ΜTorrent
μTorrent, or uTorrent, is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client owned and developed by Rainberry, Inc. The "μ" in its name comes from the SI prefix "micro-", referring to the program's small memory footprint: the program was designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet. μTorrent became controversial in 2015 when many users unknowingly accepted a default option during installation which also installed a cryptocurrency miner.
The program has been in active development since its first release in 2005. Although originally developed by Ludvig Strigeus, since December 7, 2006, the code is owned and maintained by BitTorrent, Inc. The code has also been employed by BitTorrent, Inc. as the basis for version 6.0 and above of the BitTorrent client, a re-branded version of μTorrent. All versions are written in C++.
History
Early development
Out of general discontent with bloatware, Serge Paquet suggested to Ludvig Strigeus that he should make a smaller and more efficient BitTorrent client. Strigeus began to conceptualize the plans for the program's development, which, at the time, did not include making the client feature-rich. After initially working on it for about a month during the last quarter of 2004, mostly during his free time before and after work, Strigeus ceased coding μTorrent for a year. He resumed work on September 15, 2005, and three days later, the first public release was made available as free software, and began generating feedback.PeerFactor SARL
On March 4, 2006, PeerFactor SARL announced the signing of a six-month contract with Strigeus for the development of "new content distribution applications on the Web". PeerFactor SARL was a relatively new company formed by former employees of PeerFactor, which was a subsidiary of the French anti-piracy organization Retspan.Strigeus stated that his coding for PeerFactor SARL was to use his expertise in the optimization of the BitTorrent protocol to create a.dll which PeerFactor SARL intended to use as part of a distribution platform for files in a corporate setting. At the time there was some speculation that μTorrent may have been modified to spy on users on Peerfactor's behalf, however to date no evidence has been produced to support these allegations.
Ownership change
On December 7, 2006, μTorrent was purchased by BitTorrent, Inc. It was later announced that BitTorrent paid an undisclosed amount to Spotify for this purchase, the then owner of the software.On September 18, 2007, BitTorrent 6.0 was released. Although previous versions of the BitTorrent client had been open source software, with version 6 it became proprietary.
In April 2017, BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen announced that the next version of μTorrent would be web browser based. This μTorrent version allows users to stream torrents from the default web browser, similar to a regular streaming site.
Features
Features present in μTorrent include:- Magnet Links, added in version 1.8, released on August 9, 2008.
- Teredo tunneling / IPv6 support
- Micro Transport Protocol preliminary support as of 1.8.2 with full-support added in 2.0
- UPnP support for all versions of Windows, without needing Windows XP's UPnP framework
- Protocol encryption
- Peer exchange with other BitTorrent clients:
- * libtorrent and clients based on it like Deluge or qBittorrent have full μTorrent PEX support
- * Transmission and clients based on libTransmission have full μTorrent PEX support
- * KTorrent has full μTorrent PEX support as of 2.1 RC1
- * Vuze, formerly Azureus, has full support as of version 3.0.4.3
- RSS
- "Trackerless" BitTorrent support using DHT, compatible with the original BitTorrent client and BitComet
- User configurable intelligent disk caching system
- Full proxy server support
- HTTPS tracker support
- Configurable bandwidth scheduler
- Localized for 67 languages.
- Initial seeding of torrents
- Customizable search bar & user interface design.
- Configuration settings and temporary files are stored in a single directory, allowing portable use
- WebUI: A plugin currently in beta testing that allows μTorrent running on one computer to be controlled from another computer, either across the internet or on a LAN, using a Web browser
- Embedded Tracker: a simple tracker designed for seeding torrents, lacking a web interface or list of hosted torrents. It is not designed for secure or large-scale application.
- Quick-resumes interrupted transfers
- Two "easter eggs" in the About subsection of Help: clicking the μTorrent logo plays a Deep Note-like sound effect, and typing the letter "t" starts a Tetris-like game called μTris, which in 2008 was selected as #1 of the "Top 10 Software Easter Eggs" by LifeHacker.
- The ability to use encryption of all traffic to bypass torrent blocking on the network.
