Bittorrent: Closed Source and Windows Only

Aug 10, 2007

Version 6.0 of the Bittorrent filesharing client will no longer be Open Source and it is currently available for Windows only.

Bittorrent Inc. has released beta version 6.0 of its filesharing client, and will not be publishing the source code for this release.

The last Open Source version of the Bittorrent client is version 5.0.8, which is available as a collection of Python scripts, as a Debian and Suse package, for the Mac, and for Windows.

Since acquiring µTorrent December 7 2006, Bittorrent Inc. has been working on merge the Bittorrent and µTorrent clients. Bittorrent was previously Open Source, whereas µTorrent was freeware.

The acquisition and uncertainty about the future of the Open Source version has been the subject of month-long discussions in the µTorrent. Today, Bittorent is focusing both on developing its filesharing client and on distributing multimedia content in cooperation with movie and music rights owners.

Whatever else happens, the Bittorrent protocol itself will remain Open Source according to the FAQ on the acquisition of µTorrent by Bittorrent. Additionally, the source code for a reference implementation of the new closed source client will be published.

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