So I was looking for a native-OS X BitTorrent client when I came across XTorrent. I hadn’t heard of it, but I decided to check it out. After registering it I found a message about this on a webboard I use. Apparently I wasted my money – please don’t do to same.

To paraquote:

I just spent hours getting OS X working on my laptop so I could test out Xtorrent, and boy was I disappointed. I’ve been harassed more about this piece of !@#$! client than any other (possibly except Transmission). In future, don’t waste my time, I’ve got better things to do, like watching the plant on my desk grow.

This client is up to Beta 2 (v26 according to the changelog) yet it is absolutely riddled with bugs.

Where do I start? I mean, there’s just so many.

  • It re-uses Peer IDs between sessions.
  • It doesn’t send a stopped event when removing a torrent from the client.
  • It re-announces to the tracker every ~300 seconds (a fraction over 5 mins).
  • It sent a started event instead of a completed event when completing a torrent.

Not strictly a bug, but a major feature omitted:

  • It has no section for tracker error messages.

Even if all of those bugs are fixed, It’s incredibly unlikely to be allowed here. I’ve only spent 10 minutes looking at what this client does, and I found all of those. I really do dread to think what else is wrong with it. The author clearly has no interest in making a decent client, rather wants to make a quick bit of cash for shoddy work. He wants to charge $19 for this crap? $28 if you want updates?!

Yea.. I really wish I had read this before I took a serious look at it.

If you are in need of a BitTorrent client (and there are legit uses for them) consider Azureus or even Transmission