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View Full Version : How many copies of Ubuntu/Kubuntu have you upleaded with torrent?



nickle
February 25th, 2006, 02:10 AM
It would be interesting to know how actively members support distribution of Ubuntu/Kubuntu with torrent...

abhaysahai
February 25th, 2006, 03:10 AM
Just uploaded a couple, after that BitTornado simply removed it from the upload list.

xequence
February 25th, 2006, 03:10 AM
I should accually do that... Considering I upload other things about the same size of the ubuntu ISO to like 20GB.

nickle
February 25th, 2006, 05:23 AM
The install and live cd sare about only 620MB

xequence
February 25th, 2006, 05:38 AM
The install and live cd sare about only 620MB

What I meant is that I have uploaded 20gb of other torrents, so it shouldent be that hard to do it for the ubuntu ISO.

wmcbrine
February 25th, 2006, 09:21 AM
I'm not sure how you measure this. The way bittorrent works, people get bits and pieces from all over, not complete copies. But I put "> 10" based on the number of bytes uploaded divided by bytes downloaded. :)

bonzodog
February 25th, 2006, 11:39 AM
I hate to sound like an old person here, but what the hell is Bittorrent? My experience at file swapping ended with ed2k, which was a graphical client that loaded the file bits automatically. I have noticed that ed2k uses a Bittorrent plugin, could not work out how to activate it. Also what is 'seeding' and how do you do it? I cannot for the life of me find a beginners guide to Bittorrent use in Ubuntu, and I write guides!!!. I have noticed the Bittorrent client listed in the menus, but it kept on asking for a seed or something, and I have no idea what it was going on about.
I prefer ftp to be honest, and dcc in IRC.

nickle
February 25th, 2006, 12:42 PM
I'm not sure how you measure this. The way bittorrent works, people get bits and pieces from all over, not complete copies. But I put "> 10" based on the number of bytes uploaded divided by bytes downloaded. :)
Yes you are perfectly right, the number of copies cannot be measured directly in most clients. Torrent clients generally do not upload whole copies, but rather the requested pieces. To be very precise I should have asked what is your share ratio for the Ubuntu packages? However, I feel it is better to look at each unit on the share ratio scale as a copy equivalent; i.e. if your share ratio for an Ubuntu download is greater than 1, then you have shared 1 copy equivalent... Most bittorrent clients will tell you the share ratio for each file you have downloaded or are seeding... I hope that's clear...:-D

nickle
February 25th, 2006, 02:09 PM
I hate to sound like an old person here, but what the hell is Bittorrent?
Here is a link to wikipedia on bittorrent; it explains what it is all about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bittorrent

There are several advantages of bittorrent:
It is particularly useful when lots of people want a file at the same time and FTP servers become overloaded. You will notice for example when a new OS distribution is released and lots of people want it, FTP downloads become very slow and often unstable. The latter means your download may break off several times and repeated restarting will sometimes lead to corrupted downloads. In contrast, Bittorrent allows you to download it from other users who are currently downloading with a bittorrent client (peers) or those who have already downloaded it and make it available for upload (seeds). The greater the ratio of seeds to peers the faster the download for everybody. This is why it is important that those who have down loaded files should keep them available to be uploaded long after they have completed as this speeds up the overall process for everybody who wants the files. It is recommended if you use bittorrent that you should ensure the share ratio (i.e. the amount you download vs what you upload should be greater than 1) as it is simply a question of giving back what you have shared. In fact many clients will regulate the download speed depending the the quantity and rate of upload. Hence the more you share, the faster you get what you want.
The second big advantage is the bittorrent is a very stable way of downloading files. By stable I mean that the chances of downloading a perfect copy are very high. As you can imagine perfect copies are essential for software. This advantage is particularly useful for people with relatively low bandwidth. They simply download the torrent file (which contains the information on the file or software they want) and run the client each time they log on. The file will be downloaded in small peices and each piece is checked for its integrity until the whole thing is complete. Concurrently, the downloaded material is made available for upload to everybody who needs it. So each time you log on you start the client and it will trundle away until the download has complete. I have never had a corrupted download yet despite have various connection from very slow to fast. In contrast, several FTP downloads have been corrupted.Clearly the more people that make themselves available as seeds, the faster the whole exchange mechanism becomes. For example, over the last weeks there have been between 200-300 seeds for Ubuntu compared to about 50 peers. This is not a bad ratio; however the more the better, particularly when a new distribution is released. Most clients use very little of your computer resources and the amount of bandwidth you want to dedicate can be controlled.
Thus I would encourage all those with a little spare bandwidth to dedicate it to distributing Ubuntu/Kubuntu; it costs nothing, but helps all those who want to download it in torrent to get it quicker. It is a way that all users can contribute to spreading the software. This will be particularly important after the release of Dapper.

I hope this answers your questions.

stoeptegel
February 25th, 2006, 06:58 PM
copies as in uploaded x times (as in ratio) one of (k)ubuntu cd's/ dvd's?
More than 50 (live-cd's, installation DVD's and flights together)

xequence
February 25th, 2006, 07:30 PM
I hate to sound like an old person here, but what the hell is Bittorrent? My experience at file swapping ended with ed2k, which was a graphical client that loaded the file bits automatically. I have noticed that ed2k uses a Bittorrent plugin, could not work out how to activate it. Also what is 'seeding' and how do you do it? I cannot for the life of me find a beginners guide to Bittorrent use in Ubuntu, and I write guides!!!. I have noticed the Bittorrent client listed in the menus, but it kept on asking for a seed or something, and I have no idea what it was going on about.
I prefer ftp to be honest, and dcc in IRC.

