I've heard from a few friends in the file sharing world that Gnutella is losing its popularity... Give me your opinion.

Well, Gnutella's popularity has in some way been decaying, especially taking into account its popularity when Napster became obsolete, but it's certainly not dying. The worst enemy (now that I think of it, enemy may not be the most appropiate word) of Gnutella are its own users. If we don't share and we don't accept incoming connections we will be harming the network.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

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Gnutella Forums en Español!

Maybe this forum isnt that popular maybe because of other *** that are avaible..

Gnutella is more popular than ever.. Maybe some of the programs that were getting alot of hype has died down but that doesnt mean that the rest of the network is unpopular..

I dont think that one or two things could be contributed to any file sharing programs demise. I dont really agree with backmann's point that users are hurting the network by not accepting incoming connections because many users dont have any control or that or the knowledge to work their firewall to allow traffic.

As for sharing its always a problem for someone but i dont think that the amount of sharing is dangerously low or anything..

The main thing that does hurt gnutella is people who use outdated servents. Gnutella is only as good as the software thats running it.

I mean those who deliberately reject them. Check the statistics at limewire.com, the proportion is very low. And of course, leechers are the other problem.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

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Gnutella Forums en Español!

Limewire statistics are around 4 times less than the actual number of hosts.. More information can be found in this GDF post about a month ago.

So the actual number of hosts on gnutella when i posted this is around 600,000.

I wasn't talking about the hosts. I was talking about the proportion hosts/hosts accepting incoming connections, which wouldn't vary much from the one at limewire.com.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

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Gnutella Forums en Español!

I don't think servers were in the discussion. Perhaps the quantity of servers would be an convincing arguement as to the demise or lack thereof? Who thinks so?

I dont think so. Gnutella doesnt use centralized servers. and (someone correct me if i am wrong) generally each host acts as the server... (a bit different with super duper extra specail "mines better than yours" ultra peers, but the same idea.)

I know gnutella uses a decentralized system... But how many clients are there? Millions? Thousands? Surely a chart can show a decrease or an increase?

I mean servers, of course... but nonetheless... Theres got to be number to substantiate either direction. Up or down? Whats your opinion? What do you think could cause a decline or what do you think could cause an increase of usage...