Nowadays you can find several really good open source or freeware BitTorrent clients. Why choose Deluge? Because…

• it is open source: you’ll be much safer against having a sneaky hidden process running on your computer;
• it is multiplatform: if you use (or you’re planning to use) more then one operating system, you can install Deluge wherever you want: on Linux, MacOS X, or Windows. Choosing multiplatform apps you’re more likely to remove yourself from the claws of proprietary operating systems.
• it has plugins: use just the features you want by activating the plugins you’ll need.
• it is fast: Deluge is pretty fast with libtorrent.

I used Azureus a lot but it was too sluggish with its Java, after that I used uTorrent which I really liked but when I moved to Linux I couldn’t use it anymore. So, I was left with the option to use Transmission or Deluge. Only the latter worked on Windows, MacOS X, and Linux so I was happy to be able to use the same application on any OS I chose.

With its plugin structure, Deluge has a bunch of extra features, such as:

• BitTorrent Protocol Encryption
• Web seed
• Private Torrents
• Global and per-torrent speed limits
• Configurable bandwidth scheduler
• Password protection
• RSS, and much more!

One plugin I use often is the “Torrent Search” to find the file I want through several different sites.

Last and best of all is its “Web User Interface”. I can now manage my torrents remotely through any web browser. Just activate the plugin, go to your web browser and type http://localhost:8112/ .

Now, thats what I call complete freedom. Free of charge, free from OS, and free even from your desktop! Download it and if you like it, support the project with a donation.

Miro comes to organize all the video content on the web in a very nice way for us. First, right out of the box there is a very nice way for you to find and watch videos from YouTube, blip.tv, DailyMotion, and others. Just use the search bar at the bottom of the program to find what you want. Easy to search and then once you find something good, watch it and download it if you want.

On the main window of the program you can see the Miro Guide with Featured Channels and popular videos. Yes, you heard (saw) it right, channels – which is basically an RSS feed of video files. You can find thousands of channels listed through this program, including TekZilla, NBC Nightly News, TED Talks, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, and many more.

Download the video you want straight to your HD and watch it whenever you want. Miro already comes with a movie player (VLC for Windows, Quiktime 7 for Macs, GStreamer or Xine for Linux). By the way, it works on all of these platforms very well. After watching the video file you can delete the file or keep it. So, basically free video downloads!! All legal.

If you want you can even use it as a bitTorrent client but honestly there are other better programs for that.

I’m hooked on Miro now! Thanks to the folks of The Participatory Culture Foundation!