Bittorent is the best way of file sharing.

A seeder is someone with the whole download and they are uploading to other people. A leecher is someone who is downloading it.

Bittorent works where it breaks up files into small pieces and the clients basically trade them around. You get one piece, then you pass it on to someone else.

A torrent is the little file that tells your client what to do... What files you are supposed to download, and what the tracker is. You then connect to the tracker (a website) and it tells you who to connect to.

nickle
February 25th, 2006, 08:53 PM
A leecher is someone who is downloading it.

Leecher is also used to describe those who download a file and remove it before the have at least uploaded the equivalent amount. This is common unfortunately, particularly since most people have a much larger down vs up bandwidth. This means that the client often needs to be let run long after you have downloaded the complete copy in order to give back that what you have given.

If you use torrent, don't be a leecher in this sense... It just isn't Ubuntu...:)

xequence
February 25th, 2006, 09:31 PM
Leecher is also used to describe those who download a file and remove it before the have at least uploaded the equivalent amount.


Nah, thats called a hit and run ;)

nickle
February 26th, 2006, 05:53 PM
I have noticed that more than half of those who responded have not uploaded any copies of Ubuntu. I would be curious to know why.

Please note, the reason I want to know this is to find better ways of encouraging people to do this. For example, if people don't know how, I would consider writing a short Howto. Or it may be simply that people do not realise how important torrent is for those with relatively poor connections or how popular it is or how effective it is for distributing software...:confused: I don't know

My request therefore to those who have not uploaded would be briefly to state why... Your assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

wmcbrine
February 26th, 2006, 08:34 PM
I have noticed that more than half of those who responded have not uploaded any copies of Ubuntu. I would be curious to know why.
Until recently, I had a 1500/128 Kbps connection. Uploading was so slow that I rarely did it -- I kind of needed what little upstream bandwidth I had for myself. I imagine many others are in the same situation, since U.S. ISP's are so fond of selling asymmetrical connections (they want us all to be consumers).

But now I have 5000/2000, so uploading is fun. :)

nickle
February 27th, 2006, 12:24 AM
But now I have 5000/2000, so uploading is fun. :)

Wow thats quite a connection!!! I upgraded recently to 6000/600.

I used to have 600/100; but nevertheless I usually dedicated about half or more to uploading torrents when I didn't need it. Its slow but every bit counts!!

Arktis
February 27th, 2006, 12:33 AM
I voted 0 due to the fact that I just don't use bittorrent unless it's absolutely necessary. For me as an individual, a single direct download is just better than uploading bits and pieces all over the internet while I'm grabbing more bits and pieces from everywhere back. I also don't have a "killer" connection; my internet manhood is not massive. Does not sharing my connection make me a bad person?

A lot of people I know also have upload limits per month, so they avoid bittorrent usage for that reason.

nickle
February 27th, 2006, 12:44 AM
Does not sharing my connection make me a bad person?

Hey chill out man... There are no accusations, implied or otherwise coming from this quarter... You make a good point and it is well taken. ISPs don't like large up-speeds because it costs them more.
I am simply trying to understand whats going on and trying to raise awareness. I am sure there are individuals out there who have enough bandwidth and could/would use it for distribution purposes and all I am trying to do is encourage them to do so...:)

Jucato
February 27th, 2006, 03:20 AM
Just finished re-downloading the ISO for 386 installer for ubuntu and kubuntu last night. (I lost the first ones I downloaded). Will be seeding these two for at most 18 hours a day until Dapper Drake is released in April. Unfortunately, what I've uploaed hasn't gone over 150MB+ yet. I just started seeding this morning :D

PsychoTrauma
February 27th, 2006, 03:33 AM
I voted about ten since I try to share 2:1 and I have downloaded about 5 discs of ubuntu (with torrents). I have a 5000/500 connection so that share ratio isn't a problem for me.

nocturn
February 27th, 2006, 09:00 AM
None, my connection is capped at 10 GB downstream, of which 2 GB upstream.

Torrent would quickly have my connection shut down for the rest of the month.

GreyFox503
February 27th, 2006, 09:17 AM
Seeding the Ubuntu torrents is just icing on the cake. Simply using bittorrent to get Ubuntu (the cake) helps Canonical vs. a straight download because at least part of the bandwidth used to get it to you was from other users, regardless of whether you stayed on to seed it.

A straight download means that 100% of the bandwidth has to come from one of the mirrors.

If everyone seeded at a one:one ratio, then Canonical would have to upload pretty much nothing, except keeping the tracker up.

That said, you all are right. Most connections have uploads that are an order of magnitude smaller than their downloads, which make seeding difficult. Add to that overall usage quotas, and you see that seeding torrents is no trivial task. At least for some.


EDIT: &*^@ing auto-smilies.

nickle
February 27th, 2006, 09:18 AM
None, my connection is capped at 10 GB downstream, of which 2 GB upstream.

I am just wondering how common is this upseed cap?