LinuxQuestions.org - Ah! Ah! It's KaZaA!

Filesharing and using Peer to Peer networks with Linux

Using KaZaA, KaZaA Lite, K++, Kpp and KLite
Installing KaZaA or derivatives on a W*ndows partition in VMWare or Win4LIn within Linux
Using Limewire on Linux
Using WinMX on Linux
Using KaZaA, KaZaA Lite, K++, Kppand KLite.

Firstly to put minds at rest KaZaA can work with Linux. I personally haven't managed to make it work, I haven't witnessed it and from what I have discovered it's quite a drawn out process. Some people have though and here is a link to a useful website.

For those of you who have been browsing the web for Kaz Clients may have come across a Linux KaZaA client called KZA 0.4.

I've found installed and tried it. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that one to work either. There are lots of dead links to similar files around the Internet. Just search google for the file and eventually you'll find it. If you can get this to work then well done! I have read some articles on this and they all appear to be dated around 2001. I did discover one article which noted that changes had been made to the network and these changes had not be incorporated into the KZA. Therefore KZA did work, doesn't work and presents a credible explanation why it won't work.

I found all this extremely frustrating. The reason I moved (or rather woke up and progressed) from Doze to Linux was due the increased number of viruses, worms, trojans and vulnerabilities that I kept having to contend with. I felt ever increasing worried particularly using file sharing networks and the thought that Dr Evil could take over and use my processor to do nasty things. But I used to like KaZaA and still do. It was great.

I took it upon myself to contact Sharman Networks and approached them on the fact that in order to run KaZaA you needed the following W*ndows, IE5 and Media Player. Which means that in order to run KaZaA you have to purchase and install the £100 OS before you can even run their stuff. (Not quite the spirit of a FREE file sharing brotherhood network is it???!)

What's even more worrying is the new European Union legislation attempting to prevent MS from distributing their Media Player as part of the OS. Oh no! What will Sharman do??

At least Grokster are considering the issue and have noted it in their FAQs. Here's the Q and A which can be found here

Q: Does Grokster, Ltd. have plans for a Mac OSX or Linux version of Grokster?

A: Grokster, Ltd. is actively evaluating the benefits of future versions of Grokster running on other platforms such as OSX and Linux.

Installing KaZaA or derivatives on a W*ndows partition in VMWare or Win4LIn within Linux

I tried this method aswell. Silly me. Thinking that running w*ndows in Linux would solve the problem. It installed and worked fine until I realised I had a network of...wait for it...one person!

I actually think this possible and I'm sure that someone with better technical knowledge of Unix/Gnu could open the required ports. Not exactly the 'Cost Free' option though is it?

So after all this I gave up the ghost. If there is a simple solution out there, I'm sure lots of people would love to hear about it.

For the record I've ditched KaZaA! Stuff them and their restricted practices (without prejudice). I'm sure their advertisers and sponsors will be happy to know they're losing out on a huge share of the market.

Using Limewire on Linux

Limewire uses the Gnutella Network and it's great. Works first time. Comes with an rpm for easy installation. As the name Gnutella suggests. It actually runs on Linux, like most of the Internet.It's almost a cross between KaZaA and WinMX. Does all the big files and tunes galor!Go get!

Using WinMX on Linux

WinMX was almost as easy to use as Limewire. There's a download pack available on the internet called WinMX4linuX which is downloadable from here

You'll need to use Wine to install and run the WinMX executable and the downloadable pack creates a superficial environment by tricking WinMX into thinking it's on a w*ndows machine. And basically it's as simple as that

I hope this has been of some use to someone. It sure would have saved me some time if I'd known this stuff before embarking on my journey. Particularly the VMWare info. There are dozens of file sharing clients out there. These are just a few and if I haven't mentioned yours it's not intentional. This is simply my own personal account of experiences.