Hi all....

Sorry for the long-winded post, but if you could bear with it, any opinions would be much appreciated.

I've been a LimeWire user now for about a month, I'm presently using version 2.5.5 Pro on a WIN XP Pro platform... So far, for the most part, I've been pleased....
I love:
- The clean, uncluttered look & function of the interface.
- The stability...(XP hasn't complained no matter how long I leave the app running).
- The lack of spyware & adware!!! A must in my book... wouldn't even consider a P2P client bundled with spyware & garbage!

I am however, quite dissappointed in the search results and the lack of robust network connectivity!! It seems obvious that LW favors connecting mostly to other LW peers, thus eliminating a signifigant portion of the network!!!

I've recently been reading about a relatively new P2P client named Shareaza! claiming to have the most robust features and network connectivity of any other Gnutella client!... This coming from users who have used many of the P2P clients!! Shareaza also claims to be void of spyware and ads... and is completely free!
So, given all of this... I'd have to admit that Shareaza certainly sounds like a very tempting alternative to LimeWire...

I haven't installed and experimented with Shareaza yet... but before I do, I was wondering if anyone out there has any experience with Shareaza, and could give me some comparative, unbiased feedback / opinions.

Can Shareaza truly be all it is claimed to be... without any drawbacks???
Sounds too good to be true huh...

Thanks again for your time.

LimeWire is not eliminating any portion of the network at all. LimeWire's connection preferencing is very subtle and does not harm your search results at all since it will still connect to other hosts. Robust network connectivity is not an issue.

Did it occur to you, that there is actually a Shareaza forum here? If you want to ask about Shareaza you have certainly come to the wrong place.

OK.... well so much for hoping that the members of this board could be solicited for unbiased, non-derogatory, constructive opinions....
From the "tone" of Krieger's response, I see this person has choosen a somewhat combative reply, and obviously completely missed the point!!

Well.... I only questioned the robust connectivity issue because I rarely see connections other than LW!!... just an occasional Morpheus or Gnucleus connection. Therefore it seems to me, that if a number of the other peers are being bypassed, the full potential of the network is not being utilized.
Yes, I agree that LW will connect to other peers, but I don't believe the rest of the above quote is 100% correct!

Quote:

Did it occur to you, that there is actually a Shareaza forum here? If you want to ask about Shareaza you have certainly come to the wrong place.

Yes... I realize a Shareaza forum exists... but if you understood my post, I was not asking specifically about Shareaza! Did I not say I was a pleased LimeWire user? My purpose was not to badmouth LimeWire.... as I see many others on this board doing so frequently! I merly was looking for comparative pro/con opinions of both clients from other LW users who may have also experienced both.

Perhaps I did come to the wrong place.... maybe I would have received a more cordial and diplomatic reply if I had posted this on the Shareaza forum.

Thanks for your 2 cents Peerless!

Much appreciated.

I regularly use both shareaza and LW and don't think its at all easy to say which is best - shareaza is clean fast and in my experience yields the wider range of search results - on the other hand LW is very stable, well designed and yields just as many succesful downloads

shareaza has some very cute features such as the "hit monitor" screen which shows all the "close but not exact" search matches which has led to some very fine discoveries and the "search again" option which doesn't clear the previous search results the way LW does

on the other hand - the latest versions of shareaza has even more slippery ultrapeer connections than LW which can be very irritating at times - but - on the other hand the ultrapeers shareaza connects to are very much more diverse than those LW connects to (hence the wider range of search results I guess - I never realised just how many p2p clients existed)

downloads are possibly marginally faster with shareaza (for me on a dial-up anyway) than is the case with LW and I definetly find the requery/reconnect function better in shareaza

on the other hand - LW has a stability and reliability that is not quite there yet with shareaza

sooooo - I keep using them both - they seem the pick of the bunch to me and even though I think shareaza is a strong contender - my "desert island" choice is still LW

so thats my 2 cents worth - bad_vlad

PS - love the fish/file animation Peerless

Another thank you goes out to bad_vlad....

and now I have another 2 cents of very valuable info!

I never knew 4 cents could be worth so much!!!

Thanks again to bad-vlad and Peerless....

There's absolutely no question about it - THE OBVIOUS ANIMATION - the more realistic (closer view) looks like dolphins jumping for fish at the San Diego or Gold Coast "Sea Worlds" whereas the more distant and less 'real' animation has an eerie and slightly surreal feel that suggests the dolphins are jumping about because 'we've' finally blown it and disappeared for good - and they're happy about it

love it - happy_vlad

damn - that post would've been so much better if I'd got the right animation coming up

idiot_vlad

Good point Kath!