Easier and more reliable ISO downloads, with error correction

[Anthony Bryan]

To follow up on my original post, Agostino Russo (Wubi author) pushed
for metalinks at UDS Boston and it sounds like they should hopefully
be ready for Hardy:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-cdimage/+bug/140458/

On 11/5/07, Aaron Whitehouse <lists at whitehouse.org.nz> wrote:
> > > Anthony Bryan wrote:
> > I usually get slow speeds on BitTorrent. I download via HTTP (using
> > multiple mirrors) and then seed the torrent for the rest.
>
> As do I. There are several files that have left me stranded for so
> long that I ended up just using HTTP and discarding the
> nearly-complete torrent. That said, I prefer to use torrents and "give
> something back". That isn't such an issue with Ubuntu, as the local
> mirror has near-unlimited bandwidth and commercial reasons why they
> want people to use them as much as possible. So for Ubuntu, I use
> direct HTTP.

I do the same thing. I assume other people are trying to contribute
like that as well.

> Given that the metalink files are XML, there seems no reason that I
> can see why they couldn't include bittorrent trackers. That would
> allow the bittorrent client in Ubuntu, for example, to test out the
> different trackers and use the best one(s). If speed dropped below a
> certain point, or a chunk wasn't in the bittorrent mesh, HTTP could be
> used to the extent necessary to top up the downloading.

Yes, that's one of the features of metalinks, you can include a URL to
a torrent now. Still working out some of the implementation details
for including torrent info like trackers etc in the XML.

> In order to implement this, Ubuntu would realistically need some sort
> of download manager. I was a big fan of GetRight when I used Windows.
> I would be happy if I loaded up Hardy and it had a sparkly new
> download manager, fully integrated with every desktop app that may
> download something (Firefox etc.) and handling metalinks and torrents
> (including metalink files with torrent info). Anything that isn't
> downloaded and displayed within the browser window is really the same
> from the user's point of view and the interface should probably be the
> same. I don't, however, expect the developers to divert resources from
> higher priorities to create one when the tools already integrated into
> U/Gobuntu already work.

I don't know of any maintained & ready GTK download managers. Celerius
is one that's in progress that eventually will support everything
you've mentioned. You can find it at http://celerius.tuxfamily.org/

GetRight is great and supports this now but it's Windows only. Free
Download Manager, another metalink/torrent client, is GPLv3 now, but
Windows only as well.

-- 
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
  )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads