[Mldonkey-users] xMule - an alternative

[Brett Dikeman]

Just thought I'd mention that I've been using the "xMule" 
client(www.xmule.org) for about 12 hours so far- and I'm blown out of 
the water by how nice the UI is(everything actually makes sense, 
information is presented nicely, etc.)

There are some incredibly nice features- for example, a "static" 
function for server list entries, whereby they never go away.  You've 
got control over how many times a server fails on a connection 
attempt before it is removed.

The "shared files" page and shared directories browser are perfect- 
you can share+unshare directories in a tree display with the click of 
a button, and re-scan as well...no restarts or other foolishness 
required.  No problems with sharing a file once it finishes.  You can 
change priorities, limit uploads of a file to friends, so on.

It gets better- the upload pane on the Transfers page shows, live, 
all the upload activity, with a host of information.  A live list of 
the waiting queue, with an equally impressive amount of information, 
is a click away via the right-click menu.

  As for the downloads pane, the progress bar shows both percentage 
completed and availability/downloaded chunks.  About the only thing 
you can't do is inspect individual sources- functionality I don't 
particularly miss.  Another nice feature would be the auto-unpause; 
if set, you can have a number of files in the queue, pause all but 
one, and as each download finishes, it'll unpause the next.  Want to 
see lots of information about a file?  Right click on the filename 
and choose "Show File Details"- you can see all sorts of related 
client, transfer and corruption stats, as well as see counts for the 
various filenames, and pick the one you want to use.

The statistics page is a dream- builtin graphing of connection usage 
and up/download counts, with session averages displayed as well.  A 
separate, collapsible tree shows an impressive number of statistics 
that is well categorized.

It lacks the "Extreme Configuration" of mldonkey- but at the same 
time, the simplicity is refreshing and it's downright easy to use; 
since it's basically eMule, most of the existing eMule documentation, 
FAQs, etc apply.


Who should not try xMule?  Those who:

-use mldonkey's separated backend/frontend functionality
-want the ability to poke your finger into every aspect of the 
client's operations
-use the extraneous network protocols(ie, you only use 
edonkey/overnet networks)
-use the unix-specific functionality of mldonkey(such as run-as-user, etc)

I've been using v1.4.0(just released 2 days ago) for less than 24 
hours, after what seems like at least a year of mldonkey torture.  So 
far, I love it- I'll probably be off the mailing list within a day 
and have mldonkey wiped from my system within the week.  I'm tired of 
all the eccentricities of the mldonkey client- I just want a client 
that WORKS, and xmule works beautifully.

B
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