That’s the question really. I hear the terms metadata and torrents thrown around all the time when talking about internet and privacy, but I don’t really understand them and when I tried googling torrents I was just confused. Can someone explain one or both like I’m 5?

  • Undearius@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    I good example that’s completely legal is Linux distributions. They are licensed in a way that lets you share the file with other people so there is no risk of illegal activity.

    You need torrent software installed that can speak the language of the torrenting protocol. Examples would be QBitTorrent, Transmission, and uTorrent, but there are others as well.

    For the general process, you would download and install torrenting software, then you would go to a page that has torrent files (like this Ubuntu page), save the .torrent file and then from the software open that file, this will begin the download. Once it’s done, you have a full copy of the files on your computer.

    The only thing unique about torrents is that you are downloading parts of the file from a bunch of other people that have a copy, instead of downloading the whole file from just one single server.

    • kopper [they/them]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I just want to quickly jot down that a fair bit of torrents are delivered through “magnet links” instead of .torrent files. An example is Arch Linux which has both.

      In most cases after you install a torrent client such as Qbittorrent, Deluge, Transmission or what have you, your system will automatically recognize magnet links and will offer to launch the software to handle it properly once you click it.

      cc @shadowSprite@lemmy.world

      • Undearius@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, thank you. I was going to explain that as well but asl owanted to keep it as basic and simple as possible. Honestly, I can’t recall the last time I actually alsaved and opened a torrent file, I’ve always used magnet links.

        If your computer doesn’t automatically open a magnet link when you click on it (usually you’ll just see a 🧲 that you can click on), you should be able to right click that icon to copy the link. Often the client will have an option to enter the magnet link when you select File>Open.

      • funnystuff97@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone “CC” someone else outside of business emails. Man, I like it here.

        • Undearius@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          For actually getting torrents loaded into the client software, there’s basically no difference. They both contain the information needed to start downloading the content.

          A torrent file just has the information needed to start the download, kind of like a text file.

          A magnet link is similar to any other link, like http://example.com/SomeFile.torrent. They’re a bit more complicated because the website example.com might remove or change the location of SomeFile.torrent and then any of the existing links won’t work. Magnet links aren’t affected by that sort of thing. I say this with the caveat that I honestly don’t really know or understand them fully because, like I first said, it doesn’t really matter.

    • Deestan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      On that topic, know of any good torrent clients for windows that don’t give your computer herpes, then cancer to the herpes?

      • Undearius@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        I can’t speak for the Windows side as I’m one of those Linux users. But the ones I mentioned are ones I know off the top of my head because I see them mentioned often.

        • Transmission
        • qBittorrent
        • Deluge
        • Tixati
    • shadowSprite@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wow, that was super informative. Thank you!

      All of you commenting have been so much nicer than everyone on the tech pages. I don’t even go there because everyone is all “Linux is God, if you don’t understand everything about it why are you even on lemmy lolololol” and I just want some building blocks to start my knowledge :)