as someone who is for the first time selecting a gnutella client, and reviewing these boards before making a choice, eg: hey developers, I'm probably your market base, I WILL NOT put bearshare on my machine.

why? because Vinnie clearly considers his user base a form of leverage against other clients to maximize his market control. it's waaaay to early for these games in the evolution of gnutella, and will do nothing but harm the necessary creativity, and the necessary WIDE USE of gnutella protocols to make it an ubiquitous web tool.

less important to me is the fiction of my freedom in the internet: the spyware/snooping crap we get way too much of anyway, and i boycott
where I can...

on the flip side: how great it is that one can actually peruse the different boards, which have very informed discussions, before selecting a product.

kudos to all, even Vinnie for his capitalist
unrepentant drive (but I do hope his company
fails!),

best,
Another Jackass Who Won't Touch Bearware.