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uTorrent Linux Server Released, Client Coming Soon

Earlier this year BitTorrent Inc. promised they would release a Linux client this summer, and today they are one step closer to achieving that goal. The company just released uTorrent Server for Linux, a daemonizable 32-bit binary of the uTorrent core, suited to those familiar with running programs from the command line. A full Linux client is expected to follow in the coming weeks.

nullEver since uTorrent was first released back in 2005, Mac and Linux users have been begging the developers to code a version compatible with their computers. In 2006, when uTorrent was sold to BitTorrent Inc., the company promised that a Mac version was coming, and in 2008 it was finally released.

Fast forward another two years and a Linux version was announced. Voted as one of the top suggestions for uTorrent in the client’s ‘Idea Bank‘, the massive demand from users for a Linux client was impossible to ignore. In June of this year BitTorrent Inc. officially stated that it was working on Linux programs, and today the first one was released.

BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management Simon Morris realizes that the company pretty much owed this release to the community that played such a vital role in popularizing the protocol.

“If any group has embraced the possibilities and power of BitTorrent for distribution, it is the Linux community. Virtually every distribution is available via torrent download and many even ship with a BitTorrent client in the default configuration,” he says today.

“This morning, we are announcing a preview release of the first of two new products for Linux users,” Morris added. “uTorrent Server, an alpha version available immediately for download, is intended for users seeking a fast, powerful and lightweight BitTorrent client without the need of the full features and complexity of the native GUI.”

Labeled as an Alpha release, uTorrent Linux Server precedes a client with a full featured UI which is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Today’s release is aimed at more Linux users, who are encouraged to leave feedback so the development team can prepare releases for specific Linux distros in the future. The server can be managed through an HTTP API or the uTorrent Web UI pictured below, which is included in the release.

uTorrent Server for Linux (Web UI)

linux server

“Today’s version is only the first step, and we will continue to support the Linux user community with new versions in the near future. If you prefer to stick to more conventional user experience, rest assured we are working hard to build a full-featured client, coming soon,” Morris announced. There is currently no update on whether the company will make the “summer” deadline they set earlier.

With uTorrent Server, BitTorrent Inc’s main brand is now supported on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms in common with its main competitor, Vuze. Whether it will reach the massive marketshare it has on Windows with the two latter platforms has still to be seen though. Considering the late entrance, uTorrent has a lot of ground to make up.

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  • CroverNo

    The first on here and Its not looking that bad should be a big hit for them

  • Jonne

    ES and some CS

  • Anonymous

    Rutorrent + Rtorrent is still miles better, this is just to stop the complaints, nothing more.

  • Ouch

    thanks :)

  • Anonymous

    Now is a better time than ever to build a linux router/file server/torrent box

  • 133t

    rtorrent killer is here , finally, UT is the best bit torrent app tbh, rtorrent has to many checks and fails, even UT with wine owns rtorrent any day

  • Anonymous

    rtorrent is decent but lacks TONS of features (no upnp? seriously?).

    utorrent would be way better.

  • Anonymous

    Is is FOSS?

  • stink wizzy

    rtorrent by itself is really lacking features, but rtorrent with rutorrent is the best client out there.

    Not to mention that rtorrent is accepted on pretty much every tracker in existance, where utorrent has problems with some versions and revisions, like a recently released build of utorrent which announced to the tracker too much.

    Ill stick with rtorrent thank you :)

  • stink wizzy

    rtorrent by itself is really lacking features, but rtorrent with rutorrent is the best client out there.

    Not to mention that rtorrent is accepted on pretty much every tracker in existance, where utorrent has problems with some versions and revisions, like a recently released build of utorrent which announced to the tracker too much.

    Ill stick with rtorrent thank you :)

    and about upnp, learn how to properly network and set up port forwarding.

  • stink wizzy

    Woops, double post

  • Herp a Derp

    Transmission will still be better than uTorrent for linux

  • Ano

    I’ll wait a few releases before jumping ship.

  • lolfail

    webui user & pw are..?

  • war59312

    @8, no it is not FOSS. :(

    Anyways, checked it out, not working on 64bit sadly at the moment. :(

  • Firon

    @15 You can try it on 64-bit systems. I had problems, but I’ve gotten at least one report that it works fine.
    As long as you have the 32-bit compatibility stuff installed, it will at least run.

