LimeWire 2.8.0 Beta has just been released. It's available from a link at the bottom of your pro download page, or from our web site at:

http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/download_beta

This version includes a number of new features, including:

-- HTTP 1.1 use for downloading -- this will improve overall download throughput and will improve your chances of getting queued successfully by another user when attempting a download.

-- Support for server-side "GUESS" -- one half of a new searching architecture that should significantly improve LimeWire persformance. The new searching architecture, developed by LimeWire, is called the "Gnutella UDP Extension for Scalable Searching." The server-side release allows us to test the systems and tune the client searching algorithm for LimeWire 3.0.

-- User interface enhancements from Sam Berlin, an open source contributor. These include icons to indicate the sorting order of all columns, the ability to add and remove columns from any table in the program, enhanced coloring of file names in the library (files that are not yet shared appear in red), and more.

-- Improved download mesh support -- LimeWire now stores far more mesh data locally, incrementally reporting that data to other nodes on the network in HTTP headers

-- Dramatically improved advanced statistics recording -- particularly useful for researchers and/or developers, and not available on Mac 9.x and below (it is available on OS X, however). The curious can take a look by activating advanced statistics recording in the statistics window.

We hope everyone likes 2.8.0. Given that this version includes so many important changes, the beta period will likely be somewhat extended. Thanks for everyone's continuing help and interest.