By Thomas Mennecke
Everyone has his or her favorite P2P application, and God knows that BearShare has its loyal following. There’s nothing really wrong with the BearShare client - it does a good job of searching, sharing and enabling participation of the Gnutella network. In addition, the developers behind this application have also been instrumental in the resurrection of Gnutella. However, it just never quite reached the heights of its brethren, LimeWire.

In fact, it’s never come close.

Let’s start off with the obvious comparisons between BearShare and Limewire - third party software. Now, there is a raging debate as to the difference between “adware” and “spyware”, and we could waste paragraphs of content describing the two. However for the purposes of this article, we will refer to these entities as “third party software.”

BearShare and LimeWire both have “Pro” and “free” versions of their software. The “Pro” versions of their software come at a price, with the promise of added features and inclusive technical support.

BearShare charges $23.94 for six months, or $39.48 for a yearly subscription. LimeWire on the other hand charges $18.88 for a six-month period.

While both have free versions, it appears there is still a price to pay for BearShare “Free” - it comes in the form of third party software. Specifically, BearShare forces the end use to install the “Save!” component. Although unobtrusive, the program directs targeted advertising to the end user. Spyware? No, since the BearShare installer specifically dictates this component will soon reside on one’s machine upon installation:

“BearShare’s advertising support is provided by Save! software. Use of Save! is required to use Bearshare for free and removal of Save! using third party programs or manual deletion is not permitted if you continue to keep the free version of BearShare on you PC.”

Very interesting. What is even more interesting is that BearShare has a warning about protecting its adware investment before warning the end user to respect intellectual property rights.

Conversely, LimeWire is as pristine of a P2P application as one could hope for. Whether you pay the $18.88 for the “Pro” version or simply download the free version, you get LimeWire and nothing else. No third party software, no adware, no pop-ups and no spyware.

This has undoubtedly helped LimeWire become the leading Gnutella client it is today. With “adware” and “spyware” becoming hot topics, and their definitions becoming blurred by the general public, the thought of any additional software included in their online ventures has gained a level of stigma.

But the difference between adware and adware-free is not the only significant difference between the two clients. Heading over to LimeWire.org demonstrates one very substantial difference between LimeWire and BearShare - Open Source versus closed source. LimeWire.org is homepage for the Open Source development of LimeWire. BearShare doesn’t have such a luxury. From the LimeWire.org homepage:

“We believe that the Gnutella Network could be and should be one of the core distribution tools on the Internet. We believe in open standards, open networks, and that any global networking protocol must have an open source piece at its core if it is to remain uncorrupted. We believe that the best people to develop the Gnutella Network and its applications are its users.”

LimeWire gives the aura of openness and community development. This has become one of the key and instrumental avenues for success in the file-sharing community. Indeed, the three of the four largest P2P networks/protocols (BitTorrent, eDonkey2000 and Gnutella) are all spearheaded by open source clients.

Although most hardcore members of the file-sharing or P2P community do not generally participate on the Gnutella network, LimeWire’s Open Source nature has earned it the much sought after respect many developers so desperately seek.

Finally, BearShare’s controversial spat between Michael Stokes of Gnutella2 has remained blight on this client. A level of infighting developed between BearShare and Shareaza that has yet to be forgotten. The arguments degraded to such a level that BearShare, and to a degree Shareaza, have yet to fully recover. When fanaticism tends to accompany a P2P client, it is a surefire way to ensure the mainstream crowd will steer clear of such applications.

As Gnutella becomes a more popular P2P network, LimeWire appears to be the mainstream and most popular method for participating on this community. LimeWire’s good fortune has spread largely by word of mouth, as there is very little one can find to prevent recommending to a friend. As knowledgeable P2Pers inform their friends and family about which clients to use, typically one recommends the most simplistic avenue. BearShare and LimeWire both are simplistic, very well engineer programs. However at the end of the day, word of mouth always carries less baggage.