In yet another victory for Linux, I’ve just come across Nicotine. It’s Soulseek for Linux.

I’ve been using KTorrent for all my Bit Torrent needs and I’m particularly happy with it but I haven’t been able to find a non-torrent peer to peer program that doesn’t require a degree in computers to get working, until now. Nicotine - based on preliminary testing - is pretty well identical to Soulseek.

So far I’ve converted two friends to Ubuntu and a third one is showing promising signs with phrases like “my god Windows is the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever come across and it’s ruined my life”. His biggest problem (other than programs being unstable and crashing for no particular reason on a semi-regular basis) is that when ever you run a peer-to-peer program Windows cracks it after a few ports are opened and just stops any port from opening after that.

Why? It is a type of draconian digital rights management that Microsoft loves. Punish the sinner not the sin. Because peer-to-peer software could possibility be used to pirate material they punish those that use it. There are other, smarter ways prevent piracy but instead they limit peoples access to highly democratic file-sharing software to further reinforce their monopoly.

(I know my rants are getting a little preachy but what I’m hoping to do is let others know about the programs that I’m discovering for Ubuntu and Linux generally in the hope that it will be useful to people who have recently started using Linux like me.)