Gnutella: A Protocol Outliving the World That Created It

(rickcarlino.com)

65 points | by rickcarlino 3 days ago

7 comments

  • kderbe 43 minutes ago
    I would read a follow-up about LimeWire's dynamic query routing. I enjoyed the writing style very much and now I'm reading Rick's other articles on topics that normally wouldn't interest me. Thanks Rick!
  • gitowiec 17 minutes ago
    Thank you for reminding me about this. Next to soulseek I'm going to use it to not obey!
  • chuckadams 27 minutes ago
    Hot take: the simple reason Gnutella declined is that it was replaced by Bittorrent.
  • bellowsgulch 2 days ago
    That’s what Limewire used? It definitely came pre-bootstrapped then.
    • rickcarlino 1 day ago
      Are you asking if lime wire used Gnutella Web Cache for bootstrapping? I’m not sure. GWebCache is one of many possible ways to boot strap, and I have not run lime wire in over a decade. I saw that GTKGnutella moved off of GWebCache sometime ago and uses some sort UDP based tool now. I am fairly certain that Shareaza still uses it because I see those results come up in my Web cache pull from time to time. I have seen a few advertisements from lime wire fork projects as well.
  • itsthecourier 2 days ago
    just reading gnutella triggered a really old memory of times when Ares, Limewire and eMule where places to try your luck getting mp3s and software
    • felooboolooomba 1 hour ago
      Back in the day as a teenager. Downloaded mp3 that was labelled with title and artist and .mp3 extension. It wasn't. What it was caused me to wipe my hard drive and reinstall everything. Fkuc that shit. Apart from that, many good stuff was had.
      • leeoniya 57 minutes ago
        or was it Windows hiding file extensions by default and you downloaded a .mp3.exe file?
        • netsharc 48 minutes ago
          Isn't it just great how a decision made by some genius in Microsoft decades ago caused so much confusion and mess. Even on Windows 11 the default is to hide extensions, because, geez, wouldn't want to confuse people with change after decades of it being like that.

          Although, was the hiding something that the Mac introduced?

          The idea of the last part of the filename (after the period) determining what program is launched to handle the file is odd anyway...

          I wonder if the Windows spyware infrastructure measures what % of people turn off extension hiding..

          • chuckadams 25 minutes ago
            The mac started out without using extensions at all, the type was embedded in the metadata. That's still possible now, but it's largely derived from extensions first. I believe Finder shows all extensions by default. It certainly does in details mode.
          • throwawaysoxjje 24 minutes ago
            Macs originally didn’t have filename extensions because the file type was stored as metadata in the file system
    • rrgok 38 minutes ago
      Shareaza was the goat. It had 4 or 5 protocols.
    • culi 40 minutes ago
      Docuwiki (not to be confused with DokuWiki) is still the most thorough source I've seen for niche documentaries.

      https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Category:Name

      It is all ed2k links. Unfortunately modern clients for ed2k are quite lacking

  • thiscatis 51 minutes ago
    Great memories of limewire but unfortunately its creator has gone full MAGA/MAHA, dropped all scientific knowledge he ever had by funding RFK Jr. and is even advocating cancelling child vaccination schedules.
  • ryanshrott 1 day ago
    [flagged]