Napster Lives OnAug 23 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Just because Napster died, doesn't mean it's really gone. Confused, well read on... So what if Napster is dead? What does it matter if the individual program is dead? You don't care about the program if you've downloaded free music off Napster. What you really care about is the OpenNap servers that connect all the Napster users together and arrange music swapping. When Napster started getting beat down by the RIAA, many people saw this as the end of Napster-type song sharing. Many flocked to gnutella-server programs that do the same thing but differently. Most gnutella-based programs, at least all the ones I've seen, have a much different search interface than Napster. You can't search by song length, frequency, or bit-rate, and often other useful knowledge such as the ping rate is replaced by a ambiguous "speed". So since Napster's demise many users have been forced to use the inferior gnutella software. Little to many non-computer savvy people know, that the heart and soul of Napster is not the program itself but the OpenNap servers. When Napster was censored by the RIAA and courts, only the actual program "Napster" was censored, not the servers that link all the users and exchange songs. Since then, to many peoples' surprise, many new programs have been created that tap into the Napster servers! What this means, basically, Napster lives on. Not just that, but it gets even better. Since many new programs now use Napster servers, it creates a competitive environment where developers are encouraged to add new features, which improves our lives. You thought Napster was dead? Well, dozens of programs that act like Napster and use the same servers as Napster are out their right now, waiting to be installed on your computer. If you take anything out of this article let it be this: The Napster program and the Napster servers are two much different things. Just because the program is gone, doesn't mean many new ones are out their that tap right into the Napster servers. Currently, I use WinMx, which emulates the features of Napster very nicely. The look is different but not drastically so. Forget Morpheus or gnutella everyone, WinMx is basically Napster. It does everything that Napster did and it does it on the same servers. However, I'm sure WinMx will soon be replaced by a better Napster-clone, since new programs are constantly popping up. My advice to anyone that has been let down by Napster and is looking for another P2P (Peer to peer) file-sharing program is this: Don't get a gnutella server-based program such as BearShare or ToadNode, get a OpenNap server-based program such as WinMx. You'll find it supports all or most of the features that Napster had. It is much easier than getting used to second rate software such as gnutella-based programs. If you insist on a gnutella program, I recommend "LimeWire", it works pretty well. The problem I encounter with gnutella-type programs is that song transfers take a lot longer than they should. I have a 56K modem and when I download a song from gnutella it downloads at 1-3 KB/s. This is very slow since Napster usually can get to 5-6 KB/s fairly easily. The reason for this is that many gnutella programs allow users to set how fast their song will be transfered to the other computer. If you are downloading a song from a user who has set his program to give it you at .1 KB/s, it will take forever and you will be cursing your software. The nice thing about Napster based programs is that users can't do this, typically. Songs are sent and received at the fastest rate, leaving the users no choice in setting rates. This really encourages trading music and not hoarding it by making it impossible for others to download from you.  |
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