this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2026
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Don't use uTorrent. It's a scam.

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[–] Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Just remember that without a vpn, any torrent client is still basically broadcasting your ip and what you are downloading

[–] datavoid@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Is there a sexual deviant in your house? Find out now!

https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com/en/peer/

[–] Mistakes@sopuli.xyz 2 points 8 hours ago

You mean, like another one?

[–] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 hours ago

Yes, there is. I'm it.

[–] eah@programming.dev 55 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

I think a lot of nontechnical people or computer newbies have an assumption in their head that if you want free shit, you'll have to pay in other ways, like with advertising or tracking. It's just the way of the world that nothing is free. There's no free lunch. If a bittorrent client that you use to get free movies has ads, there must be no better options. We're bombarded with this idea constantly. Television, radio, streaming, social media. You get it for free but pay with your attention to ads. We've all been this person at some point.

Then you discover that there are other options, that there are groups of passionate nerds dedicating half of their lives to making useful stuff, distributing it to the world, and expecting nothing in return. This can't be real, right? What's the catch? I thought making software was so hard and boring that nobody would do it in exchange for nothing. But it's real. All this time you've been using crap software that nags you to try their other product, promotes products which have no earthly use, secretly captures information you expect to remain private, but there was this amazing thing outside the castle walls which does none of that. How did I not know about this before? Who are these altruistic people? I want to meet them.

Then you dig in more and find out about the free software movement. Some old hippie at MIT was mad he couldn't get his printer working because the manufacturer refused to supply the source code. He saw software being closed up and becoming industrial rather than academic, transitioning to making a profit, and couldn't bear it. Then we got linux, and all the systems around it, and all the distros, and there was once IBM who created the open PC standard, the copyleft/permissive division over licenses, and so on. Somewhere in the world, there is a 14-year-old learning about all this for the first time just as we did, and maybe it's all a little different because of AI and smartphones and that Stallman is more well-known to be sort of a creep, but it's still part of the history for how we got to where we are today.

It dawns on you that uTorrent is a trick and qBittorrent is the genuine, real deal. They're both "free" but one of them is more free than the other. One claims to be free, but was only created to make somebody passive income for eternity. The other is a bittorent client, a devoted implementation of a specification for an open protocol (the most basic of which is only a few pages long). Bittorrent is simple, fundamental infrastructure and there's absolutely no reason a client needs to show you ads or siphon away your data.

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 14 points 12 hours ago

First, I want to express my appreciation for the post. It's well written and thought provoking. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

I was the person you described in the first paragraph until the last few years, starting with my first Linux distro. It was the doorway into a world of amazingly functional yet free software.

I'm still gratefully surprised on a regular basis at the sheer amount and scope of FOSS. I spent the evening rooting my LG TV, the one product I most grudgingly enjoyed (fuck LG's surveillance) and not only was I able to disable said surveillance, but tweaking some settings and installing a few homebrewed applications has made my TV so much better. Even the Plex application, PlxNative, is leagues better than stock.

Now I look like some sort of tech wizard to my family, but all of this is truly due to the contributions of the very community you describe - I'm just a monkey that can read a guide and push buttons. The real fucking wizards here are those contributing to these projects.

[–] cunnililgus@sopuli.xyz 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

After degoogling I noticed that FOSS usually comes with less convenience and maturity, so you choose either your data or you loose the bells and whistles.

[–] MetaStatistical@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 hours ago

Depends on where in the curve the enshittification of the competition has become. Windows 11 seems like convenience and maturity, until you realize that desktop Linux has been a far more functional product for years, and it doesn't what you take, take, take from you every chance it can get.

Photoshop seems like convenience and maturity, until you realize you have options that don't want to charge you hundreds of dollars a month.

Hell, after using both Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve, I just flat out prefer the latter. And the improvements Blackmagic has put out for the last few major releases prove that they will continue to improve their software. Granted, Resolve isn't exactly FOSS, but it is free, and I can at least respect them way way more than Adobe's shitty business models.

