User:FunkyPenguin/TorrentReview

From openSUSE

Criteria for review

I have come up with the following criteria for reviewing which bittorrent client would be suitable for inclusion into GNOME for openSUSE 11.0 and above:

• Development
• Ease of use
• Integration with the desktop
• Features

It is by no means final and is just my view as a user, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Applications being reviewed

1. Bittorrent-gtk

2. gnome-btdownload

3. Transmission

4. Deluge

5. Monsoon

The applications will be referenced by App(line number)

Are the applications under active development?

The only application that does not appear to be in active development is App2. Therefore my recommendation is that it be discounted as I believe it would be unwise to include an application that will soon become unmaintainable.

Initial startup

Not all applications start up for the first time in the same way. Some start a configuration wizard and some have predefined defaults.

• App1 starts up with relatively sensible defaults that the user can then change should they wish to.

• App3 starts up with relatively sensible defaults that the user can then change should they wish to.

It also adds an icon to the notification area (in the red circle)

• App4 starts up with the following wizard to configure it:

Step1

Step2

Step3

Step4

Step5

Bringing you to

It also adds an icon to the notification area (in the red circle) but does not close to it by default

• App5 starts up with the following wizard to configure it:

Step1

Step2

Step3

Step4

Bringing you to

It also adds an icon to the notification area (in the red circle) but does not close to it by default

Ease of use

App1 and App3 are the easiest to get up and running as they have relatively sensible defaults which would allow one to just get on with things. App5 in third with App4 pretty close behind it.

As for using the applications to download with, they all perform the act well. For all of them it is a matter of pointing it in the direction of your torrent file and off you go. Both App1 and App3 have a clean and minimal info interface although App1 is very extreme in this case, I opened the Information dialogue on both apps to get more info; App5 introduces more information without distracting the eye too much; App4 starts to clutter up a bit.

App1 in use

App3 in use

App4 in use

App5 in use

Integration with the desktop

As all apps are written in GTK(+/#) they look natural and fit in well, picking holes for the sake of being critical I would say that App1 is let down slightly by its icon set (not quite right, but pretty damn close).

Features

So which one has bells and whistles and likes to shout about the bling? It definately isn't App1, it has barely enough features to get the job done in its simplest form and no more. App3 introduces more features without confusing people, my mother would be able to use it without going "What does this mean? What does this do?". App5 takes it one step up but keeps things clean and legible, it also has a Notify feature which is kind of handy

App4 goes that bit further, and doing so clutters up the area and is not one for the "General Consumer" but more for the "Hard Core" downloader.

My recomendation

Once again the disclaimer - This is a completely personal view!!!

I feel it is a two horse race between Transmission and Monsoon. They both do the job very well, Transmission has the lead with maturity and Monsoon has the lead with features. So if I was to stick my neck out, I would go with Monsoon and try and grow the application. I feel it is a pretty solid piece of kit but needs a bit of help to get even better and that will only happen by getting more users. With a conservative hat on it would be Transmission.