Gnutella: A Protocol Outliving the World That Created It

(rickcarlino.com)

54 points by rickcarlino3 days ago

6 comments

  • kderbe21 minutes ago
    I would read a follow-up about LimeWire's dynamic query routing. I enjoyed the writing style very much and now I'm reading Rick's other articles on topics that normally wouldn't interest me. Thanks Rick!
  • chuckadams5 minutes ago
    Hot take: the simple reason Gnutella declined is that it was replaced by Bittorrent.
  • itsthecourier2 days ago
    just reading gnutella triggered a really old memory of times when Ares, Limewire and eMule where places to try your luck getting mp3s and software
    • felooboolooomba46 minutes ago
      Back in the day as a teenager. Downloaded mp3 that was labelled with title and artist and .mp3 extension. It wasn't. What it was caused me to wipe my hard drive and reinstall everything. Fkuc that shit. Apart from that, many good stuff was had.
      • leeoniya35 minutes ago
        or was it Windows hiding file extensions by default and you downloaded a .mp3.exe file?
        • netsharc26 minutes ago
          Isn&#x27;t it just great how a decision made by some genius in Microsoft decades ago caused so much confusion and mess. Even on Windows 11 the default is to hide extensions, because, geez, wouldn&#x27;t want to confuse people with change after decades of it being like that.<p>Although, was the hiding something that the Mac introduced?<p>The idea of the last part of the filename (after the period) determining what program is launched to handle the file is odd anyway...<p>I wonder if the Windows spyware infrastructure measures what % of people turn off extension hiding..
          • chuckadams3 minutes ago
            The mac started out without using extensions at all, the type was embedded in the metadata. That&#x27;s still possible now, but it&#x27;s largely derived from extensions first rather than a resource fork (most things don&#x27;t even have resource forks now).<p>I believe Finder shows all extensions by default. It certainly does in details mode.
          • throwawaysoxjje2 minutes ago
            Macs originally didn’t have filename extensions because the file type was stored as metadata in the file system
    • rrgok16 minutes ago
      Shareaza was the goat. It had 4 or 5 protocols.
    • culi17 minutes ago
      Docuwiki (not to be confused with DokuWiki) is still the most thorough source I&#x27;ve seen for niche documentaries.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docuwiki.net&#x2F;index.php?title=Category:Name" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docuwiki.net&#x2F;index.php?title=Category:Name</a><p>It is all ed2k links. Unfortunately modern clients for ed2k are quite lacking
  • thiscatis29 minutes ago
    Great memories of limewire but unfortunately its creator has gone full MAGA&#x2F;MAHA, dropped all scientific knowledge he ever had by funding RFK Jr. and is even advocating cancelling child vaccination schedules.
  • bellowsgulch2 days ago
    That’s what Limewire used? It definitely came pre-bootstrapped then.
    • rickcarlino1 day ago
      Are you asking if lime wire used Gnutella Web Cache for bootstrapping? I’m not sure. GWebCache is one of many possible ways to boot strap, and I have not run lime wire in over a decade. I saw that GTKGnutella moved off of GWebCache sometime ago and uses some sort UDP based tool now. I am fairly certain that Shareaza still uses it because I see those results come up in my Web cache pull from time to time. I have seen a few advertisements from lime wire fork projects as well.
  • ryanshrott1 day ago
    [flagged]