BitTorrent is a way that users can cooperate in downloading files. Providing downloads on large files like Linux isos can create a large pull on a server. This slows down the download for those trying to get the file. It means the server is charged for a lot of bandwidth. Bit Torrent solves this by having those who download also provide upload to others. The file is transfered in chunks and once you have downloaded a chunk it is available to someone else. One should keep the program going after the download is completed to provide for others. See http://www.bittorrent.org/introduction.html for the explanation of this process.

BitTorrent is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. You can get it with your package management system or download it from http://www.bittorrent.com. I installed bittornado-gui and bittorrent packages with apt-get, but I used only Bittornado-gui.

To download an iso, find the file with the extension .torrent on the end. For example at distrowatch.com locate Ubuntu and at their download site you will see the .torrent for the Live Cd. Download that file which is small. In Firefox you should see Open with btdownloadgui or something like that. I’m using bittornado-gui, but it may be different if one has only bittornado or bittorent installed. If something like this doesn’t show as the program to use, then you can choose “Other” and find the correct program in /usr/bin. Or you can just save the .torrent file and then open up BitTorrent and select the saved file from the program.

Soon after the program starts the download should begin. It did take a half minute for my download of Ubuntu to begin. If you use the GUI program, you can watch the status with indication of how many are connected and how much is uploaded from your machine while you download. It is very interesting to see this in action. I left mine running for 2 hours after I downloaded. I saw at that time that there were 5 connected and I had given a certain percentage out. One should not disconnect immediately after downloading, but should give back for a while to help keep the system working. The connection was good and the rate stayed high throughout the download. This is a much different experience than what I have had with ordinary download of an iso.

The Windows version works the same way. The association with the .torrent file was made in Firefox after the installation of BitTorrent and the download of another iso (smaller one this time) went well.

Linux Tracker (http://linuxtracker.org/) has a Search facility to find torrents if you can’t find one via the download mirrors on the distro’s homepage or those given at distro watch.