uTorrent Gains Popularity, Azureus Loses Ground
Written by Ernesto on December 16, 2007With an install rate of more than 5% on Windows PCs worldwide, uTorrent is now by far the most popular BitTorrent client. Azureus, the most installed BitTorrent application of last year fell back to the third place.
The graph on the right (click to enlarge) is based on data published by Digital Music News based on reports from PC Pitstop, a company that gathers data by “inspecting” the computers of users that try their free online virus / spyware scanners. The data used in this report are collected from Windows registry and table entries of over a million PC’s.
The percentages reflect the percentage of PCs that has these applications installed. September last year Azureus was installed on more than 3% of all PCs but their install rate has declined by more than 30% this year, while uTorrent’s install rate nearly tripled.
In the table below we have listed the 5 most installed BitTorrent applications. It is interesting to not that Azureus moved from the first to the third spot over the past year. The BitTorrent mainline client is now runner up. This means that BitTorrent Inc. now owns the two most popular BitTorrent clients.
The percentages in the table indicate the install base of the most popular BitTorrent clients:
| Rank | Application | Installed on % Desktops |
| 1. | uTorrent | 5.56% |
| 2. | BitTorrent (a.k.a. mainline) | 2.28% |
| 3. | Azureus | 2.11% |
| 4. | Bitcomet | 1.89% |
| 5. | Bitlord | 1.27% |
From the data where the report is based on we further learn that Limewire’s popularity is slowly declining. However, with an install base of almost 18% it is still the P2P application that is installed on most desktop computers. Unfortunately Digital Music News has trouble interpreting their own data, they claim in their press release that it is 36.4%, but that is the market share compared to other P2P clients (shame on you!).
Apart from this tiny mistake, there are a few more concerns about the usability of the data. For example, install rates do not equal usage. The fact that someone installed a P2P client does not mean that they actually use it. So the report can’t say much about the popularity of a filesharing network or application. Secondly, it could be that Azureus and BitTorrent Mainline are installed on almost an equal number of PCs, but that the BitTorrent mainline client is hardly ever used. For instance, novices may start with the mainline client, but move on to better BitTorrent clients later on. Lastly, the report is based on a sample of people who voluntarily did an online spyware scan, something to think about.
Perhaps an even more important comment on the data collection for this report, uTorrent doesn’t necessarily use the Windows registry. So the real install rate for uTorrent might be even higher. Also, Azureus is a true multi-platform client, whilst this test is only for windows based systems.
In summing up we think it is (despite all the flaws) safe to say that uTorrent is becoming more popular while Azureus is losing ground. Whether this is due to negative factors affecting Azureus (such as the rebranding to Vuze, Java or the heavy use of resources), or positive factors around the mainline and µTorrent clients (such as the small install size, and low system requirements) it certainly shows a slide for Azureus.
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[quote comment="242952"]Azureus is owned by the same people who do Vuze, true. However, it is open source, making it a lot easier for the BT community to keep tabs on what exactly is being done to the client, on a regular basis. This is in contrast to Vuze.[/quote]
All the code which makes up the Vuze client is open source too (it has to be, since it needs to use the Azureus core, which is GPL’d). I can point you to it if you wish.
[quote comment="242952"]The issue with corporate ownership is that corporations are much more legally responsible for their product (”software”) than coding enthusiasts are. This makes them more restricted by regulations, and more susceptible to abuse of such regulations (by, for example, the mafIAA).[/quote]
Perhaps - but by the same token, it also gives them more power to defend themselves from legal action.
[quote comment="242952"]I technically recommend BitComet because I have seen such a huge performance increase (under duress of my school’s routing) over Azureus.[/quote]
Fair enough.
i am using both azureus and utorrent,it is much more easier to configure and use than utorrent and also it has no annoying vuze or something to slowdown the system and net connection
sorry typing mistake i was suposed to say utorrent better than azureus
Peace
[quote comment="242467"][quote comment="242453"] I would be interested in actually getting numbers like this.. I could talk to Slad, see if he could get something like that done on his trackers (they are used by EZTV) :)[/quote]
Next it will be IPs. Thanks, but no thanks.[/quote]
Eh, no. The only difference between this tracking and a regular hit counter is that client tracking increments based on what type of hit is made. Incrementing a counter is WAY different than logging IPs - the latter takes a serious toll on busy trackers, and is also not something that a serious BT tracker would ever engage in. Honestly, by now I’d think you people know us better than that.
rimson wrote:
“The issue with corporate ownership is that corporations are much more legally responsible for their product (”software”) than coding enthusiasts are. This makes them more restricted by regulations, and more susceptible to abuse of such regulations (by, for example, the mafIAA).”
amc1 wrote:
“Perhaps - but by the same token, it also gives them more power to defend themselves from legal action.”
wait - so if the mafIAA were to bring to bear the full brunt of their financial / legal powers, who would be hardest to take down: an open source community, or a mid-size business?