  • asf

    OT: rlslog still down

  • WilliamMiner

    “webui user & pw are..?”

    admin and blank password until you set one.

  • Widget

    Seriously, why has no one told me of ruTorrent for rTorrent before? D: It looks to be pretty close to uTorrent but FOSS, which automatically makes it better :D

  • root@amsix

    Sincerely hope I can dump the Transmission web-GUI soon, because yeah, it’s horribly bad compared to the µTorrent interface and back-end.

  • Ktorrent

    Ktorrent is perfect for me and suits oall me needs in the Linux.

    But I have to admit that I am very glad to see utorrent in the linux since the average windows user is not clever and needs to see winapps to land in the linux world to convert OS!

  • Yea!

    It looks and sounds great.

    Keep up the good work utorrent developers!

    I am looking forward to utorrent for Linux!

    Thank you.

  • mmmm

    smells like a win, but lets see how quickly they can fix bugs and produce a capable 64bit version with similar speeds to deluge :whistle:

  • Anonymous

    Deluge & uTorrent will dominate

  • Tatas Akimbo

    A closed application for an open system? Gee, what a great idea – this has fail written all over it. Some might say it’s too little, too late.

  • the united hackers association

    binary = not open source

  • Booger Bender

    Why not build core client and open source the gui to linux users. I’d think that’s fair because, the interface can have added features since Linux fans been asking for this for ages while windows/mac users get the full package. This would lessen the burden of developments. Perhaps a 1$ donation for anyone willing to contribute to the developers. Just saying. 1$ isn’t much in my opinion.

  • RIAAtarded

    “Linux users have been begging the developers to code a version compatible with their computers”

    ^^ Which ones were those. Honestly there are native clients that blow windows crap out of the water. Other then new users on seedboxes needing a Login and go linux setup they can handle out of laziness users should take the time to learn what OS they are on.

  • Jay

    Just tried it out.Its fuckin awesome!!

  • Ninja

    I use linux sometimes. This is sure welcome. I’d use linux a whole lot more if I could sync the clients between operational systems =(

    Gz for Linux users for getting an awesome torrent client and thanks for the team for developing this one =)

  • fnord

    No arm builds… #fail… What? They don’t even have amd64 Windows builds? Quality Software!

  • Anonymous

    Sorry, but unless the source is opened so it can be compiled to run on a non-x86-based router then it is useless. Who wants to leave a power-hungry full-fledged PC running 24×7 just to download things in the background? Talk about overkill…

  • Tatas Akimbo

    @ 32

    Exactly. Closed = Fail.

  • Anonymous

    @10: How can it be uTorrent’s problem that some morons choose to ban it from their fancy elitist private piracy tracker?

  • Anonymous

    @32 I agree

    In general programs need to be open source to succeed in the linux community. There are too many groups in the community with too many special requirements on how the code should be compiled. Each different architecture and distribution has special requirements.

    There are 15 other tools that are open sourced and easy to install in many distributions/architectures. Why would someone switch?

  • hms-one

    I think that the more closed source companies developing for linux platforms is good, as long as they make a real effort to maintain quality and compatability. Closed software will never match the dev cycle of foss, but that does not mean that closed software is incapable of running on open platforms. I hope to see more projects like this one in the future as they help to promote wider use of open platforms. In the meantime, I’ll be sticking with Transmission.

  • houkouonchi

    Actually this is a good thing. The only competitor to utorrent on linux when talking about the I/O load on a machine is deluge (well really rasterbar’s libtorrent). The reason is for the read caching.

    Sure people with slow speed connections wont max out their I/O but on 100m (or 100m+) this becomes very important. I am glad utorrent came out with this even if it is binary only as I was having a hell of a time getting deluge to work on my zeroshell (routerbox) as its a really cut down distribution. Just getting rtorrent going was hard enough but now I can get a caching torrent client that doesn’t max out I/O on my 80/70 home connection and since its a static binary it doesn’t require a bunch of dependencies.

    So far the only problem is it wont connect to any trackers on my machine =(.

  • hmm…

    Don’t like it don’t use it. I gave up on utorrent as a client not because it’s closed source but fucking private trackers have forced me to upgrade continuously because utorrent want to release a new version almost couple months. Last straw was when 1.8.5 was banned. Sick of all the revisions and the tracker games.

