FAQ

If you have a question not covered here, please contact us using the link on the right.

Why not just download the programs directly?
Open Source Torrents was started to help open source projects distribute their software. Even with major FOSS repositories like SourceForge, many open source projects have trouble managing file releases, finding mirrors, synchronising download sites and so on. Open Source Torrents simplifies the process - one torrent file can scale to as many users as needed, and even for smaller files BitTorrent can help with economies of scale.

BitTorrent allows true peer to peer file sharing and is very decentralized, where each person shares the file to others in small pieces. Because of these small pieces, it has one major advantage - BitTorrent clients are download managers. Fully featured clients (uTorrent, for instance) have full pausing and resuming of downloads, can resume downloads broken by sudden crashes and help dialup users downloading large files over time. As a result, BitTorrent can help increase the target audience of open source projects as well, and Open Source Torrents is here to help.

I run an open source project. Can I share my project files through Open Source Torrents?
Certainly. Please contact us and we can arrange for your project to be made available through Open Source Torrents. Unfortunately we cannot accept freeware, shareware or commercial programs. If you only want to share one file, however, use the 'Request Torrent' page.

How do I view your RSS feed?
You need an RSS reader to use it. Many modern web browsers (Firefox, for example) come with one built in; you can also use dedicated programs like RSSOwl.