The BitTorrent protocol is used for peer to peer file sharing and it’s an extremely efficient way of downloading and sharing files with groups of people. While file sharing with BitTorrent is normally associated with video files like movies or TV episodes, it’s also common for Linux developers to offer a torrent download of their distribution.
Torrents are great for downloading large files because they are split into smaller chunks and downloaded from multiple peers in the torrent “swarm.” Being able to download from a lot of different sources simultaneously should mean that your download bandwidth is completely saturated, resulting in a very quick download of large files. When all of the file chunks are done downloading, the file is reconstructed automatically.
In order to download something via BitTorrent, you need to have a torrent client installed on your system. On Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa, there are quite a few options to choose from. Some have a graphical interface and some only work on the command line, but they all have their advantages and quirks. In this article, we’ll go over some top picks for torrent clients to help you choose the right one for your needs. We’ll also show how to install each of them and open up a .torrent file.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install and use various torrent clients
