Linux Orbit: KaZaa client for GNU/Linux, the new sharing era begins

[ Thanks to John Gowin for this link. ]

"A word to command line shy user: don't be afraid because it's command based. If you know enough to untar it and execute it, you should be able to easily use the program. It doesn't get much simpler than this. As with any alpha program, there are a few bugs however. I managed to lock up the client very early on by pressing '<' while already at the search screen. You have to be careful what you do or you can crash it. The instructions say your downloads will resume when you restart it though, which is convenient. This resume feature won't work however if a crash occurs prior to you restarting the client, which is fairly typical of alpha-ware.

Sharing files with the Linux KaZaa client isn't optional it's mandatory. All files that you download end up in the "kza-downloads" directory that's created in your user home directory and are shared with the KaZaa network. Uploads (the term KaZaa uses for other network users downloading your shared files) are completed without any input from the user. If you have a slow Internet connection, you'll only know when an upload is happening when your downloads begin slowing down. You can't see what is being uploaded from you or cancel it. This can be a nuisance. If you want to avoid this problem, simply move your downloaded files to another directory when they're finished. If you have fast Internet access, be nice and share with those who don't.

This is a big step for Linux users who like to download media and a small step for other Linux users. It goes to show that Linux is making progress everyday and could soon have the same level of support as Windows. This program is a bit crude and is missing many important features (as opposed to the Windows counterpart) but it gets the job done well and will probably be what I use to download media from the Internet for quite some time. If you hate dual booting to Windows just to download some music or you're struggling with other Linux clients, I suggest you give KaZaa for Linux a try."

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