    I just moved to another stabler client that just does torrents and doesn’t release a version every fucking month for me to upgrade to containing useless shit I don’t need or want forcing trackers to bump up the “allowable version”.

    Combination of anal trackers and utorrents silly release schedule has taken it completely off the table for me.

  • Kaptain Krunch

    When you get your plugin for Facebook installed in the Linux version of uTorrent, let us know so we can watch you and see what files you like. Or get Tixati the newer, more private bitorrent client that has no trackers at all.

    http://www.tixati.com/

  • @notmecharles

    what i’m still waiting for is updates for Linux distros via torrents :-)

  • John

    Jesus Christ what the hell am I reading TF commentators >_>

    This software is pointless, and here’s why:

    It’s not open source, unlike every other bit of software on my OS.

    It isn’t headless, so I can’t run it on a 24/7 Linux server.

    In a comparison I just ran, it’s 30% slower than rTorrent!!

    So, to wrap up, the best torrenting software for Linux is still rTorrent, which also happens to still be the best torrenting software for any OS.

    This is, of course, what you look for in a torrenting app is speed and useful functionality, not stupid functionality like UPnP…

    Anyway, this post isn’t worth the electrons required to put it on your screen as no one who reads this who already has convinced themselves that Transmission or Deluge is the best torrent app ever is going to even TRY rTorrent.

    Case in point:
    12 – “Transmission will still be better than uTorrent for linux”

  • Anonymous

    I have nothing against utorrent, but there are already many equivalent or even superior clients for Linux. We have rtorrent, qbittorrent, deluge, ktorrent, and transmission. Why would we want closed-source clients like utorrent?

  • AnarchyNow

    mutorrent sucks, and anyway not much people are still running 32 bit Linux distro, especially on servers.
    And why are people so moronic they jumped on suspicious closed-source mutorrent just because it doesn’t use as much resources than free azureus while they have powerful computers and there are hundreds of free software torrent client much better than mutorrent lol!!!

  • WLS

    qBittorrent is a new player, and has a uTorrent like UI.

    http://qbittorrent.sourceforge.net/

    I’ll be giving the Linux uTorrent a try though.

  • James

    UI looks like rutorrent, or does rutorrent look like the utorrent webui?

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  • Mike

    i wonder why everyone likes rutorrent but nobody mentioned wtorrent as web ui before. it has the advantage of being able to handle multiple users and private and publicly visible downloads.

    the only problem is the backend, rtorrent, which is a great lib but lacks basic functionality like speed limits per torrent or per tracker.

    instead of creating another project, and in this case even a closed source one, helping out the rtorrent project would have been more appreciated, at least by me.

  • Anonymous

    @38,

    You do know the user agent is easily faked do you?

  • omfg

    not open source not headless means not server

    k thx by

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  • Mujo

    how to install utorrent in ubuntu?

  • Ernst

    Not open source, not really adapted to the multi architecture unix-like world, can’t run on a headless server (if so how come do they call that server??)… this sounds like useless crap!

    rtorrent is still the best under GNU/Linux & *BSD imho…

  • Brett (BitTorrent)

    µTorrent server can easily be run as a headless daemon. See the µTorrent forums if you are having trouble.

  • Phoenix

    eeeeek
    not open source >.>…
    why would i use this on an open source OS ?
    totally useless
    Transmission all the way coz only noobs use closed source apps on linux

  • spc

    transmissin-daemon is the best.

    I dont recall rtorrent being used comercially by enterprises
    well transmission is

    Utorrent is closed right so no major distro is going to ship it anyway

  • Jameel

    FINALLY

  • FreedomVPN

    Having ratio trouble at your favorite private tracker? Use a seedbox and watch that ratio grow in no time! https://freedomvpn.info/seedbox

  • ARM

    @32 Agreed. I’m running transmission-daemon on a plug computer, max 7W + hard disk.

  • power

    closed source applications will not succeed on Linux! Linux is all about different platforms and customization not only about ubuntu and x86 compatible.

  • Beo

    Torrent > Turkish torrent information forum.

  • Question

    so is it open source? or will i have to attempt to decompile it?

    kthxbai

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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