The torrent-dedi runs on my Mint-Server box, which performs a consortium of other tasks as well such acting as a network share, webserver, print server, et cetera. Originally the old P4 box ran Mint 7, with a copy of Azureus obtained from Vuze's website, as the version in the repositories was several versions behind. Since then I've migrated that box to Mint 8, but copied over the Azureus install and the ~/.azureus folder as it kept track of statistics and other goodies.
So on this most auspicious of days, I present to you my top 5 most excessively seeded torrents:
| Torrent | Size | Total Uploaded | Share Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backtrack 4 - Final | 1.46GB | 152.38GB | 104.168:1 |
| Ubuntu 9.10 Server i386 | 640.57MB | 22.04GB | 35.256:1 |
| Arch Linux 2009.08-netinstall-x86_64 | 176.37MB | 5.61GB | 32.492:1 |
| Debian 503 i386 CD 1 | 645.45MB | 12.15GB | 19.279:1 |
| Backtrack 4 Pre-Final | 1.29GB | 10.25GB | 7.897:1 |
Bittorrent is an incredibly inexpensive, and voraciously efficient means to transfer and share content and enables people to spread ideas on a 'peer-to-peer' level. It also enables people to help others. Yes, I'll say it again. Despite what the corporate giants want you to think, Bittorrent's primary use is not piracy, it is to share. Just like a steak knife itself is not inherently dangerous, unless you use it to stab someone instead of just using it to enjoy your meal like a normal person.
The ideologies of GNU, Linux, and Bittorrent all walk hand-in-hand, and with the way the world is today, I'd be less hesitant to trust actual people than I would a nameless, faceless corporation who supposedly has your best interests at heart, but won't let you violate the terms of your End User License Agreement to alter their defective product, and try to make it work (Here's your shoutout Microsoft).
Nearly all of the Linux distributions I use are licensed under the GNU GPL or similar and as such I am free to copy and distribute them as much as I please, in fact I am encouraged to do so. Therefore I prefer to download my distros via Bittorrent rather than http, because after they're done downloading, I can seed them and help other people get a copy of it and use Linux themselves. Bittorrent is in the truest sense of the word, a community of sharing. Sharing is not a bad thing, it is a good thing.
The climate in this field has turned so sour as of late that I've heard people use the word "download" as if it had a negative connotation associated with it. "Oh you shouldn't download things, it's wrong and you'll go to jail." Every time you visit a website, you are downloading the html/php/css files, as far as I know it's still legal to visit websites... for now. The focus has been taken off the content in question, and the gun of blame pointed at the community as a whole. You can't blame the protocol, that's like blaming arson on the gasoline rather than the arsonist. It's illogical, it's a gross and offensive misconception, and above all else, it is a staggering new level of asinine.
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