StarDestroyer.Net BBS

After steadily growing in popularity over the past year or so, the lightweight BitTorrent client known as μTorrent has been snatched up by BitTorrent. Yesterday, a message co-written by BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen and μTorrent creator Ludvig Strigeus was posted on the μTorrent forums. The message reads:

Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and µTorrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired µTorrent as it recognized the merits of µTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together µTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client. . . . Moving forward behind the scenes, we will continue to develop µTorrent and will be using the codebase in other applications, especially ones where a fast, lightweight implementation is more suitable, such as embedded systems on TVs, cell phones, and other non-PC platforms.

Praising μTorrent's efficiency is no press release hyperbole, either. The software is a stand-alone executable that weighs in at just 170KB and offers more functionality and a lighter memory footprint than BitTorrent's own client, whose installer alone takes up almost 6MB of space. Considering μTorrent's popularity, the acquisition may end up helping BitTorrent's legal content distribution efforts, as well. Thanks to TR reader Jim for the tip.