BitTorrtent on Ubuntu

Today we decided to test out the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol. BitTorrent has gained great popularity as a fast way to distribute large files - much quicker than using http or ftp to download from a web site. For example, I regularly download linux distros in .iso format for keeping and eye on what's new. There is a lot of innovation going on and this is a good way to find out. But it is time-consuming to download .iso files and vmware files - which are the other large files we regularly obtain. In fact, some sites ONLY make files available as torrents so you need to do this.

The official client is available from the BitTorrent site and is at release 5.2.0 (Linux). However, the synaptic package manager includes Transmission, a bittorrent client so we decide to try it out.

Transmission - Transmission is a simple BitTorrent client. It features a very simple,
intuitive interface (gui and command-line) on top on an efficient,
cross-platform back-end.

Installed with package manager and it places a Transmission menu item on the applications,internet menu. When you run the program it provides a simple interface. Select Torrent, Open and select a.torrent file that you downloaded from a web site. A torrent file (to quote from wikipedia)

...contains metadata about the files to be shared and about the tracker, the computer that coordinates the file distribution. Peers that want to download the file first obtain a torrent file for it, and connect to the specified tracker, which tells them from which other peers to download the pieces of the file.

In the screenshot you can see i am downloading Nostalgia, a vmware appliance to create a DOS virtual games machine with CD support.
See: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/126.

It can use openDos but i have my original ms-dos floppies and even a sealed in plastic retail copy so I'll use those. I first unpacked the nostalgia.zip archive and extracted:

dos.nvram
dos.vmsd
dos.vmx
DR-DOS-1.vmdk

to a folder in my home directory. The question is - where do the VM's go? Ok we will see if it can be done from the home folder. From the menu we select Applications, System Tools, Vmware Server Console. It tells us an update is available from http://www.vmware.com/info?id=504

Tomorrow - vmware with nostaglia?

Update: I am really liking Transmission and i also discovered the devede can take most of the downloaded video files and turn them into regular dvds. I had used Roxio in the past to do this and it performs quite well. However, that program is windows only and it is a pain having to copy the large files over the network to the last windows machine (a shuttle XP).