WinMX is back!!!

July 25, 2006 1:12 AM

WinMX is back (kind of). It was such an unbelievably awesome file sharing program that its makers had to pull their peer caches after being served a cease and desist order in September 2005. Now it has been reincarnated as MXpie. Even better . . . it's not spyware or adware.
posted by augustweed (46 comments total)

This is just an implementation of the Napster protocol, right?
posted by delmoi at 1:16 AM on July 25, 2006

It piggybacked on Opennap servers and a number of other protocols as well as having its own native network, if I recall correctly.

I'd argue that it was far from 'unbelievably awesome', though. Laughably bad UI design (which is saying a lot, given some of the competition at the time), spotty search results, peer connection problems, through-the-roof CPU usage...

I liked WinMX back in 2000 or so, mind you, but the new filesharing paradigms -- 'darknet' private torrent sites, closed, encrypted trusted-user Waste networks, even DC hubs and so on -- have old school beat seven ways from Sunday, I'd say.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:24 AM on July 25, 2006

(Note: I do know DC isn't exactly a new thing. My bad.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:31 AM on July 25, 2006

So far I have never seen anything better (other than straight-up shoplifting, in terms of speed) than private torrent sites. TorrentBits was the best of all time IMO, but there is another now that literally is the twin of that glorious old site, if perhaps without the same sense of community and panache.

I don't shoplift, though, so I can claim some esoteric moral higher ground, right?
posted by Clamwacker at 1:51 AM on July 25, 2006

MetaFilter: some esoteric moral higher ground, right?
posted by blacklite at 1:54 AM on July 25, 2006

The only question I have is not answered by their FAQ patch.

I ask, since they are basically saying up front that they are WinMX, whats to stop them from being served with yet another cease and desist this time around?
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:16 AM on July 25, 2006

It's so awesome that they were actually C&D'd! It's hard to believe!

...whats to stop them from being served with yet another cease and desist this time around?

Considering anyone can serve anyone else with a C&D for any reason (valid or not), since it's not a legally binding document, nothing is stopping them from getting another one.
posted by Plutor at 3:03 AM on July 25, 2006

Seems to be nothing but mp3s. If you want cbr files, look on eMule instead.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 3:04 AM on July 25, 2006

Clamwacker:So far I have never seen anything better (other than straight-up shoplifting, in terms of speed) than private torrent sites.

IANASL (I Am Not A ShopLifter), but I reckon that by the time it takes to walk to the record shop on the corner, find the disk (no search engine, remember?), take the disk, walk back, get the damn plastic wrap off, pop the disc in the driver, rip it (who actually bothers manually swapping CDs anymore?) and add it to the WinAmp playlist, it would have downloaded several times over.

It all depends on what sort of broadband you have, I guess.
posted by spazzm at 3:08 AM on July 25, 2006

Does WinMX still all that awesome leeching and those fantastic impossibly long queues? I can see why it was worth resurrecting!
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:52 AM on July 25, 2006

eMule still rulez for rare stuff and single MP3 files. BT is great for newly released TV episodes and movies.
posted by homodigitalis at 3:52 AM on July 25, 2006

what's wrong with Usenet?
posted by matteo at 4:19 AM on July 25, 2006

Man, that logo takes me back. But why would you ever use it now we have Bit Torrent?
posted by Orange Goblin at 4:26 AM on July 25, 2006

Soulseek is teh bomb. Oh, and the link to mxpie in the fpp is null, so here 'tis.
posted by moonbird at 4:38 AM on July 25, 2006

what's wrong with Usenet?

My (DSL) ISP offers no access to newsgroups - that would cost extra ...
posted by homodigitalis at 4:40 AM on July 25, 2006

Soulseek is teh bomb.
I liked the prog, but...i suspect it installed WhenU.SaveNow on my machine. I may be wrong, but it ain't popping it's nasty head up no more since I uninstalled SS.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:49 AM on July 25, 2006

I am admittedly not particularly too hip to it regarding computers. I use BearShare. Does this make me a loser?
posted by flarbuse at 5:51 AM on July 25, 2006

MEHHH.

USENET NEWSGROUPS.
Why use these p2p things to get songs at 2kb a second when usenet is 900k/s?
Torrents for full cds.
posted by bmpetow at 5:52 AM on July 25, 2006

nothing will ever top audiogalaxy for quality of results and ease of use, though...
posted by empath at 6:11 AM on July 25, 2006

Soulseek was better when it was all dance music.
posted by empath at 6:12 AM on July 25, 2006

What about iTunes ?

