are there any file sharing programs like limewire

This doesn’t mean that it didn’t have downsides of course. Also, the site was less aggressive on ads and toolbars than some competitors. This growth was helped by the shutdown of competitors such as Napster and Grokster. LimeWire’s Explosive Growthĭuring the time the file-sharing business was booming, LimeWire grew faster than other applications. Within a year more than three million copies of the software were downloaded, something most developers could only dream of. While the official Gnutella client from Nullsoft was much more popular early on, LimeWire caught up quickly. That slow start should be seen in perspective. “Newer clients like LimeWire were definitely an improvement on the Gnutella network but we were still only a tiny fraction of the network,” he adds. At the time, we celebrated every 100 downloads and then every thousand but that was just a drop in the bucket,” Greg Bildson, former LimeWire CTO/COO, and employee of the first hour, recalls. “To say we had a slow start was an understatement. The application as people know it, the Gnutella-based file-sharing client, came out a few months later. However, at the time, it wasn’t called LimeWire yet. The application was created under the wings of Lime Group, LLC, by a small group of developers with a keen interest in peer-to-peer technology.Īccording to the online history books, the Gnutella-based software was first released on May 3, 2000. LimeWire was founded by entrepreneur and hedge fund manager Mark Gorton. By then, however, its successors were queuing up to take over, and LimeWire stood out.

Napster initially remained the most popular application but this reign ended in the summer of 2001, when it was ordered to shut down by a US federal court. In the year following Napster’s release, other P2P applications such as Direct Connect, iMesh, eDonkey2000, Freenet, and LimeWire launched. It offered limitless inspiration for many developers as well. This new sharing culture did not just intrigue music-loving teens. What used to be a niche activity, only reserved for the technically inclined, suddenly became a popular pastime for the masses.Īt the turn of the century, Napster was the first to be widely embraced, which happened to be right around the time MP3 players became popularized as well. Twenty years ago, a new trend called file-sharing started to conquer the Internet.

Are there any file sharing programs like limewire