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Comment by pkhamre | Hacker News Reader

Is torrents still a thing? Genuinely curious.

It looks like a cool piece of software with lots of nice features, but I mean.. I don't need, as far as I know, a client-server stack for downloading stuff.

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Downloading something from a server is a single point of failure. Power outage, cease and desist, any amount of infrastructure failure or human error, etc. What doesn't go away are a whole bunch of people around the world. Want something wacky from 2 decades ago? Your options are usually either hoping it's on archive.org, or some random guy still seeding the torrent from Uzbekistan that you now have a silent bond with.

One reason (probably the main reason) to use Deluge, with its client-server stack, is you can run the server on a “seed box” which will allow you to manage your torrents on a server which is always up (and always seeding, when needed) from a client which is not always online (your laptop, for example). This is extremely useful if you are part of a private tracker community where users are required to seed the things that they leech.

Of course torrents are still a thing...for linux isos. The completely legal sharing of linux isos.

Don't forget movie trailers :) I think I still have the trailer for the first Harry Potter stored somewhere :')

They are indeed still a thing. In my region there are lots of good movies that are simply not available for streaming. Even fairly mainstream movies, like The Spanish Prisoner for example. One could buy those movies on DVD, but that does not feel like a good option to me.

When did they ever stop being a thing?

Have you found a service that can provide you with any movie/series/music/game ever made? Please share with everyone else, since the popular services like Netflix/Spotify/Steam don't really measure up to that standard.

Uh, why wouldn't they be?

Among my generation? Very much so. I'm not sure about younger people. With phones being the main way of consuming endless content, having to put in any effort into staying in a private tracker or not getting wannacry'd from a public one seems less enticing.

> Is torrents still a thing? Genuinely curious.

The Linux ISO crowd has kept Usenet alive. I feel like torrents will be around for a while yet.

>a client-server stack

Why is this bad if this happens in the background while appearing to you as a normal app?

But as a client, you have to pay somewhat for that server. And by the way it is one of coolest pieces of software ever. I wish client-server stack to be dead in favor of all kinds of torrents and blockchains.

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