*runs*
posted by Pendragon at 6:49 AM on July 25, 2006

Ah. The good ol' days. Remember back when you could never be sure just what you were getting? Sure, the title told you it was that Roni Size track you wanted, but when you downloaded -- over the course of an hour, perhaps -- you found it was just another re-labeled copy of that damned "Because I Got High" song.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:52 AM on July 25, 2006

Usenet is great, and has a decent scope, but finding music that is either not brand new or popular is hard. You also usually have to pay for good access.

Me, I'm waiting for an encrypted system like the Japanese Share to hit the English-speaking world. Right now, you can get an English translation, but it's still quite arcane.

dash_slot-, where did you download the program? SoulSeek's former domain, slsk.org, was taken over by scummy spyware peddlers, and the project was forced to move to slsknet.org. I've never had a spyware infection from the official client. And if that one still gives you the heebie jeebes, there are numerous other third party cross-platform clients.
posted by zsazsa at 6:58 AM on July 25, 2006

what's wrong with Usenet?

The first rule of Usenet is we we don't talk about Usenet.
posted by stbalbach at 7:08 AM on July 25, 2006

New stuff: Bit torrent.
Misc: Emule
Music: Soulseek

WinMX? It was a mess in its hayday and the market is a bit more crowded now.
posted by skallas at 7:30 AM on July 25, 2006

Clamwacker writes "TorrentBits was the best of all time IMO, but there is another now that literally is the twin of that glorious old site"

Would you care to name said site, maybe invite? Email's in profile.
posted by signal at 7:38 AM on July 25, 2006

All I remember about WinMX is that nothing would download! Sometime it would takes weeks for a file to finish.
posted by zorro astor at 7:54 AM on July 25, 2006

Pendragon made me laugh outloud.

Usenet and BT pretty much take care of my needs in this area today
posted by a3matrix at 8:00 AM on July 25, 2006

I always thought TorrentBits was a bit shit, TBH -- a mile wide and an inch deep. I'll take a handful of speciality sites over one big general site any day.
posted by aaronetc at 8:05 AM on July 25, 2006

Clamwacker writes "TorrentBits was the best of all time IMO, but there is another now that literally is the twin of that glorious old site"

Would you care to name said site, maybe invite? Email's in profile.

...my thoughts exactly. Ditto?
posted by jckll at 8:24 AM on July 25, 2006

Clamwacker, as long as you're writing two emails already, would you mind sending a third?
posted by squared at 8:42 AM on July 25, 2006

What about a fourth, please? (As long as the site doesn't involve pig sounds.)
posted by booksandlibretti at 9:04 AM on July 25, 2006

ditto.
posted by Dr No at 9:31 AM on July 25, 2006

piracyfilter
posted by perianwyr at 10:31 AM on July 25, 2006

A fifth? If you are in fact, inviting?
posted by Brainy at 10:50 AM on July 25, 2006

Clamwacker writes "there is another now that literally is the twin of that glorious old site"

Six?
posted by IronLizard at 11:07 AM on July 25, 2006

How about seven?
posted by toomuch at 11:30 AM on July 25, 2006

How about eight! Yeah I went there.
posted by vodkadin at 11:51 AM on July 25, 2006

se7en?
posted by premortem at 12:48 PM on July 25, 2006

And I, too, would love to jump on the email bandwagon, if at all possible.
posted by unwordy at 12:51 PM on July 25, 2006

ei8ht?
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 12:54 PM on July 25, 2006

that anyone would use anything other than oink.me.uk to pirate music is pretty laughable.
posted by jimmy at 1:05 PM on July 25, 2006

What about iTunes ?

Call me when ITMS
1) runs on linux
2) the music plays on linux
3) the music plays on my mp3 player
4) the music plays on my phone
5) I don't lose my music if apple goes bust, or gets shut down by Apple Corps
6) It costs less than buying a real CD online (UK gets screwed as usual)
7) The music is the same bitrate as what I get on a real CD
8) I can resell it when I get bored with it
9) I can lend it to a friend
10) I'm not propping up the business model of corrupt, abusive, grasping pigopolists that screws over everyone that's not their executives.

*breathes in*

Till then, I'll stick to CDBaby, ta.
posted by ArkhanJG at 1:36 PM on July 25, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

nine or ten maybe.
posted by Skygazer at 1:55 PM on July 25, 2006

jimmy, could you send me an invite to oink?
posted by Kifer85 at 3:09 PM on July 25, 2006

For those of you looking for public torrent sites, you could do worse than looking at the list used by this Firefox extension.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:19 PM on July 25, 2006