Vuze - Azureus

Bit torrents have always been a controversial subject. After all peer-to-peer file sharing is the absolute antidote to the evil capitalist copyright plague. But as bit torrents have existed as a niche realm for a long time, torrent clients have remained as archaic looking as they can. This fact alone was enough an impediment for someone who's not familiar with this type of file sharing. Not anymore though. Vuze Bittorrent Client (rebranded from Azureus) was designed with accessibility in mind.

From the moment you've installed it, a speed diagnostic test will take place in order to configure your settings for optimum performance. Careful though. Installing Vuze without 'infecting' your rig with an IE toolbar or some other 3rd party gimmick is a bit like running a short obstacle course. See if you manage it.

Vuze makes it clear often enough that you, the user, are solely responsible for what you are downloading and uploading.

Adding a torrent file is fairly easy. Using the Open Torrents button in the upper left of the window, you can add in torrent files by copying the URL, hash, or magnet link, as well as opening existing local torrent files. Alternatively (and easier) you can use the search bar to find what you need. Vuze will search over multiple trackers and also on archive.org.

Along with your personal searches there is the Swarm Discoveries feature. This is said to populate with results similar to what you've already searched for. This sound interesting as a concept, but the results failed to show themselves. After any search I make, the Swarm Discoveries 'tab' will show over a hundred of movie, album and games that have absolutely no connection to what I was looking for. Ah well, maybe this was actually trying tor simulate the collective unconscious in torrent form.

Vuze has an interesting feature. From the iTunes tab, you should be able to copy media content directly into iTunes. I could not verify this, since no media was not appearing in the list. However, I did notice that you could transfer files to your Apple device by dragging them from your Library tab onto the iTunes tab. Whether that works I have no idea either, as I'm not an Apple fan boy.

Features

• Speed diagnostic (to maximize efficiency)
• Embedded searches
• Torrent bundles for download
• Tabbed interface (although it doesn't seem like it with the new skin)

Final Thoughts

It's definitely more comfortable to search for content within the torrent client itself, than lookup different torrent sites. Even though the interface may be a bit confusing at first, you can easily learn what is useful and what is not.