Xtorrent Public Beta 2
David Watanabe (of NewsFire fame) has released a second public beta of Xtorrent, his BitTorrent client that first appeared on the scene back in September. The largest change is one of the least visible: a major overhaul under the hood of the downloads pane to pave the way for upcoming integration between the search pane, downloads pane and a future RSS module (oh Dave, you're such a tease). The swarm column was also redesigned to be more forthcoming on seeds and leeches (expand yours if it's too thin), and the main window now allows you to drag-and-drop torrent files, complete with a "slick informational overlay."
Xtorrent is free while in beta and is available from Xtorrentp2p.com.
Thanks Junior
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jsg said 1:17PM on 11-19-2006
Looks like a nice design. Unfortunately, the developer is totally imature and unresponsive to his users, even those who pay for his software. The authentication scheme in newsfire (it phones home to check your email address every time you run it) locked me out of the program for some inexplicable reason, and I never got a response even after weeks of asking about the problem.
Reply
mkummer said 1:56PM on 11-19-2006
The v18 still numbers as BETA 1 (not 2) in the Info Pane.
mk
Reply
Coastal said 2:04PM on 11-19-2006
Yeah, it's well known the developer (Dave Watanabe) is incredibly inconsiderate, selfish, and basically an all-around jerk, even to those who register his software. I'd sooner donate to the Mafia than give him my money--at least then I'd have a chance of getting decent customer service. Too bad, because the dickhead's programs are actually pretty nice.
Reply
popo man said 2:04PM on 11-19-2006
I'm with #1 and #3. Just glance at these results:
http://www.google.com/search?q=dave+watanabe+%28asshole%7Cjerk%7Cprick%29
Reply
csm said 2:38PM on 11-19-2006
I believe he is also the developer of Acquisition, a very nice program that does gnutella netwrok searching and downloading, and also has built in support for bit torrent. Does the release of this software mean that he will stop the bit torrent support in Acquisition? For my needs acquisition works quite nicely for all the downloading I need to do.
And yes, Aquisition phones home as well.
Reply
Matt Tavares said 2:23PM on 11-19-2006
Not to mention he can barely program, Xtorrent is just a glorified wrapper to the libtransmission library, which is pretty half assed itself. If he expects people to pay for the peice of garbage, he should at the very leaast put in some effort to make libtransmission bareable.
Reply
Adam said 2:26PM on 11-19-2006
I tend to agree with the above posters. I paid for Acquisition, and sent him a suggestion to improve Bittorrent support (before Xtorrent was announced), and this is what I got back:
"Are you expecting me to disagree? The goal of software development is *constant* improvement.
David."
To which I replied, "No, but as someone who is also in software development, and who has paid for your software, I thought I'd share my thoughts."
Then he shot back, "Right, I'm just saying that what you're saying is pretty obvious to me. No need to read anything into that.
David."
I just don't think he gets that when you charge for things, you gain customers, and from time to time, customers may like a change in something they've paid for. Seems like a typical programmer with far too much ego, not enough open-mindedness.
Reply
Twylight said 2:32PM on 11-19-2006
Why would i EVER pay money for a bittorrent client.
a) all other clients are free
b) Xtorrent is on the black list on a LOT of torrent sites
Reply
zepto said 4:06PM on 11-19-2006
I'm NOT buying anymore of this guy's software...
Reply
Rob Roark said 4:25PM on 11-19-2006
I do believe I made a comment agreeing with all of you on the last Xtorrent story. Watanabe is a tool whose one goal is to take OSS and make money on it. Its like painting a house, then saying you built the whole thing.
Reply
moog said 4:28PM on 11-19-2006
Don't even get me started on this jerk. I would rather stick pins in my eyes than have anything to do with any of his sh!t.
Reply
Christian said 4:59PM on 11-19-2006
Just to echo what others have said, David's software is nice, as in takes full advantage of the Cocoa APIs, etc., but after you get past the glitz, it's pure crap. Acquisition doesn't, and hasn't, worked decently in a very long time. NewsFire is, well... Vienna, with about 10 extra minutes of GUI work. Snore. Inquisitor is his one good piece that I use daily. Fortunately, it's free.
Reply
Jono said 5:23PM on 11-19-2006
Yea, after sending him a few emails I'm another one who can vouch that DW is a prize pr*ck.
Reply
FRITZ the Cat said 6:29PM on 11-19-2006
Use transmission - free and better
Reply
morgan said 6:53PM on 11-19-2006
i think tuaw should have an interview with him, considering he is a hated programmer who (in my opinion) makes very functional, beautiful programs. a very weird situation
Reply
Eli said 8:43PM on 11-19-2006
I love supporting shareware (and donating to freeware projects) but will not support somebody who takes open source code, gives it a pretty wrapper (but not a necessarily well designed one) and then charges for it. He's also very rude to his customers and won't reply to license issues people have with his software. I'd rather use Acqlite over Acquisition, Vienna over Newsfire and Azureus (or Transmission) over Xtorrent.
Reply
Cassian Cox said 9:55PM on 11-19-2006
Is there any reason that this software keeps coming up on TUAW? It's pretty much agreed that, apart from looking nice, it's not very good at what it does and that it's developed by a jerk.
Reply
slingshot said 2:28AM on 11-20-2006
Cassian, have a look back and see if the software is always mentioned by the same poster or not. Just a thought...
Reply
zuricher said 2:44AM on 11-20-2006
I'd rather donate 2x the amount to azureus... best bt client by far
Reply
manish jain said 3:09AM on 11-20-2006
I paid for Acquisition and use it frequently, but not sure if I'll pay for Xtorrent. It looks like Transmission is getting a makeover.
It appears DW has a bad rep. i have never dealt with him but looking at the previous 19 posts, there is a potential for a DW-is-a-jacka$$.com website.
mrj
Reply