14 DAY TRIAL // These days, BitTorrent is the most popular P2P (peer-to-peer) file distribution protocol. Whether you want to share some files or you just want to get your hands on the latest Linux distributions, then you must use a BitTorrent client. There are many BitTorrent clients for Linux, starting with the old and classical BitTorrent (yes, just like the protocol) and ending with the brand new Deluge, and somewhere in the middle we can enumerate very popular BitTorrent clients like Azureus, Transmission or rTorrent, each one providing very interesting features and functionality.
On the other hand (and this is what we're gonna talk about today), if you have "Windows friends", you must have heard them talking about that very tiny and light BitTorrent client called uTorrent, a BitTorrent client with impressive features, like faster download speeds, intelligent configurable disk caching, trackerless support, etc. Now, you have Linux and that's a Windows application, what do you do? Very simple, follow the instructions below!
Editor's note: The following instruction assume that you have the latest version of the Linux operating system you use. In our case, Ubuntu!
Step 1 - Install Wine
Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager...
Search for wine...
Click on the little box in front of the wine entry and select the "Mark for Installation" option...
Click the "Mark" button when asked to install the required dependencies...
Click the "Apply" button... and again to confirm the installation...
Wait for the packages to be downloaded...
...and installed...
When the installation is complete, close Synaptic and proceed to the next step!
Step 2 - Download and Execute uTorrent
Download uTorrent's installer from here and put the file in your home folder.
Create a desktop shortcut for the uTorrent application.
Right click on your desktop and select "Create Launcher..."...
On the new launcher window, fill in the fields as follows:
Type: Application Name: uTorrent Command: wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/uTorrent.exe /NOINSTALL"
Note: Replace "YOURUSERNAME" in the Command field above, with your username (e.g. /home/marius)
Choose a suitable icon, and click OK. Now all you have to do in order to enjoy uTorrent is to double click on the uTorrent shortcut on your desktop. Enjoy!
By popular demand, this tutorial was completely re-edited again on January 25th, 2009.