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 211 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

uTorrent has been compromised for years. I like Transmission for its simplicity.

[–] im_fine_sandy@nord.pub 67 points 20 hours ago

Yeah nearly 20 years I think. It's not open either. If you can't figure this out god help you rawdogging the internet with torrents.

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

100%. I stopped using them a very long time ago after they changed their UI to what it is now. I realized then it was compromised because the UI no longer served a useful purpose and instead prioritized visuals and engagement.

[–] whelk@retrolemmy.com 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

It's interesting how a UI overhaul can be a red flag. Recently for me it was Bitwarden's overhaul a little while back with all the cute emoji like graphics and rounded corners and stuff

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[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 15 hours ago

I run Deluge for the same reason. AutoRemovePlus plugin and a couple others go a long way and just like Transmission it has a web-ui for remote management, so I can VPN back to my home network and manage deluge from my phone's browser.

[–] iuseasahibtw@ani.social 3 points 10 hours ago

Aria2

Just setup the config file and use a vpn

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 31 points 17 hours ago (8 children)

This has been the case for at least like 15 years. Baffles me that people still don't get the memo

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[–] CompostMaterial@lemmy.world 124 points 21 hours ago (12 children)

You can also run qBittorrent in a docker container behind an always on VPN. Very nice for those with a little arr in their lives. 🏴‍☠️

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

For maximum privacy, I have qBittorrent on an air gapped system. Good luck catching me FBI!

/s

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 25 points 20 hours ago (7 children)

Yes qbittorrent and gluetun in a docker container is very handy.

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[–] Carl@anarchist.nexus 6 points 16 hours ago

This also means you can run multiple instances very easily. I personally run one instance for public trackers, then an entirely separate instance for private trackers. It makes managing private seeding rules much easier, and helps avoid accidental hit-and-runs because of a dumb misconfiguration.

[–] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 6 points 17 hours ago

1000% this. Get on a private tracker and setup your glutun/qbit docker container and you never have to worry about your ratios or bring had by the feds. It's so nice. My jellyfin setup with Seerr gets a lot of traffic from my whole family. All of it is running on second hand hardware from office e-waste auctions that I've spent maybe $250 on over the last 4-5 years. Way cheaper than paying for all the subscription streamers. And I got to learn a fuckload of cool stuff I never would have otherwise.

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[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 21 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Linux+Transmission master race represent

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Got Linux and Deluged running on a Raspberry Pi myself.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

We can be friends :)

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[–] scytale@piefed.zip 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Transmission gang checking in.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

I use qbittorrent, but I respect Transmission

[–] silentdon@lemmy.world 44 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

It's been malware for at least a decade, I think. It was good when it was first released but quickly went downhill.

[–] green_link@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

i'm pretty sure version 2.2.1 was the last version before the corporate takeover and malware was baked in

[–] bertlewirth@lemy.lol 11 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Holy shit. Utorrent is still around??

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 7 points 15 hours ago

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 21 hours ago (9 children)

I’ve seen much more people using Transmission on Linux compared to other torrent software, is there a specific reason why Linux users gravitate towards it?

[–] inari@kbin.earth 43 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

It's simple and bundled with some distros by default.

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[–] Carl@anarchist.nexus 6 points 16 hours ago

Lots of Linux users are focused on reducing resource usage, and Transmission is extremely lightweight compared to other torrent programs. It also comes bundled directly with some distros, so lots of Linux users don’t even need to install it manually.

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[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 5 points 16 hours ago

Barely using either anymore.

*arr stack all talks to RealDebridClient just as if it were qbitorrent and it proxies torrent through debrid provider.

Thats how prowlarr gets all my Linux distros.

[–] eddanja@lemmy.world 18 points 21 hours ago (5 children)
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[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I remember when I replaced Azureus with utorrent. It was amazing - azureus killed my computer and utorrent in its entirety was around 2MB and could handle all the torrents I threw at it. That and azureus/vuze started bundling adware!

I’d moved off to headless torrent clients by the time I read about utorrent bundling malware but I think it goes back to 2011.

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