Size
Operating system support
μTorrent is available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Android. A μTorrent Server is also available for Linux. Currently, μTorrent supports Windows XP or later, Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later, and Android 5.0 or later. The latest version for Windows XP is 3.5.5 build 45311 Stable dated July 22, 2019. However, the official termination of support for Windows XP has not been reported. On the official website of the program, this operating system is still listed as supported.The first test version for macOS, running on Mac OS X Leopard, was released on 27 November 2008.
On September 2, 2010, the native Linux version of μTorrent Server was released. Firon, an administrator of the μTorrent community forum, said that they had been working on this project for a few months prior to the release as it was the most requested feature for some time. This release is intended for users who are seeking a fast command-line interface based BitTorrent client with a remote web-based management. They also mentioned that a full featured client with a GUI is a work in progress.
As of 2020, μTorrent server for Linux supports Debian 6.0 or later and Ubuntu 12 or later, with both 32-bit & 64-bit options available.
On August 1, 2019, μTorrent announced that users who upgrade to macOS Catalina will be upgraded to μTorrent web automatically since that version of macOS supports 64-bit applications only.
Revenue
In early versions by Strigeus, μTorrent displayed advertisements in a frame on the web browser by a built-in web redirection via nanotorrent for search queries entered through the search bar. Some users thought this suspicious because IP address tracking could be implemented by recording which machine was downloading/receiving the advertisements, and user-query tracking could easily be done through whichever web interface the client was using. After a short time, that method of advertising was disabled, mitigating those concerns.A later version of the software displays advertisements in a frame at the top of the browser each time the "search all sites" function is used. In version 1.5, no ads are present in the program itself.
As of build 463, a redirect bypass feature became available in the Advanced options.
As of version 1.8.2, the μTorrent installer downloads and installs the Ask.com toolbar on the first run of the program; the user can opt out of installing that toolbar by deselecting it before allowing the μTorrent installation to proceed. The developers stated the addition was needed for funds to continue development. In late 2010, the Ask.com toolbar was replaced with the Conduit Engine.
Currently, μTorrent generates revenue through in-content advertisements and the "pro" version, which is available in 3 bundles.
Toolbars
In late 2010, some controversy arose with the release of μTorrent which included adware in the form of the Conduit Engine, which installed a toolbar, and made homepage and default search engine changes to a user's web browser. A number of users reported that the installation was made without the user's consent. There were some complaints that the adware software was difficult to remove.In 2011, μTorrent bundled the Bing Toolbar.
Paid version
On July 15, 2011, BitTorrent announced that they would offer a paid version of μTorrent called "μTorrent Plus". This new version would offer extra features, such as integrated file conversion, anti-virus, and a built-in media player. On 6 October 2011, the Pre-alpha of μTorrent Plus was released to an invitation-only community. As of December 2011, μTorrentPlus 3.1 was available for $24.95; as of December 2014, the Plus version was available as a $19.95 yearly subscription.Ads and malware
In August 2012, BitTorrent announced the addition of advertising in the free version of μTorrent; each ad could only be dismissed after the user had viewed it. Due to response from users, a few days later, the company stated that ads could be optionally turned off. A user-created tool known as "Pimp My μTorrent" was also created to simplify the process of disabling ads in the Windows version. Starting with μTorrent version 3.2.2, the software also contains in-content advertisements described as "Featured Torrent". As with the other ads, it is possible to disable this content.In March 2015, μTorrent began automatically installing a background application called Epic Scale to mine cryptocurrency for the benefit of BitTorrent, Inc., while allegedly giving a portion to charity. Epic Scale mines Litecoin using both CPU and GPU power, and is classified as "riskware" by some security programs. A μTorrent developer disputed whether the automatic installation was really automatic, and claimed that as with all other "partner" programs bundled with the software, users could decline the installation. On 28 March, Epic Scale was removed from the installation and dropped from the list of software bundle partners.
Beginning in 2018, advertisements for Yandex Browser and other Yandex-produced software were included in Russian and Ukrainian versions of μTorrent.