There’s gotta be business cases for this somewhere.
And everybody, just because uTorrent is owned by a company that made major contributions to the existence of Torrents, doesn’t mean they are going to turn their back on that community and screw them over; they’re just kind of a legal interface between users and content owners.
I haven’t had problems running azeurus headlessly using the web interface on a 300MHz celeron with 256MB RAM.
Although java takes a while to load up (since it has to load the jvm) it’s hardly the resource hog people claim it to be.
[quote comment="243855"]wait - so if the mafIAA were to bring to bear the full brunt of their financial / legal powers, who would be hardest to take down: an open source community, or a mid-size business?[/quote]
Well, let’s see. A business which has a lot of investment in it would have a decent chance of defending itself rather than caving in.
And in the case that something would happen - the client is open source and could be carried on by others.
You could take the example of Vuze actively complaining about the actions of Comcast as something which benefits from a company being involved.
[quote comment="244586"]filesharer are not thieves
we’re mini version of robin hood that helps the poor
what’s bad for the rich = illegal
what’s good for the poor= illegal
what’s good for the rich=legal
whats bad for poor=legal
one man’s treasure is another man’s trash
don’t be an idiot, share whatever you like..
if you enjoy being a slave then enjoy buying these useless garbage that cost next to nothing to reproduce.[/quote]
Are you intent on posting duplicates of this to _all_ of the current threads on TF?
(c.f. (& see my original response at) http://torrentfreak.com/torrentspy-loses-case-against-mpaa-071218/ )
Merry Christmas to all - & to all a Happy New Year!
all *nix seeders will pick rtorrent if they like their resources. Has somebody tried to seed hundreds of torrents on router with 32MB RAM ? I dont think “lightweight” utorrent will do
[quote comment="244659"] I dont think [/quote]
Agreed.
good, utorrent is great and azureus sucks, i dont understand why people use it, it is such a hog, and it’s not even a good client
Can I just say, that this stats are way off. Firstly BitLord does not have 1% of installed desktops. No way, look at its alexa (inaccurate but a good place to start). a reach like that does not equal anything near the others. To say that its 5x smaller than utorrent is absured. its 1000s of times smaller.
Furthermore limewire is NOT declining. For a while it had performance issues, but its total search volume has been growing rapidly, yes. even now in late 2007. So I wish people would get their facts straight…
I have been using Azureus for many years and plan to keep using it. It is an excellent client and will probably lead the future now that Bittorrent/utorrent/mpaa moves away from the open protocol.
As for Vuze, who cares? I have never seen it and no one is forcing you to use it. The classic ui is fine thank you. Azureus might be complex for some people, in that case something like Transmission is enough.
Yeah, java uses around 200m of ram (shares with other java apps) and 4% cpu on a Duron 1.3ghz. Firefox is usually the bloat here. You must use java 1.6, not 1.5 for Azureus 3.0.4. And no, just because you see the ui react slow, does not mean the program is. Check your traffic and bandwidth with other tools. If your isp is slowing you, see the countermeasures in the azureus wiki.
Azureus, a very confused BT client with plenty of useless features. The s*** of the year :)
[quote comment="240863"]What the hell!
uTorrent isn’t safe anymore now that BitTorrent Inc. owns it! God only knows what they’ve put in the code!
How are people so stupid?? They’ll download anything as long as it comes up on Google![/quote]
Quoted for truth!
in the end, free(freedom) software/open source will win anyway, peace out
[quote comment="250452"]in the end, free(freedom) software/open source will win anyway, peace out[/quote]
Like Deluge ?
[quote comment="250886"][quote comment="250452"]in the end, free(freedom) software/open source will win anyway, peace out[/quote]
Like Deluge ?[/quote]
Or Bitcomet ?
bitlord ftw
all people complaining about the vuze content layer / new interface should read this a few times: http://azureuswiki.com/index.php/Azureus_2_/_3_and_Vuze
I’d like to try uTorrent, but I can’t GET IT TO STOP LOCKING UP! After reading through the uTorrent forums, including their own, the common answer is that it’s conflicting with the firewall. Not just one particular firewall, but several different ones. Their answer (by uTorrent’s moderator) is that the problem is a “bug” in all these different firewalls, and not with them. Their solution is to uninstall these firewalls. (These days, that’s like having sex with a hooker without a condom).
If it was just one firewall that was conflicting, it might just be one of those things, but several? Maybe uTorrent should look over their code again…
Linux also has
http://aria2.sourceforge.net/
and
http://monotorrent.com/
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