Do you seed a Linux distro?

[betterhands]

i don't download many torrents, and never have seeded one until recently. once i downloaded xubuntu-11.10 (which i still have yet to install. still using Ubuntu exclusively) i decided to leave it up and was wondering how many of you are seeding one of the distros currently.

[doorknob60]

Nope. My ISP has a 100 GB cap and I consistantly go over that and get charged $1.50 per GB, seeding anything would be disastrous in that regard :P

[wolfen69]

I'm seeding 4 different versions of Ubuntu 11.10 24/7, and have given back about 340 copies so far.

[yndesai]

I only download from the ubuntu server.

I only use torrent if the distro recommends users to download using torrents. which is not the case with ubuntu.

[LowSky]

I don't plant any seeds let alone a linux distro. They hardly ever grow. LOL


I know its a bad joke.


I usually find torrents faster for downloading, but I usually only let it spread until I realize I left transmission/utorrent running.

[Paqman]

I do for a while around release day, but not after that. Having healthy torrents up on release day is immensely useful, but the rest of the time the official download servers will perform fine.

[3Miro]

Around every release of Ubuntu, I would torrent the .iso files for Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu and then seed them for a while (until traffic slows down).

Currently I don't seed anything.

[RabbitWho]

I don't, but what a good idea! I never thought of it. I'll do it next time.

[BrokenKingpin]

I have in the past, but most of the time I just do the direct download link. might go back to torrents in the future though.

[satanselbow]

I only use torrent if the distro recommends users to download using torrents. which is not the case with ubuntu.

They may not directly recommend it - as a distro they are hardly struggling for bandwidth - but it generally a good idea to grab your distro by torrent anyhow, for some very good reasons:

1) Saves your distros sponsors a fortune in bandwidth bills - therefore more money in the pot for dev :D

2) The bittorrent protocol has inbuilt error checking so you will never download a duff ISO (been there a few times!) as may and does happen with http/ftp downloads.

3) Someone else can come up with 3... EDIT! No more hammering overloaded download servers on release day - torrents get faster the more people involved once seeded.

I'm sure there was a 4 as well :D

[wolfen69]

They may not directly recommend it - as a distro they are hardly struggling for bandwidth - but it generally a good idea to grab your distro by torrent anyhow, for some very good reasons:

1) Saves your distros sponsors a fortune in bandwidth bills - therefore more money in the pot for dev :D

2) The bittorrent protocol has inbuilt error checking so you will never download a duff ISO (been there a few times!) as may and does happen with http/ftp downloads.

3) Someone else can come up with 3... EDIT! No more hammering overloaded download servers on release day - torrents get faster the more people involved once seeded.

I'm sure there was a 4 as well :D

4) Bittorrent goes along well with the whole open source/sharing thing.

You made some very good points. Why people don't run torrents all the time (those with unlimited bandwidth), is beyond me. Are people uncaring? I look at it as a way to give back and save canonical and others some money.

But actually, I'd rather have someone not use torrents in the first place, than to use it and not seed. That's just rude.

But more than anything else, you would think reason #2 would be enough for people to use it more often.

[Lars Noodén]

Thanks. This was a good reminder to turn the torrent back on.

[sandyd]

4) Bittorrent goes along well with the whole open source/sharing thing.

You made some very good points. Why people don't run torrents all the time (those with unlimited bandwidth), is beyond me. Are people uncaring? I look at it as a way to give back and save canonical and others some money.

But actually, I'd rather have someone not use torrents in the first place, than to use it and not seed. That's just rude.

But more than anything else, you would think reason #2 would be enough for people to use it more often.
I do.

I got an extra GiB port - QuadraNet was happy enough to hook it up to my hardware firewall and hook up a dedicated 1GiB/s line at 1/3 price. Now seeding Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint @ 1GiB/s on Debian Minimal via ESXi (because I didn't want any attacks to fry the entire server)

[satanselbow]

4) Bittorrent goes along well with the whole open source/sharing thing.

I always struggle with the ethics... Big Macs are vegetarian right? :popcorn:

[Elfy]

Not got the best b/b here so I don't do it all the time - but when I get my iso's for whatever I might be looking at I seed it for at least long enough that it's seeded 2 copies, 1 to replace mine and 1 for the rest.

[wolfen69]

I always struggle with the ethics... Big Macs are vegetarian right? :popcorn:

I actually had a vegetarian Big Mac one time. The rocket scientists behind the counter forgot to put the meat on it!

But to get back on topic, I hate it when there's not a torrent file for something I want. I don't like taking without giving.

[dragonfriend0013]

I also usually seed for about 2 weeks after a distro is launched. After that, not really unless it is a very popular distro or a LTS.

[hakermania]

Torrents are nice, a used them in the past a lot, since I realized that they caused my modem to auto-restart, maybe because of the amount of different connections? I really don't know the reason...
Also, even if the restart didn't happen, then my internet connection was still slow, like the modem was keeping all these connections even when the program or even the computer running the torrent program was turned off. :/
I don't use torrents since these bad experiences!

[MasterNetra]

I would if I had a internet connection at home still, have to connect at a library or elsewhere. So I don't currently seed. When I get internet again I'll probably seed Linux Mint at the very least.

[Simian Man]

I only use bittorrent for Linux distros, so I generally don't open them just for that.

[Dlambert]

No, I don't also. Whenever I download a distro, the speeds are incredible, and when I'm finished it doesn't connect to any peers. So whats the point? I would If i was needed.

[oldos2er]

I usually grab the *buntu torrents around release candidate/final release time, and seed to at least 1.00, if not more. It's the least I can do for Canonical in return for a free OS.

[papibe]

I usually grab the *buntu torrents around release candidate/final release time, and seed to at least 1.00, if not more. It's the least I can do for Canonical in return for a free OS.

+1, same here, but with stable releases.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I chose "i do not and don't plan to".

That seemed like the option closest to what I do. I do not seed a distro for long periods of time.

If it takes me 30 minutes to download a Linux distro from a torrent; then, I seed for at least 30 minutes after the download completes.

I don't want to run the risk of violating my ISP's user agreement by running a server/torrent site, or exceeding monthly bandwidth caps.