• dimjim@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Noob here, is there a benefit to torrenting Linux distros rather than downloading them from the website?

    Edit: thank you for the education!

    • Hellfire103@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Torrent is fully decentralised and therefore accessible in practically all jurisdictions, regardless of the server status. In many cases, I have also found Torrents to be considerably faster than direct downloads — however, your mileage may vary.

      • thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net
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        2 days ago

        I find they’re faster too. Another benefit of them being distributed is the distributor doesn’t have to pay for all the bandwidth for every download, which I understand can be a considerable savings for smaller distros.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 days ago

        The torrent client also verifies the checksum for each chunk and automatically redownloads any corrupted chunks. With a direct download, you would have to manually verify the checksum and redownload the whole thing if it’s corrupted.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You save the server bandwidth bills and have all the people currently downloading help you get it instead of competing with you. Also, most torrent clients are way more competent and featurefull for handling downloads than most browsers.

      Usually, it doesn’t make a lot of difference.

    • spicy pancake@lemmy.zipOP
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      2 days ago

      i tell people* it’s because torrents are faster**
      but it’s really because they’re cooler

      *i made that up i’ve never gotten that far into a conversation about distro downloads

      **in my experience it is actually a bit faster