What happened to networks like eMule, WinMX, DC++, and so on?
What happened to networks like eMule, WinMX, DC++, and so on?
Is retroshare the new iteration of this?
35 comments
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Many of the old file-sharing networks are still around and actively in use. MuWire has a lot of interesting books and recordings. EMule is a good place to find music, including obscure remixes. Gnutella is mostly porn, including child porn that's so open I feel like it might be part of a law enforcement operation.
Retroshare seems like a p2p Facebook rather than a file-sharing network. I've always wanted to get into it, but I don't know anyone else using it.
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MuWire? I thought that was dead. The main dev blew a gasket over something and archived it. I see it's out of archival now, but I do wonder what brought him back.
I didn't expect eMule and Gnutella to still be active, but probably didn't know because I'm on Linux and their clients are Windows only. Others have pointed out linux builds that I somehow hadn't found until now.
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The dev shut down the github page in 2023 and later came back and re-activated it in 2024. Development is not overly active but there have been commits since then.
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So that's where people are getting these beta versions newer than mine. I've seen them on the network but I didn't know if they were legit.
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By MuWire, I meant the network, not the software. I wasn't aware it was being developed again, actually. Maybe the current political climate made the dev feel like his work was needed again. The network never died. I use Linux too. eMule and Gnutella both have Linux clients, but availability might vary from one distro to another. On openSuse Tumbleweed, we have aMule and GTK-Gnutella. Based on the IP addresses I see, they seem more popular in Europe than in the US.
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When I got into Retroshare, it was all filesharing, but that was several years ago.
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Retroshare seems like a p2p Facebook rather than a file-sharing network
It suffers from the (need to be a nerd) barrier. Getting people off Facebook requires the minimum amount of friction possible.
If we're talking friends or family then build and host a mastodon or matrix server. Call it "Tommy's Bistro" friends/family only. Even with all of this effort you're competing against a facebook setting to keep a post restricted to friends/family only.
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The p2p aspect is what interests me, though.
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35 comments