LimeWire is thinking of removing the "Download ANY" button, leaving just "Download ALL". Our theory is that few people really understand the difference and most people just use "Download ALL". What do you think?

-Christopher Rohrs

Really? I always use the "Download Any" button.
That's the only way I ever seem to get "Downloading from (n) hosts" and fast downloads.

I am not clear on the difference between the two buttons, though, and wouldn't really care if there were only one.

Hmm...

if you explain the option "download any" the user would know if it usefull or not!

Morgwen

if you select multiple files (for example if 3 files come up you want to dl) you can select them and click DOWNLOAD ALL, this will bring all 3 into your download area.. clicking DOWNLOAD ANY in this situation will only designate one of the three files to go into your download area and will give you messages of "you are already d/l.. blah" when you try to d/l the others

Whoa. It definitely does not work that way for me. It behaves exactly the same as Download Any: tries to get info from all of the copies of the file, sometimes all at once (i.e."Downloading from (n) hosts"). I've *never* seen more than one copy of a file in my download area, and I've definitely hit that button!

I say lose the button, and expend the programming energy on fixing the browse host feature.


(Mac 8.6 running LWPro 2.3, and it worked the same way in the previous version)

I usually use DOWNLOAD ALL - I don´t really see where the use of the DOWNLOAD ANY is. Since I want the file to be on my hdd the second before I clicked, I load from all possible sources.

So if I pick a file that is grouped and use Download ALL that will use the swarmed download? If so, then get rid of "Download ANY" but I would go further and just name the button "Download" or maybe "Download if you feel lucky punk".
Well, I'm serious about the first choice.

As I expected, Download ANY/ALL caused much confusion. Here's the difference.

Download ANY puts all of the selected files into a single "smart downloader". The smart downloader will prioritize the files by speed and try them one at a time until any succeeds. If multiple files are exactly the same, it will swarm that file.

Download ALL puts each selected file into its own smart downloader and starts them all. Exception: any files in a search result group are put in a single smart downloader, like in the Download ANY case. Again, if a smart downloader has multiple identical files, it will swarm.

Note that search result grouping is approximate. So "aaaaa.txt" (1000KB) and "aaaaaa_.txt" (1001KB) will be put in the same group since they're SIMILAR. However, LimeWire will only swarm if two files are exactly the SAME. In other words, "same" files are (almost) always put in a single search result group, though entries within a group are not necessarily "same".

Typically "ANY" is useful if you're looking for something specific. For example, say I searched for "othello" and get back "shakespeare - othello.html" and "othello - shakespeare.html". LimeWire won't group these file as similar. However, either one will do for me, so I select both and hit Download ANY. This is more polite then simply starting both downloads in parallel, and it results in fewer incomplete files. Also, LimeWire won't let you start two downloads in parallel if the files have the same name.

Typically "ALL" is useful if you're looking for lots of things. For example, say I searched for "shakespeare" and get back "hamlet.html" and "othello.html". I want both files, so I select them all and hit Download ALL. Two downloaders start. Note that I could have also hit "ANY" for the first file then "ANY" for the second file.

-Christopher Rohrs

Just combine the two buttons into a "Download" button.

Being uncertain about whether or not the button will get the file I want, I never use either. When I want a file, I double click it. I sure wish it worked the way it used to, when you could try to download multiple files of the exact same name at the same time, and once one actually started, or you see which one is going the fastest, you could kill the others. Why not bring that back? I hate getting the message "You are already downloading...", especially when I am NOT already downloading, but the program is simply waiting for the download to begin. Why not allow multiple instances until one starts, or if you start another because your download stalls or is going to slow, it could automatically cancel the current one IF the new one goes better. Leaving the canceled one there just in case you did it by accident.