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JackSpratts · 18-12-06, 04:38 PM

ok, just to be clear, the only "official" waste client is that of the developer justin frankel. released three and a half years ago it works surprisingly well for an application that hasn’t been publicly updated since, but it got the ball rolling as it were and hence the interest and the sourceforge project. while these have been called "official" releases they are really an offshoot of frankel's original client, modified by well meaning coders yes, but no more official than a mod you yourself might choose to develop - and since even these new updates have been dwindling of late it may just be a matter of time before other users take up the call and jump in with refined mods like crypton did last summer - or move along to something else, like a new system entirely.

it's fair to say then that all present modifications of legacy v.1 are ultimately "non-official." this distinction is actually an important one. it goes to the heart of something waste users hold very dear, and that is their own security. it's one thing to trust your fortune to frankel, it's quite another to put it in the hands of anyone who comes along claiming to offer "improvements." this is not to say sourceforge is somehow lacking in some respect. indeed, if any group should take on the project they are perhaps the most transparent. the issue instead is balance. that is to say how much are updates worth compared to the cost of possible vulnerabilities? that answer is highly personal, but suffice to say there are those whose needs lean more to sanctuary than expediency. this is not surprising. with so many regularly updated file-trading clients out there like utorrent and soulseek, there are plenty of choices for ease of use and speed, but if security is paramount the list dwindles quickly.

there are for-instance long-term meshes still using the original client, operating in complete anonymity and rigorously so, even after all this time. it's not particularly surprising; frankel's creation was a brilliant piece of work in 2003. in 2007 so it remains.

i haven't used crypton's modified sourceforge release and i probably won't, since i'm one of those users happy with the original official client, but if you and others get it going in a larger mesh angrygnome let us know how you fare.

- js.

18-12-06, 04:38 PM	#2
JackSpratts Join Date: May 2001 Location: New England Posts: 10,018	ok, just to be clear, the only "official" waste client is that of the developer justin frankel. released three and a half years ago it works surprisingly well for an application that hasn’t been publicly updated since, but it got the ball rolling as it were and hence the interest and the sourceforge project. while these have been called "official" releases they are really an offshoot of frankel's original client, modified by well meaning coders yes, but no more official than a mod you yourself might choose to develop - and since even these new updates have been dwindling of late it may just be a matter of time before other users take up the call and jump in with refined mods like crypton did last summer - or move along to something else, like a new system entirely. it's fair to say then that all present modifications of legacy v.1 are ultimately "non-official." this distinction is actually an important one. it goes to the heart of something waste users hold very dear, and that is their own security. it's one thing to trust your fortune to frankel, it's quite another to put it in the hands of anyone who comes along claiming to offer "improvements." this is not to say sourceforge is somehow lacking in some respect. indeed, if any group should take on the project they are perhaps the most transparent. the issue instead is balance. that is to say how much are updates worth compared to the cost of possible vulnerabilities? that answer is highly personal, but suffice to say there are those whose needs lean more to sanctuary than expediency. this is not surprising. with so many regularly updated file-trading clients out there like utorrent and soulseek, there are plenty of choices for ease of use and speed, but if security is paramount the list dwindles quickly. there are for-instance long-term meshes still using the original client, operating in complete anonymity and rigorously so, even after all this time. it's not particularly surprising; frankel's creation was a brilliant piece of work in 2003. in 2007 so it remains. i haven't used crypton's modified sourceforge release and i probably won't, since i'm one of those users happy with the original official client, but if you and others get it going in a larger mesh angrygnome let us know how you fare. - js.