license. I think Microsoft should be thanking him, because he’s just created a worthy Windows-based competitor to the AppleTV. Sadly, there’s almost no chance of that happening. For his own “protection”, the developer isn’t disclosing anything about himself, not even his name. All we know is that he (or she?) is Dutch.

Aufero is not yet available for download, as it’s in the early alpha testing phase. If you look at some of the screenshots, this is made obvious by the current UI, which is rather unpolished. But the developer stresses that it’s not complete yet.



Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

]]> http://torrentfreak.com/integrating-bittorrent-in-vista-media-centre/feed/ 5 http://torrentfreak.com/how-bittorrent-clients-slow-down-windows/ http://torrentfreak.com/how-bittorrent-clients-slow-down-windows/#comments Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:23:08 +0000 http://torrentfreak.com/how-bittorrent-clients-slow-down-windows/ Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.
]]> In general BitTorrent clients are not the most “resource using” applications. But how do they actually affect, and slow down Windows?

Thepcspy compared the three most popular BitTorrent clients. And it seems that uTorrent is indeed entitled to be called “the lightweight client”.

The mean boot time of Azureus, Bitcomet and uTorrent were compared on a Windows XP Pro clean install.

• Azureus 2.5.0.0 (+ Java Runtime) was slowing windows down the most. The test revealed a delay in the average boot time of 4.44%.
• Bitcomet came in second with an average delay of 1.67 seconds, that is a slowdown of 2.22%.
• uTorrent is the winner of these three BitTorrent clients, adding 1.33 seconds to Windows’ average boot time. A 1.78% slowdown, almost three times less than Azureus.

However, to put things into perspective, Norton Internet Security 2006 caused a 57.78% slowdown.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

]]> http://torrentfreak.com/how-bittorrent-clients-slow-down-windows/feed/ 12