Bittorrent puts direct connection to shame...

[elfs]

So, yesterday, I wanted to download the new Gentoo disk images for my laptop so I could upgrade it (I'm running 2004.1, and 2005.1 is out now). I tried a direct connection and it told me it would take 8 hours via HTTP for the whole 700MB file.

I usually think of bittorrent as slow. I'm used to it taking days, weeks, or even months to complete a torrent. But I decided, what the heck, I'll pull down the torrent file for Gentoo 2005.1 and see how long it would take. At least, unlike HTTP, the resume wouldn't be expensive.

It took two hours with bittorrent. Cool!

Comments

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

All depends on how popular the torrent is, really.

Note that you don't need to reinstall to do an upgrade, though... all you really have to do is change the link at /etc/make.profile to point to the new profile. There really aren't any major changes, though, other than newer default versions of baselayout/binutils/gcc/glibc.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Ah, but Omaha has gifted me with a very large hard-drive, and I'd like to install Gentoo on it. But without a reliable boot media, that's going to be difficult.

[casualprofessor.livejournal.com]

The torrent has been flagged for illicit music downloading; consequently, a number of universities (including mine) are blocking the service numbers.